12543: Top Federal Official's tour of TGK (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Tuesday, July 16, 2002

By TAL ABBADY
The Associated Press

MIAMI -- A top federal official's tour of the prison where 30 female Haitian
refugees have languished since December left local leaders frustrated Monday
in their campaign to end the asylum seekers' incarceration.

Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner James Ziglar visited the
Turner Guilford Knight Center, a maximum-security prison that has housed the
refugees since their boat ran aground in early December.

Flanked by aides, the commissioner listened as several women described their
sparse meals, few family visits, unsanitary quarters and restricted access
to lawyers.

The refugees say they are seeking asylum from the violence of political mobs
in Haiti.

"Look at us as human beings," appealed detainee Cynthia Rislin, "not as a
nationality or a color."

Ziglar's visit comes at the urging of Democratic Sens. Bill Nelson and Bob
Graham, state leaders and immigrant advocates who have pressed the INS to
change a policy toward Haitian refugees announced last March but implemented
in December. That calls for their imprisonment until their asylum appeals
are decided.

Asylum seekers from other countries are generally freed to family or friends
while their appeals are heard.

"We have people who are not criminals being treated like criminals," said
U.S. Rep. Carrie Meek, D-Miami, who attended the tour. She announced last
week she is retiring from Congress.

Government officials have said the Haitians' detainment was necessary to
deter a mass exodus from the war-torn island.

But some argue the explanation is a smoke screen for racial prejudice.

In a conference call after the tour, Graham said the Haitians' treatment is
"not the manner in which we would treat people from other nationalities."

Graham said the Haitian refugee crisis has undermined Miami's reputation as
a role model for how to absorb populations from around the world.

"Time is not on our side," said Graham, referring to the intensifying public
scrutiny on the Haitians' plight.

After the tour, Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan met with immigrant advocates at
Miami's Haitian-American Foundation.

Brogan called the Haitians' detention "unacceptable." He said the governor's
office would set up a meeting with President Bush to discuss the possibility
of their release.


North Miami Vice Mayor Jacques Despinosse called Brogan's pledge "an
insult."





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