13601: Bellegarde-Smith: Outrageous hypocrisy --Haitians Refugees (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: P D Bellegarde-Smith <pbs@csd.uwm.edu>

>
>Sun Sentinel
>
>Immigrant advocates: Cubans landing shows unfairness of INS policy
>By Sabra Ayres
>Associated Press Writer
>
>November 6, 2002, 6:31 PM EST
>
>MIAMI -- The landing of a boat load of Cubans in the Florida Keys on
>Wednesday magnifies complaints that Haitians receive unequal, racist
>treatment from U.S. immigration officials, immigrant advocates said.
>
>The Cubans are likely to be released into the community within days, while
>Haitians are detained for eventual deportation if their asylum requests are
>turned down.
>
>``It isn't a question of Cubans versus Haitians,'' said Dina Paul Parks of
>the National Coalition for Haitian Rights. ``It's a question of Haitians
>versus everyone else arriving in Miami. It's about the INS choosing folks
>based on nationality.''
>
>The U.S. Border Control took 35 Cuban migrants into custody Wednesday after
>their 26-foot speedboat ran ashore off Marathon in the Keys, said Keith
>Roberts, a spokesman for the agency.
>
>At the same time, at least 10 Haitian migrants being held at Krome Detention
>Center were granted bonds ranging from $3,000 to $4,500 on charges that they
>illegally entered the United States Oct. 29 when their wooden freighter ran
>ashore near Key Biscayne. Most of the 211 migrants jumped off the boat and
>waded to shore, running onto a busy highway before being captured.
>
>The detained migrants won't be permitted to leave, however, because the INS
>has appealed the judge's decision to set bond, said Evenette Mondesir, a
>Miami lawyer who represented some of the Haitians.
>
>Mondesir said she and a colleague arrived at Krome on other unrelated
>business when they heard that about 60 bond hearings had been scheduled for
>some of the 200 or so Haitians who came ashore last week. It was not
>immediately known what the results were from all the bond hearings
>Wednesday.
>
>Mondesir and several other lawyers volunteered to represent the migrants.
>
>None of her clients knew their bond hearings had been scheduled, she said.
>
>``The problem is that the clients were not prepared with family members
>present as an affidavit of support for release, and that can be held against
>them,'' Mondesir said.
>
>The INS in Miami didn't immediately return phone calls Wednesday for
>comment.
>
>Cuban migrants who arrive in South Florida are typically detained for a few
>days while the INS conducts an interview process. They are then generally
>released to family members within the Miami community where they stay until
>their scheduled asylum trials, said Mariela Ferretti, a spokeswoman with the
>Cuban American National Foundation.
>
>The Bush administration changed the detention policy on Haitian refugees
>last December to discourage a feared mass exodus. Before the policy change,
>Haitian migrants applying for asylum were released into the community while
>their petitions were processed.
>
>Haitians arriving since December, however, are kept in custody until they
>receive asylum or, more likely, deported.
>
>Lawyers from the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, which is representing a
>majority of the Oct. 29 Haitian migrants, said they hadn't had access to
>their clients and were just beginning to collect information to present in
>court when the learned about the bond hearings.
>
>``I was shocked,'' Cheryl Little, the executive director of FIAC, said when
>she learned of the hearings. ``There's is nothing typical about this
>situation. It's just so unfair.''
>
>A magistrate judge Wednesday denied bail for six men charged with alien
>smuggling in the Oct. 29 boat incident. Judge Stephen Brown said all the men
>posed a flight risk since they lacked strong ties to the United States.
>Copyright © 2002, South Florida Sun-Sentinel