13522: Hermantin: Miami Herald Editorial: END THE DOUBLE STANDARD (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


END THE DOUBLE STANDARD
FREE HAITIANS TO PURSUE ASYLUM

Packed into a rickety 50-foot boat, more than 200 Haitians beached on
Rickenbacker Causeway Tuesday -- their heart-wrenching desperation in plain
view on national TV. The Bush administration must offer the Haitians a fair
chance to plead their cases to stay. This isn't asking for special
treatment, only an appeal for a fair chance to pursue their cases.

These Haitians should be treated the same as people from other countries:
The Immigration and Naturalization Service's Miami District routinely
releases asylum seekers once it determines that they have a credible fear of
persecution if they are returned to their homeland. Once freed, they are
better able to prepare their asylum claim.

This hasn't been the case for Haitians since last December, when 167
Haitians were rescued from a foundering boat. Since then the Miami INS
District has applied an inhumane and discriminatory policy toward Haitian
boat arrivals -- one not applied to Colombians, Cubans, Venezuelans or any
other nationality. The INS has kept Haitian asylum seekers locked up after
they passed credible-fear interviews. It also subjected them to unjust,
expedited proceedings.

The Bush administration cannot justify this discriminatory treatment. Haiti
remains wracked by political violence. There's no excuse for shutting the
door on people who have suffered persecution. Nor does this cruel policy
deter hopeless Haitians, including families with toddlers and pregnant
women, from risking the high seas in dangerous boats -- as 2002 interdiction
numbers show. The best way to deter them is for this administration to
improve conditions in Haiti, not punish those who flee.

Of the 167 Haitians on the December boat, only about 20 have been granted
relief from deportation for humanitarian or other reasons. About 100 have
been deported, most of them giving up on their pending appeals. The rest
remain detained 11 months later. Now these new arrivals await their fate.

Those who prove a credible fear should be released from INS custody,
regardless of where they come from or when they arrive. Gov. Jeb Bush said
that he told the White House that ''Haitians should be treated like all
others who come to our shores.'' He's right. The Bush administration should
end this disparate treatment.





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