15354: Hermantin: Dozens of asylum seekers who entered country illegally face U.S. charges (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Dozens of asylum seekers who entered country illegally face U.S. charges



By Tanya Weinberg
Staff Writer

April 16, 2003

In what appears to be a quiet reversal of policy, federal prosecutors in
South Florida have criminally charged dozens of recently arrived asylum
seekers for entering the country with false documents.

Attorneys and human rights organizations say the criminal charges violate
international law and could have serious consequences for refugees who may
be fleeing for their lives without the time or ability to obtain proper
documents.

"There's longstanding recognition that sometimes refugees are forced to flee
from their persecutors with false documents. That's something that happened
in WWII. That's why Raoul Wallenberg is seen as a hero, for giving false
passports to Jews fleeing the Holocaust," said Eleanor Acer, asylum program
director for the New York-based Lawyers Committee For Human Rights.

The government has long charged would-be immigrants for entering the country
with fraudulent documents, felonies that can carry a 10-year prison sentence
for a first offense. Until recently, however, asylum seekers were not
charged, in accordance with the 1951 United Nations Convention relating to
the Status of Refugees, advocates say.

In 1967, the United States became party to the Convention, which recognizes
that a well-founded fear of persecution may provide good cause for entering
a country illegally.

After Sept. 11, 2001, the Lawyers Committee started receiving scattered
reports of criminal prosecution of asylum seekers, Acer said. But the
pattern of prosecution by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami over the past
few months appears unique, she said.

"We've not heard of any [such] widespread violation of the Convention in the
United States before," Acer said.

The federal public defender and other South Florida attorneys say they have
yet to receive an explanation from the government for the new wave of
prosecutions.

The U.S. Attorney's Office Miami spokesman, Matthew Dates, said he had no
comment at this time. The Justice Department referred inquiries to the
Homeland Security Department, where Bureau of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement Spokesman John Shewairy said he was not aware of a policy change
or whether the prosecutions violated international law.

"I'm not familiar with what the U.N. Convention says on that, but certainly
presenting fraudulent documents is a violation of immigration law," Shewairy
said. "A lot of times people don't ask for asylum until they get caught."

Local attorneys report that some asylum seekers are arrested upon arrival at
Miami International Airport while others have been charged after months of
immigration detention. Still others, already released into the community,
have been arrested at home.

That's what happened to Yverose Antoine, who flew to Miami from Haiti in
December. Immigration officials determined that Antoine, 37, had a credible
fear of persecution and she was released into a cousin's custody pending her
asylum hearing. Three months later, federal agents arrested her at her
Delray Beach home.

"She was very scared, she didn't know what was going on," said Antoine's
cousin, Denise Antoine. "She had just come from school, she was trying to do
her homework."

In Haiti, Yverose Antoine had gone into hiding from extortionists who
threatened to kill her, Denise Antoine said. She said her cousin met someone
willing to sell her a U.S. passport and took the opportunity to flee,
leaving her five children behind.

Last week, Yverose Antoine pleaded guilty to false use of a passport. After
five weeks at the Federal Detention Center in Miami, she was freed with a
sentence of time served and two years probation.

"I think that's ridiculous, because she's trying to save her life. She's not
a criminal," Denise Antoine said. "And then they said she won't be able to
vote if she becomes a citizen. I don't think that's right."

A criminal conviction can hinder a person's asylum case, but even if asylum
is granted, it may affect access to future immigration benefits, such as
permanent residency, advocates say. For women held at the minimum security
Broward Work Release Center in Pompano Beach while awaiting asylum hearings,
a criminal classification gets them transferred to a maximum-security jail.

Critics of the new prosecutions say the most serious consequences may fall
on Haitians who are denied asylum, then deported back to Haiti, where
deportees with criminal records are automatically jailed under harsh
conditions. In 2000, Claudette Etienne, a 20-year Miami resident with a
minor drug conviction, was deported to Haiti, jailed, and died after
drinking contaminated water in prison.

The federal public defender in Miami, Kathleen Williams, said in the past
two months her office had received dozens of cases of criminally charged
asylum seekers, all Haitians as far as she was aware.

"One week I assigned 12," Williams said.

Some advocates question whether the U.S. government is once again
introducing a policy tailored to deter Haitian migration. After a December
2001 federal policy change, acknowledged only after advocates filed suit,
immigration authorities started automatically detaining Haitian asylum
seekers who arrived by boat, while those of other nationalities had the
opportunity for release pending their hearings.

In November, the Justice Department expanded the policy to include others
following a wave of protest inspired by the widely-publicized arrival of an
overloaded boat carrying more than 200 Haitian refugees into Biscayne Bay.

Now only Cuban asylum seekers arriving by boat are routinely released. After
one year they are eligible for residency under the Cuban Adjustment Act of
1966.

Last month, the Homeland Security Department implemented a temporary policy
to automatically detain all asylum seekers from 33 countries where al Qaida
is known to have operated.

"There's a very serious slippage by the United States in terms of the [U.N.]
Convention and the principle it stands for and unfortunately 9-11 and the
events since have only made that worse," said Wendy Young, of the New
York-based Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children.

Miami is often a testing ground for restrictive measures and the new trend
of criminally charging asylum seekers could set a precedent for the rest of
the country, Young said.

"We're concerned that it sends a deterrent message: don't come to the United
States because instead of treating you like a refugee we're going to treat
you like a criminal."

Tanya Weinberg can be reached at tweinberg@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5029.
Copyright © 2003, South Florida Sun-Sentinel






_________________________________________________________________
MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*.
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus