a1901: Barry U. educator wants to lead effort to free Haitian detainees (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Barry U. educator wants to lead effort to free Haitian detainees

By Jody A. Benjamin
Staff Writer
Posted April 30 2002

MIAMI ˇ Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin, the community-minded leader of Barry
University who last tried to broker a deal for Elián González, now has taken
up the plight of Haitians who are being detained while they fight for
asylum.

O'Laughlin last week offered to find community sponsors for all 270
detainees and to make sure they appear for their asylum hearings -- if the
Immigration and Naturalization Service would release them to her.

At a news conference Monday called by U.S. Rep. Carrie Meek, O'Laughlin said
she was moved by the plight of 60 Haitian women being detained at the
maximum-security Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. She made a
similar gesture 20 years ago when she brokered the release of 300 Haitians
to the sponsorship of Barry University and Fordham University in New York.

"These are not terrorists. These are not people that will harm this
country," O'Laughlin said. "These are people that will contribute to this
society. They have a right to ask for freedom. We must not deny them that
right."

INS said Monday it had not received a formal sponsorship request from
O'Laughlin, but if it does, it is willing to consider her offer. Since
December, when an INS rule change for Haitians took effect, the agency has
released small numbers of Haitians after considering their claims "on a
case-by-case basis," said INS spokesman Rodney Germain.

"If Sister Jeanne wants to support the Haitians, that is not a problem with
us," Germain said. "But she will have to show she is able to provide
monetary support, housing and food for them. We want to determine that she
is able to care for them."

Meek gathered two dozen community leaders Monday to add her voice to a
growing chorus calling for federal immigration officials to release the
Haitians.

A Democrat whose Miami district includes one of the largest concentrations
of Haitian-Americans in the country, Meek criticized INS treatment of
noncitizen Haitians, particularly the women at the county jail.

Last week Meek asked INS Commissioner James Ziglar to accept O'Laughlin's
offer.

"Today there is clear and overwhelming evidence that Haitian refugees
seeking asylum are treated differently," said Meek, whose April 26 letter to
Ziglar calls the treatment discriminatory. "We want INS to stop dragging its
feet. We want them to stop ignoring legitimate immigration claims and to
release the Haitians immediately."

Meek dismissed INS's claim that it changed its policy toward arriving
Haitians out of concern for their safety, saying the real reason for the
change is election-year politics. The Bush administration in Washington
wants to keep boatloads of Haitian refugees away from Florida's shores to
protect the fall re-election bid of the president's brother, Gov. Jeb Bush,
Meek said.

"They have put political concerns ahead of humanitarian issues," Meek said.

Gov. Bush on Monday rejected Meek's charge as "ridiculous" and "ludicrous."

"The accusation that this has something to do with my campaign is
ridiculous. It has nothing to do with it," Bush said.

Bush said INS should stick to its policy of paroling asylum seekers who have
demonstrated credible fear of persecution to asylum officers.

"I don't think we should have a policy that encourages people to risk their
lives to come to our country," Bush said. "But where the INS agrees that
[the Haitians] have a credible fear of persecution, they should not be
detained."

The plight of the Haitian detainees, particularly that of the jailed women,
is drawing the attention of a growing number of groups, from the Catholic
Church and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, to local community
groups representing blacks, Cuban-Americans and others.

Saying they are trying to draw national attention to the issue, a number
have written letters to Attorney General John Ashcroft and INS Commissioner
Ziglar appealing for the Haitians' release. Some say they are planning a
demonstration next month when President Bush is scheduled to visit South
Florida.

"Other issues we have seen dealing with refugees have been a little fuzzy
and less clear," said Miami lawyer H.T. Smith. On Monday he appeared for
Sankofa, an informal network of black professionals from the United States
and the Caribbean who support the Haitians' release. "But on this issue,
it's clear-cut discrimination. I feel comfortable in saying that my
government is wrong."

Others agreed.

"We support fair treatment for all refugees, including Haitians," said Jose
Basulto, president of Brothers to the Rescue, which has searched for Cuban
migrants crossing the Florida Straits.

On Dec. 3, an overloaded boat carrying 167 Haitians ran aground in Biscayne
National Park. INS subsequently changed its rules toward Haitians seeking
political asylum, declining to release most of them as a way of preventing
other Haitians from attempting dangerous sea crossings on flimsy boats.

Since then, about 100 Haitians have arrived in South Florida by plane,
according to the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, which has tracked the
cases and filed a federal discrimination lawsuit seeking their release.

Separate from the women, Haitian men are held at the INS's Krome detention
center, unaccompanied children at the Catholic Charities Boys Town shelter
and families with children at a local motel.

Advocacy center Director Cheryl Little said the Haitian detainees are being
given overly quick asylum hearings -- often without attorneys -- by
immigration judges transferred to Krome to handle the backlog. Some of the
hearings last only a half-hour, including translation, Little said.

Jody A. Benjamin can be reached at jbenjamin@sun-sentinel.com or
954-356-4530.


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