14167: Joseph: NYTimes News "Hope for Speedy Release of Haitian Refugees Fades" (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dotie Joseph <dotiej@hotmail.com>

December 16, 2002
Hope for Speedy Release of Haitian Refugees Fades
By DANA CANEDY


IAMI, Dec. 15 — Advocates for more than 200 Haitian refugees taken into
custody in October had expected that immigration rules keeping them in
indefinite detention would be eased after President Bush and his brother,
Gov. Jeb Bush, said they should be treated no differently than any other
asylum seekers, except Cubans.

But since then, the Bush administration has instead tightened the
immigration rules and broadened their scope, making it virtually impossible
for the Haitians to be released soon.

Under a Bush administration policy adopted a year ago, Haitian refugees who
reach the United States are held in indefinite detention until they are
deported or, less frequently, granted asylum. Critics have called the policy
discriminatory because, until now, it has applied exclusively to Haitians.

Debate over the issue was renewed on Oct. 29 when the Haitian refugees' boat
ran aground off Miami and they plunged into the shallow waters in a
desperate effort to avoid capture, carried on national television.
Immigration advocates and lawmakers from both parties immediately called on
the president and the governor to order the Haitians' release.

Last month, President Bush said, "Haitians and everybody else ought to be
treated the same way, and we're in the process of making sure that happens."

The advocates and lawmakers interpreted the remarks to mean the Haitians
would soon be released and, as with all other migrants, allowed to remain in
the community pending the outcome of their cases. Instead, the Justice
Department has since announced that the Immigration and Naturalization
Service will apply the detention policy to all non-Cubans who arrive in the
United States illegally by sea and will expedite the deportation process for
such refugees.

A White House spokesman said that the president continued to support fair
treatment for Haitians, and that the new detention policy was intended to
ensure such treatment.

"It treats all people seeking to come to America illegally by sea the same,"
said the spokesman, Scott McClellan, the deputy White House press secretary.
"The president believes Haitians ought to be treated fairly and humanely."

Immigrant advocates and other critics of the Bush administration's policy on
Haitians contend that the tighter detention regulations and expedited
deportation process for refugees still apply disproportionately to Haitians,
because most people who flee by sea come from Haiti or Cuba. Cuban refugees
who reach American soil are allowed to remain in the United States without
detention during the processing of their asylum claims because of the
possibility of persecution if they are returned. Immigration advocates say
Haitians who are returned face a similar threat, which has gone largely
unacknowledged by the United States government.

"We were hopeful that there was going to be more equal treatment, and I
don't think this is quite what we were expecting," said Jill Greenberg,
press secretary for Senator Bob Graham, Democrat of Florida, who has spoken
against the treatment of Haitian refugees and has written to President Bush
urging the October refugees' release. "One of the things that we've seen
with this issue is that it is really unclear who is responsible for the
policy. It is a policy that Senator Graham has said is inconsistent."

Advocates for the Haitians say that the Bush administration simply never
followed through on the president's pledge, and that Governor Bush of
Florida has not pressed the point with the White House.

"I expected the president to do the right thing and treat the Haitians
fairly and humanely and permit them to be released on bond," said Cheryl
Little, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center.

Ms. Little said the detainees were being kept in unreasonable confinement at
local detention centers and hotels, without adequate access to legal
representation or interpreters to assist them in preparing their asylum
claims. She also said about a dozen unaccompanied children were being
detained instead of being released to family members or possible sponsors in
the community.

"Things have changed," Ms. Little said, "but for the worse."

A spokeswoman for Governor Bush did not return several telephone calls
seeking comment. Immigration officials said the Haitians were being treated
well and the agency had extended the hours when they could meet with
lawyers. An official said the agency was working on a solution to the
detention of the unaccompanied minors.

"From the beginning, we have been working diligently to release
unaccompanied minors to responsible, qualified adults and a stable
environment," said the official, Ana Santiago, a spokeswoman for the
immigration service in Miami. "It's a long, very detailed process to try to
find a home that is a safe home and a good environment."

Immigration officials also say the detention policy that is keeping all the
Haitians in confinement is intended to prevent future mass migrations.
Citing the same concern, as well as national security considerations, the
agency has also opposed bond that had been approved for many of the
detainees by an immigration judge.

"We were concerned that the release of the aliens would cause mass migration
by sea and could result in loss of life," said Barbara Gonzalez, a
spokeswoman for the immigration service in Miami. "Federal resources would
need to be diverted in order to respond to a mass migration, and those are
the same resources that we rely on to protect the homeland, so we believe it
has some very serious national security implications."

A senior Justice Department official said, "I think there's a lot of
concern, particularly in Florida, that this is aimed at Haitians in
particular, which has a lot of overtones to it." But the official, who spoke
on condition of anonymity, added: "This really applies to anyone who comes
illegally by sea. Thousands of people use smugglers and come through the
Caribbean from all over the world. We also have a lot of Haitians, that's no
doubt true, but it is not aimed at Haitians in particular."

The official acknowledged that Cubans were treated differently. "There is a
lot of discussion I have seen about how Haitians are not treated as well as
Cubans," he said. "I would like to reword that: We treat everybody not as
well as Cubans. That is because Congress has created a statutory difference
for Cubans."

Among Miami Haitians, demonstrators continue to protest, although in smaller
numbers than the hundreds who showed up at the local immigration office
immediately after the detainees arrived. Even local politicians acknowledge
they are running out of ideas for helping the Haitians being detained, who
have little political influence.

"I'm in a quandary as to where to go from here," said State Representative
Phillip Brutus, the first Haitian-American to serve in the Florida
Legislature. "The Bush administration has not said they are going to do
anything to release them on a humanitarian basis, so that door is shut off.
We demonstrated a number of days and we can continue to do that, but
obviously it has not really panned out in what we were hoping for, because
nothing has changed."


_________________________________________________________________
Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*.
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail