13546: (Chamberlain, news item) Migrants Ashore (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   MIAMI, Nov 2 (AP) -- The Rev. Al Sharpton called the treatment of more
than 200 Haitian migrants detained in South Florida a "moral outrage"
Saturday, and pledged to organize rallies and marches to demand their
release.
   Sharpton spoke to loud applause and cheers at a Haitian music festival
as a slide show behind him depicted the landing of more than 200 Haitians
last week, who plunged from a wooden freighter into shallow waters and
scrambling onto a major highway.
   "If other races can come to America, then we can come to America from
Haiti," Sharpton said to a crowd of about 2,000 at the Haitian roots music
festival in Miami's Bayfront Park.
   A march planned for Saturday was rescheduled for Monday. Instead,
Sharpton held a news conference, saying Haitians should be treated like
other immigrants who come to the United States.
   "We are here because we think it is a moral outrage, what occurred off
the shore of Miami last week," Sharpton said. "This is a human rights
issue, not an immigration issue."
   Unlike Cubans who reach dry land, Haitian immigrants usually are denied
asylum in the United States and sent back to their homeland, which is in
economic and political crisis.
   The Bush administration's policy on Haitians was disclosed after a boat
carrying 187 Haitian refugees ran aground off Elliot Key in December 2001.
Most of those migrants are still detained.
   According to the National Coalition for Haitian Rights, more than 90
percent of the those detainees have been denied asylum and face
deportation.
   "This is about an administration that has talked out of both sides of
its mouth -- open door for some, closed door for Haitians," Sharpton said.
"There is no good reason for a separate policy."
   Sharpton, who visited other detained Haitian migrants and denounced the
immigration policy in June, said he will return to the Krome Detention
Center in west Miami-Dade County on Sunday to meet with immigration
officials and try to see the migrants.