15431: (Hermantin) Miami-Herald-Haitians detained for bogus reasons (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Fri, Apr. 25, 2003

UNDESERVED MISTREATMENT
Miami Herald Editorial

Posted Friday March 25, 2003


HAITIANS DETAINED FOR BOGUS REASONS

Denying refuge to Haitians who have been brutalized by political thugs back
home isn't going to make America one iota safer from terrorism. Yet that is
the tack that U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft reinforced this week in
denying the release of 18-year-old David Joseph and other asylum-seeking
Haitians who have arrived by boat. In doing so, Mr. Ashcroft and the Bush
administration simply are singling out a defenseless group of people for
undeserved mistreatment.

Mr. Ashcroft argues that the detention policy is necessary to deter a mass
exodus and potential terrorists from Haiti. We don't buy that. The evidence
just isn't there.

Yet, since December 2001, administration policy has been to detain all
Haitians arriving by boat, including families and unaccompanied children,
until they are deported or gain legal status; to expedite their proceedings,
which hampers them from obtaining legal counsel and presenting good asylum
cases; and to block every request for release, including those of Haitians
granted bonds and asylum. A few releases have been granted on humanitarian
grounds.

In short, Bush administration policy treats these Haitians as a nameless,
faceless group that threatens national security. The real people disprove
that lie.

Teenager David Joseph and his younger brother fled Haiti after their father
was beaten by Lavalas Party thugs. He, too, was stoned and burned, he says.
His family home was ransacked. His bond was upheld by this nation's highest
immigration court, which found him neither a ''flight risk'' nor a ''danger
to the community.'' But that was before Mr. Ashcroft blocked his release
this week.

This unjust treatment doesn't improve national security. In fact, if the
administration took half the effort expended on foiling asylum seekers such
as Mr. Joseph and devoted them to diplomacy in Haiti, political violence and
economic devastation would spur fewer Haitians to leave.

Of course, the government needs to make sure that no would-be refugee is a
known criminal, human-rights abuser or terrorist in disguise. But can anyone
imagine a Middle Eastern terrorist disguised as a Creole-speaking Haitian
and getting away with it?

The Bush administration will be remembered for its mistreatment of

Haitian boat people.



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