13479: (Chamberlain: news item) Haitian Americans urge release of Miami migrants (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Frances Kerry

     MIAMI, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Haitian American activists on Wednesday
angrily condemned as discriminatory the detention of more than 200 Haitian
migrants who jumped off a grounded boat and swam to a Miami causeway in a
dramatic bid for a better life in the United States.
     Community leaders said that while Haitians were routinely detained and
sent back, Cuban migrants who made it shore were allowed to remain.
     Holding up signs saying "Free Haitian refugees," and chanting
"Justice. We want it and we want it now," dozens of protesters gathered at
an African American community center in Miami to demand that the migrants
be freed.
     Wednesday morning's protest followed a similar gathering on Tuesday
evening outside the local headquarters of the Immigration and
Naturalization Service.
     On Wednesday, protesters directed their anger at Fla. Gov. Jeb Bush,
President George W. Bush's younger brother, who was to visit the center
later in the day as part of his re-election campaign.
     "We are going to ask Jeb Bush to have his brother, the president,
issue an executive order to free these Haitians out of detention," said
U.S. Rep. Carrie Meek, a Florida Democrat.
     The migrants, who poured off the 50-foot (15-metre) fishing vessel
when it ran aground yards from shore on Tuesday afternoon, were rapidly
rounded up on a busy causeway leading from Miami to the upscale residential
island of Key Biscayne.
     They were taken on buses to an immigration detention center near
Miami. They were likely to be placed in immigration proceedings to
determine whether they are to be returned to their country, officials said.
     The arrival of the migrants, who included women and children, was
shown on live television around the country, dramatizing their desperation
to reach the United States. It fueled long-held anger among Haitian
Americans in the Miami area about what they view as double standards for
Haitians and Cubans who come to south Florida.
     Haitians illegally entering the United States from their Caribbean
nation, the poorest in the Americas, are most often deemed economic
migrants and returned home.
     Those intercepted at sea are interviewed aboard Coast Guard cutters by
immigration agents to determine if they have grounds to seek political
asylum but usually are also returned to their homeland. The U.S. Coast
Guard intercepted 1,400 Haitian migrants at sea last year, rescuing many
from barely seaworthy boats.
     In contrast, Cuban migrants intercepted at sea are usually repatriated
but those who reach shore are treated as refugees from communism and
allowed to stay, a policy dubbed "wet-foot, dry-foot."
     Meek and other advocates for Haitian migrants say the policy reflects
racial discrimination against Haitians, most of whom are black.
     "The Haitians are fleeing from persecution," Meek said. "With the
Cubans it's a wet-foot, dry-foot policy. The Haitians are turned around and
sent back to Haiti. It's not fair."
     On Wednesday morning, a group of Haitian American activists met with
INS officials to press several demands. They asked to be allowed to visit
the detainees and to free them under the same policy that is applied to
Cubans, said Marleine Bastien, head of a group called Haitian Women of
Miami.
     "I think it's really a racist policy," she said of the difference in
treatment of Cubans and Haitians.
     Asked about the Haitian Americans' anger, an INS official who asked
not to be identified said the Cuban migrants are allowed special treatment
on arrival in the United States because of the Cuban Adjustment Act of
1965.
     "We are a nation of laws and immigration must enforce laws that
Congress passes," he said. "Nationals arriving from any other country are
placed in proceedings, not just Haitians, all nationalities who arrive
without proper documentation."
     During Tuesday's dramatic events, Coast Guard crews pulled several
migrants out of the water. A few were taken to hospitals for examination
but there were no reports of drownings or serious injuries, the Coast Guard
said.
     Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican
Republic, has a population of about 8 million and is the poorest country in
the Americas.
     It was invaded by the United States in 1993 in an effort to restore
democracy after a period of vicious military rule. But
  a stand-off between the government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
and the main opposition political coalition over the results of
parliamentary elections in May 2000, has stalled as much as $500 million
worth of international aid.