12167: Re: 12164: Joseph replies 2 Racine125 again (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Racine125@aol.com

Joseph wrote:
<< As uninteresting as this discussion has become (for me at least), I am
 responding if for no other reason than to be polite. Ms. Sans Bout, I did
 answer your original question and have no idea why you are asking me to
 enumerate “conditions [in Haiti] today which justifies an asylum claim” or
 why these individuals are eligible. >>

You don't?  THAT is my question, and I think it is significant that you can't
answer.  That is the heart of the matter!  The people now in detainment do
not want to be speedily adjudicated and returned to Haiti, they want to be
allowed to remain in the United States.

<<Once that preliminary interview happens and the claimant passes
 (according to the Supreme Court, this means there’s at least 50% likelihood
 of persecution), they are released/paroled usually within 4-5days. Now, Ms
 Sans Bout, please pay attention since this is the part where I seem to
 either lose you or I fail to write clearly: The asylum process I described
 above has been the case for aliens from China, Columbia, the other C and
 even Haiti until late last year when this process remained the same for
 everyone, but suddenly and inexplicably (I’m still waiting to see if the INS
 finally comes up with an excuse) changed for one group—guess which one? >>

Dissidents in China get sent to slave labor camps where they are worked to
death.  Dissidents in Colombia get killed.  I do not see people being killed
in Haiti because they voted for someone other than Aristide, because they are
speaking up in the women's movement, because they want to see Aristide
toppled and the Haitian Army brought back.  I don't see OPL or Convergence
members turning up on the trash heaps for the pigs to eat.

When a claimant is paroled, that means they agree to come back when they are
told to, and they keep the INS up to date on their whereabouts so they can be
found when needed.  If the INS feels, based on past performance by other
Haitians, that these claimants are unlikely to do so and that they therefore
should not be paroled, I think they are right.

There is nothing in country conditions in Haiti today which merits asylum!
If this crew gets in, every Tom, Dick and Harry who wants to come live in the
USA will take his shot, don't you see that?  The United States is a sovereign
nation and has the right to take steps to protect it's borders, after all.
The applicants should not be paroled out, they will go "marron" and so will
those who come after, and those who come after that, and those who come after
that... not including those who die at sea, of course.

<>

Oh please!  The claimants are not heroic fighters for black civil rights.

<< I’m sorry that you have yet to see that not all Haitians—even after you
did your asylum case work—are not
 coming here for the same reason.>>

That is a flawed assumption.  In fact, it is precisely because of my work for
the International Organization for Migration during the Cedras regime that I
know EXACTLY what motivates someone who has a valid claim to political
asylum!  I listened to the tales of rape and torture, I saw the burn scars
and the whip marks.  Nothing like that, NOTHING, is going on in Haiti today,
and to suggest that it is does two things - one, it cheapens the claim of
genuine victims while simultaneously devaluing the improvements that have
taken place in Haitian society since the military regime, and two, it plays
into the hands of those who would discredit the legitimate, constitutionally
elected administration of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Peace and love,

Bon Mambo Racine Sans Bout Sa Te La Daginen

"Se bon ki ra" - Good is rare
     Haitian Proverb

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