12031: Representatives step up pressure on Haitian detention (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Tue, May. 14, 2002

Representatives step up pressure on Haitian detention
By FRANK DAVIES
fdavies@herald.com

WASHINGTON - Reps. Carrie Meek, a Miami Democrat, and John Conyers of
Detroit, ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, along with
several immigration advocates, stepped up pressure Tuesday on the INS to
parole about 240 Haitians held in detention in Miami-Dade.

Meek complained that the INS was holding Haitians who are seeking asylum
while releasing those of other nationalities who are in the same situation.

''There's only one word for it -- discrimination,'' Meek said. ``We should
not have a separate immigration policy for Haitians.''

Meek was joined by Frank Sharry, executive director of the National
Immigration Forum; Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida
Immigrant Advocacy Center; and Dina Paul Parks, who heads the National
Coalition for Haitian Rights.

Until five months ago, INS allowed asylum-seekers to be released if they
could demonstrate a credible fear of persecution if sent home. But after a
boat foundered near Miami carrying about 187 Haitians on Dec. 3, INS
officials reversed that policy for Haitians, saying they did not want to
encourage a mass exodus.

Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin, president of Barry University, has offered to care
for women who are paroled, as she did in 1982. She plans to meet INS
officials at Barry on Thursday to discuss the issue.







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