12230: INS chief may visit detainees (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

INS chief may visit detainees

By Jody A. Benjamin
Staff Writer
Posted May 30 2002

Early next month, Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner James
Ziglar will visit South Florida detention centers where more than 240
Haitians have been held since December, according to Florida Sen. Bill
Nelson.

Ziglar agreed to the visit May 21 when Nelson telephoned the INS chief to
discuss both his concern that the agency treats Haitians more punitively
than refugees from other nations and allegations that the Haitian detainees
have limited access to attorneys.

"I appreciate your agreement during our conversation ... to come see
first-hand the situation Haitian asylum-seekers face," Nelson wrote Ziglar
on Wednesday.

Nelson said that he had suggested the INS chief visit on June 10 or June 17.

But on Wednesday Ziglar's office said only that "nothing has been scheduled
at this time."

The Haitians, who say they fled political violence in their homeland, have
been detained under an INS policy instituted in December to discourage
others from making risky trips in flimsy vessels from Haiti to Florida. The
policy keeps them detained while they undergo an expedited asylum
application process.

Most asylum-seekers from other countries are released once they make a
preliminary showing that they face persecution, allowing them freedom to
prepare their legal asylum petitions.

The head of an advocacy group representing many of the detainees was pleased
to learn of the possible visit.

"It's a great idea," said Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida
Immigrant Advocacy Center. "I hope he gets to see the true conditions at
these facilities."

In a May 22 letter to Nelson, Little complained that delays in meeting with
detainees, a shortage of visitation space and reduced visitation hours
impeded her attorneys' ability to represent the Haitians. Most of them are
proceeding with asylum claims without lawyers, she said.

At Krome, there are four attorney meeting rooms to accommodate a burgeoning
population that on May 8 had climbed to 808 detainees, Little said. INS
would not confirm the number of detainees at Krome.

"We simply don't have adequate access to our clients," Little said. "It's a
huge problem."

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




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