12676: At jail, Haitians call for 'freedom,' `justice' (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Sat, Aug. 10, 2002

At jail, Haitians call for 'freedom,' `justice'
BY ADRIANA CORDOVI
Miami Herald
acordovi@herald.com

On Dec. 3, 2001, a 31-foot wood sailboat -- Simapvivetzi -- carrying 187
Haitian migrants ran aground just south of Elliott Key. After the journey,
the Immigration and Naturalization Service took 185 into custody. Two of the
migrants drowned.

A group of women who survived the highly publicized trip is being detained
at the maximum-security Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where
INS houses female asylum-seekers.

Friday, more than 70 advocates and members of Miami-Dade County's Haitian
communities stood along the sidewalk outside the correctional center,
protesting their long detention. Many of the demonstrators turned toward the
center and waved, hoping the female detainees could see them.

''They said they were going to try and watch us,'' said Cheryl Little,
executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, a nonprofit
organization aimed at promoting and protecting immigrants' human rights.

CALL AND RESPONSE

Holding a bullhorn, Marleine Bastien, executive director of Haitian Women of
Miami, chanted, ''What do you want?'' To which the crowd responded,
``Justice.''

''When do you want it?'' Bastien asked. ''Now,'' they yelled.

Similar protests ''crying for freedom and justice'' were planned to take
place in New York, Chicago and other parts of the country.

''We feel the eyes of the world should be on this country for the way it's
treated Haitian refugees,'' Bastien said. ``We're sending a clear message to
the Bush administration -- this policy is morally wrong.''

In late July, the INS deported more than 20 of the Simapvivetzi migrants.
That move prompted protests outside INS offices at Biscayne Boulevard and
79th Street.

''We need to do everything we can to call attention to their cases,'' Little
said.

The overcrowded boat spent more than a week at sea before nearing Miami's
shore. The arrival of the sailboat also brought a change in the way
immigration officials deal with Haitian migrants.

DENIED PAROLE

Saying they feared a mass exodus, immigration officials in Washington
enacted a policy that denied Haitian migrants parole while an immigration
judge decided their status.

Little and other advocates have sued the INS, accusing the agency of
singling out Haitians because of their race and nationality. Asylum-seekers
from other countries are generally freed to family or friends while their
appeals are heard.

A U.S. district court judge threw out the lawsuit in May, but the advocates
have appealed and asked the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to intervene on
behalf of about 200 Haitians in long-term detention.

Bastien said the migrants aboard the Simapvivetzi were faithful people who
were coming to the United States in search of freedom.

''They had a great faith in this country,'' Bastien said. ``And they found
everything but freedom here.''





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