13330: Hermantin: Miami Herald:Jailing of Haitian migrants angers lawmakers at hearings (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Wed, Oct. 02, 2002

Jailing of Haitian migrants angers lawmakers at hearings
BY TIM JOHNSON
tjohnson@herald.com

WASHINGTON - Lawmakers voiced dismay and even anger Tuesday as experts told
how U.S. immigration officials treat Haitian migrants caught on the high
seas off Florida as virtual criminals, throwing them into cramped lock-ups,
dividing families and hindering access to lawyers.

In two hearings on Capitol Hill, activists for Haitian migrants said U.S.
officials offer such harsh treatment to Haitian asylum seekers that it
appears to be discrimination.

An array of Democratic and Republican legislators, who rarely see
eye-to-eye, listened at separate hearings of a Senate subcommittee on
immigration and a House human rights panel and demanded an explanation of
federal policy on Haitians' asylum requests.

`SINGLED OUT'

''Haitians have been singled out for more restrictive treatment. Such a
policy appears to violate U.S. law,'' said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.

''I really hope we can stop this mistreatment of one group,'' added Sen. Sam
Brownback, R-Kan.

Both hearings were sparked by a once-secret policy of the Immigration and
Naturalization Service, which began in December, that has left scores of
Haitians languishing in jail cells in Florida and Pennsylvania. The policy
orders that all Haitian asylum seekers arriving to Florida by boat remain
under detention while their requests for political asylum are weighed. Other
nationalities are not singled out this way.

In some cases, Haitians share jail cells with criminals for months after
demonstrating to the INS a ''credible fear'' of persecution in their
country, activists and lawyers said.

A senior State Department official, Thomas Shannon, defended the Bush
administration strategy as critical to protecting Florida from a tidal wave
of Haitian migration.

''Given the threat illegal migration poses to our national security, we
support sending a strong message to the Haitian people that they do not
enjoy automatic entry into the United States,'' Shannon, the deputy
assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, told the House
subcommittee.

Haiti, a nation of eight million people that is the poorest in this
hemisphere, is mired in political deadlock over flawed congressional
elections in 2000. President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his opposition have
resisted international efforts to resolve the deadlock, and Haitian rural
areas are facing turmoil. Haiti has barely 3,000 police officers, and armed
gangs loyal to local political bosses are terrorizing some provincial towns
and cities.

`THIS IS INHUMANE'

Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., said that indefinitely detaining Haitian asylum
seekers had left a number of them spending ``an exorbitant amount of time in
uncertain limbo.''

''This is not just misguided. This is not just egregious. This is
inhumane,'' Graham, who was not present at the hearing, said in a written
statement.

Graham said he has sought answers about who ordered the policy that singles
out Haitians -- but has gotten the run-around from federal agencies.

Because the policy ''has been shrouded in secrecy, with no person or agency
seemingly accountable, the feelings of unfairness, of discrimination, of
disparate treatment have deepened,'' Graham said.

Speaking shyly in Creole, Marie Jocelyn Ocean told both hearings through an
interpreter about what happened to her after she arrived illegally by boat
to Miami last December and was detained by the INS.

''We were strip-searched and we were treated as if we were criminals,'' she
said. ``We were constantly humiliated. We were constantly dragged before
judges without being able to express ourselves in English.''

Listening to Ocean, then recounting other recent stories of Haitian
immigrants detained at length in ''horrible conditions,'' Rep. Benjamin
Gilman, R-N.Y., turned to Shannon and said: ``I think that's appalling. . .
. This is a devil of a way to treat refugees who leave their country out of
credible fear.''

SEPARATION `DISGRACE'

Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., described conditions at Krome Detention Center
in Miami-Dade County as ''a nightmare'' and rebuked the INS for dividing
Haitian families. ''The separation of mothers from their children is
disgraceful,'' he said.

Lawyers seeking to help the Haitians ''have faced obstacle after obstacle to
get meaningful access to our clients,'' said Cheryl Little, executive
director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center. ``The cards are stacked
against the Haitians. There's no question about it.




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