12603: 200 Haitians in Miami rally for equal treatment (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


200 Haitians in Miami rally for equal treatment

By Tanya Weinberg
Staff Writer
Posted July 31 2002

MIAMI · A passing cabby pumped his fist and another motorist honked
rhythmically as a sudden burst of music roused 200 protesters denouncing the
government's treatment of Haitian asylum seekers Tuesday evening.

"Tell them we're still here and we're advancing!" a Haitian Creole roots
recording blared, spilling across Biscayne Boulevard toward the Immigration
and Naturalization Service headquarters on the other side.

The day after federal authorities deported 25 Haitians, union activists and
Haitians turned out to once again to call for the freedom of dozens of
detained Haitian asylum seekers. They vowed to keep up the pressure and
called on area politicians to do the same.

About 120 of 165 current Haitian detainees arrived Dec. 3 on an overloaded
boat that led INS to change its policy toward Haitians arriving by sea.
Unlike most asylum seekers who pass a credible fear of persecution interview
and are quickly released to prepare their cases, the Haitians have remained
in detention for eight months.

After a March class-action discrimination lawsuit that was later dismissed,
the government said the change in policy was designed to stem a mass exodus
from the island nation.

"The Haitians are treated differently than any other group in America,"
Haitian activist Marleine Bastien shouted on a bullhorn. "Is that fair?"

"No!" the crowd shouted back.

"We are here one more time to ask INS to treat the Haitians like any other
group and free them now," Bastien continued.

The INS says it has afforded the Haitian asylum seekers all the help
possible and permissible by law, but advocates insist their due process is
being denied. The advocates say Haitian cases are expedited and many
Haitians have had to prepare complicated asylum applications without legal
help.

Standing quietly behind protesters waving placards at passing traffic,
Labonte Lumage explained how he escaped the fate of his nearly 200
companions on the arduous 11-day boat trip in December.

He and a number of others jumped ship and swam for shore. One of the others
died, he said.

Lumage, 27, gingerly unfolded a well-worn INS release form he keeps tucked
in his wallet and pointed to the date. He was released on Dec. 5, two days
after a fisherman alerted authorities to the arriving Haitian swimmers.

He worries about his cousin and the others who remain detained.

"I know a lot of them that are in there. If they go back to Haiti they will
be endangered because they are part of the opposition to [Haiti's ruling
party] Lavalas," Lumage said. "If those people are sent back to Haiti, they
will go to jail."

Lumage said that Lavalas officials in his town of Gonaives burned his
mother's home when they could not find him.

Nearby, Haitian immigrant Joseph Darcelin donned a straw hat and a shirt
reading "Proud to be an American."

"I don't like what they're doing with my brothers, because we are human
beings," said Darcelin, 59. "Everybody who comes here gets good treatment.
Why the Haitians get nothing?"

Tanya Weinberg can be reached at tweinberg@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7923.


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