13613: Hermantin: Haitian activists turn efforts to voting (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Haitian activists turn efforts to voting

By Tanya Weinberg
Staff Writer
Posted November 6 2002

MIAMI · The repatriation of 19 refugees to Haiti on Tuesday inspired
continuing protest in the Haitian community, but activists focused most of
the day's efforts on the election.

What had been described as a planned work stoppage turned more into an
effort to get people to take the day off and volunteer at the polls.

"The extra motive, impetus, for taking the day off was the real passion
about making a change, especially in the governor's race," said Monica
Russo, president of the Service Employees International Union. "Our governor
hasn't lifted a finger to do anything about the people who've been detained
since December. So with this new boat coming in our people really responded
to the call to take this matter not only into our own hands, but to take
political action."

Other activists echoed Russo's sentiments that Gov. Jeb Bush's perceived
failure to fight a new federal detention policy applied only to Haitian
asylum seekers fueled Election Day activism.

Russo said more than 100 of the union's members, mostly Haitian nursing home
workers in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties, took the day off
for the "voting rights struggle."

"We're in health care, so we're not trying to hurt our residents. It wasn't
intended to be, OK everybody, shut the shop down. When you're making $7 to
$8 an hour, a day's work is a big deal. It's a sacrifice for the cause,"
Russo said.

A rotating crew of volunteers converged on the Jean Jacques Dessalines
Center in Little Haiti, which served as a command center for the voting
assistance effort. About 100 volunteers helped Creole speakers at the polls,
reported voting glitches and chauffeured voters with special needs to the
polls.

At 5 p.m., activists organized another rally in front of the Immigration and
Naturalization Service's Miami headquarters. But they encouraged people to
vote before joining the protest.

About 10 a.m. Tuesday, the Coast Guard repatriated the 17 Haitians and two
Dominicans to Haiti. That group of refugees, who never reached land when the
boat ran aground Oct. 28, was held offshore on a Coast Guard cutter. Another
214 refugees remain in federal custody as the U.S. attorney pursues a
smuggling case against six of them and INS moves to deport the group.

Also on Tuesday, the Coast Guard announced stepped-up patrols to stop an
increased flow of refugees traveling on boats to South Florida from Haiti,
the Dominican Republic and Cuba.

Staff Writers Shannon O'Boye and Bob LaMendola contributed to this report.



Tanya Weinberg can be reached at tweinberg@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7923.






Copyright © 2002, South Florida Sun-Sentinel






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