13587: Craig-Article: INS appeals bonds, blocks Haitians' release (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dan Craig <dgcraig@att.net>

Posted on Thu, Nov. 07, 2002
INS appeals bonds, blocks Haitians' release
BY ANDREA ELLIOTT AND LARRY LEBOWITZ
aelliott@herald.com

Dealing a blow to more than 200 Haitians detained in South Florida, the INS
thwarted attempts by an immigration judge to grant bond Wednesday to the
migrants, charging that they pose a threat to national security.

Meanwhile, a federal judge ordered six Haitians held without bond on charges
that they orchestrated last week's alien-smuggling voyage that ended with more
than 200 Haitians jumping into Biscayne Bay and climbing onto the Rickenbacker
Causeway on Key Biscayne.

Volunteer attorneys helping the migrants decried the bond hearings -- which
were not announced -- as an ''ambush'' to expedite the migrants' return to
Haiti.

Immigration Judge Scott Alexander set bond for more than 25 Haitians at between
$1,500 and $4,500, but the INS appealed immediately, blocking their release.

The migrants' attorneys criticized the Immigration and Naturalization Service
for appealing the bond determinations, claiming the INS treats Haitians
unfavorably compared to migrants from other countries.

''It appears to be justice by ambush,'' said Randolph McGrorty, executive
director of Catholic Charities Legal Services. ``It was done too quickly. If
this case continues, they will be deported and removed back to Haiti very
quickly. I don't think they'll get a fair hearing.''

DENIED ACCESS

Attorneys argued they had been denied access to the migrants, given limited
hours to talk to them and little privacy. The Haitians called to the bond
hearings Wednesday were given Creole translation via telephone. Each hearing
took about half an hour.

''It's very disconcerting. You're in front of a judge in a courtroom, there's
an INS trial attorney there and you're communicating with a box,'' said Cheryl
Little, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center. The center
has four volunteer attorneys working full time on the cases.

''Clearly these cases are being expedited,'' she said. ``There are very few
lawyers able to provide free legal representation to the Haitians.''

INS officials told the judge that if the Haitians are released, they will spark
a mass migration from Haiti to South Florida, endangering lives and causing the
U.S. government to deploy too many resources in patroling the seas.

WAR ON TERRORISM

''We're concerned that very important resources of the Coast Guard and the
Department of Defense would be diverted from their primary mission of
protecting the homeland and fighting the war on terrorism,'' said Mario Ortiz,
an immigration officer. ``It sends the wrong signal of mass migration. The
primary focus of this country should be in fighting terrorism.''

During the bond hearings, Haitians told the judge they would be persecuted if
they returned.

''Every time you demonstrate, they want to kill you,'' said Charles Siliene,
whose wife and six children are being detained. He sat somberly in the
courtroom. ``They beat me. It's not easy to return to Haiti because I can
die.''

The judge set bond at $3,500 for the family.

More than 90 hearings were scheduled for today.

SMUGGLING SUSPECTS

In the smuggling case, defense attorneys attacked weaknesses in the
government's case against Edner Dorvil, 52, the owner of the unnamed vessel and
alleged voyage coordinator; boat operators Jean Phillip Petite-Homme, 45, Sali
Atlanase Jean, 37, and Eli Louis, 29; mechanic Jean Eddy Louis, 19, and
security worker Genel Elmeus Osmin, 37.

They said federal prosecutors are going to have a hard time proving the
defendants were anything more than migrants fleeing desperate conditions on
Hispaniola for a shot at freedom.

''There's no evidence that [Petite-Homme] is anything but a migrant in this
case,'' said Mary T. Barzee, public defender and soon-to-be Miami-Dade judge.
'He helped steer the boat at times. That makes him no more culpable than the
guy who says, `I'll bring extra food.' ''

Osmin's attorney, Harold Keefe, said the government is stretching when he
describes his client as a security worker.

''My client told people where to go when they got on the boat,'' Keefe said.
``That's it.''

Dorvil, the accused boat owner, who says he is a tailor in Haiti, made the trip
with his wife and two daughters, said attorney Bernard Pastor.

HAITIAN RESIDENTS

With the exception of Osmin, all the defendants are lifelong Haitian residents.
Osmin spent a few years in exile in Honduras but returned in 1994 after U.S.
troops restored Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power. Several of his family members
remain in Honduras.

Federal prosecutor Michael Wright argued to keep all six defendants separated
at the criminal detention center in downtown Miami, away from the other
passengers awaiting immigration proceedings at Krome detention center.

Herald staff writer Jennifer Maloney and a pool reporter contributed to this
report.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/4461167.htm