14385: (Chamberlain) Florida bishops ask Bush to free Haitian detainees (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     MIAMI, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Calling U.S. government treatment of Haitian
migrants indefensible, Florida's Roman Catholic bishops called on U.S.
President George W. Bush to order the immediate release of more than 200
Haitians who swarmed ashore from a grounded boat in Miami last October.
     The migrants have been held in detention since the dramatic incident,
which was captured on live television as the overcrowded boat foundered
just off a Miami beach after a dangerous voyage from Haiti.
     "The continued detention and denial of adequate and appropriate access
to legal representation is both indefensible and inequitable," the bishops
said in statement posted on the Archdiocese of Miami Web site on Wednesday.
     "When our government seeks to criminalize the flight of these men,
women and children who fled political repression, we do not strike a blow
only against refugees, but against our own fundamental belief in the
strength of justice, family, nation and God, beliefs upon which our nation
was founded," said the statement, whose signatories included Miami
Archbishop John Favalora.
     They urged Bush to order the immediate release of the 228 detainees
and for his administration to apply the same standards for Haitians landing
on U.S. shores as they do for others seeking political asylum.
     The rounding-up of the men, woman and children after they jumped from
the teetering ship and waded ashore provoked protests in the
Haitian-American community over what they saw as discrimination against
their people.
     Under federal policy aimed at discouraging an exodus from
poverty-stricken, politically turbulent Haiti, Haitians reaching U.S.
shores illegally are held indefinitely and have restricted access to
lawyers.
     Migrants from other countries are routinely released into the
community pending hearing of asylum claims, while Cubans who reach the
United States are virtually guaranteed to be allowed to stay.
     "The federal government, through the U.S. Immigration and
Naturalization Service, has failed to articulate a compelling moral or
security-based rationale for the continued detention of those who seek only
freedom for themselves and their children from political persecution and
human rights violations in Haiti," the bishops said.