15402: (Chamberlain) Haitian smugglers sentenced in Miami freighter case (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     MIAMI, April 24 (Reuters) - Five smugglers were sentenced to prison
terms ranging from 15 months to five years for bringing more than 200
Haitians into the United States on an overloaded freighter, federal
prosecutors said on Thursday.
     The men had been convicted in connection with one of the best-known
Florida alien smuggling cases in recent memory, the splashy Oct. 29 arrival
of the 50-foot (15 meter) freighter near Miami's luxury island community
Key Biscayne.
     Many of the Haitians jumped into the shallow water, waded ashore and
swarmed onto a busy bridge where some tried to persuade passing motorists
to help them escape border patrols. The entire event was on live
television.
     Edner Dorvil, who federal agents identified as the head of the
smuggling ring, was sentenced on Wednesday to five years in prison, the
maximum penalty. Crew members Sali Altanese Jean and Elie Louis received
prison terms of 27 and 15 months respectively.
     On Tuesday, crew member Jean Phillip Petite-Homme was sentenced to 33
months and Jean Eddy Louis got 27 months. Another co-defendant, Genel
Osmin, was sentenced in March to 15 months.
     Haitians attempt the dangerous 650-mile (1,050-km) ocean passage to
Florida to escape grinding poverty in their Caribbean homeland. U.S.
authorities usually deem them economic migrants and send them home.
     The arrival of the large group on Oct. 29 sparked protests by Haitians
living in Florida who object to U.S. government treatment of their
compatriots.
     Arriving Haitians are routinely held in a detention center until they
are sent home, while Cubans arriving under similar circumstances are often
released to relatives within days and almost always allowed to stay in the
United States.
     Six months after their arrival, scores of the Haitians were still at
an immigration detention center near Miami.
     U.S. officials say the freighter was dangerously overloaded and
carried only two life jackets for the 235 people on board. The ship was
declared a biohazard and was sanitized before it was boarded.
     Advocates for the Haitians were stunned this week by a decision by
U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, who said the detained Haitians will
remain locked up while they file their claims to remain in the United
States.
     Ashcroft cited national security concerns and worries about a possible
mass migration from Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas.