15741: Haitian activists protest administration immigration policy in Miami (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Haitian activists protest administration immigration policy in Miami



By Coralie Carlson
The Associated Press

May 30, 2003, 6:55 PM EDT

MIAMI -- Haitian activists gathered Friday to demonstrate against Bush
administration immigration policies they say are causing Haitian migrants to
be unfairly detained under the guise of heightened national security
concerns.

The rally by about 40 people in the sweltering sun outside the local U.S.
Department of Homeland Security office was aimed at building momentum for a
two-day lobbying trip to Washington next week by Miami-Dade Mayor Alex
Penelas, state Sen. Frederica Wilson and several county commissioners and
local activists.

``When those people left Haiti to come here they didn't come here to hurt
anybody,'' said M. Kabe, a retired nurse who was among the first
Haitian-Americans protesters to assemble. ``Those people came here to find
freedom. They came here to find a better life.''

The protesters, many wearing with red and black Haitian flags, chanted
``Free the Haitians now!'' and waved blue and white placards reading ``Bush
Stop Persecuting Haitians'' and ``Let My People Go.''

The delegation plans to press the White House to reconsider a legal opinion
issued by Attorney General John Ashcroft last month allowing most illegal
immigrants to be jailed indefinitely without bond when national security
risks exist.

``We hope that federal officials will become more aware of the unfair
treatment that's given to Haitian migrants simply because they were born in
Haiti,'' Penelas said Friday in a phone interview.

The Haitian immigration issue has intensified since more than 200 Haitian
migrants jumped off a boat in Miami last October during a dramatic landing
broadcast on live television. The case of 18-year-old David Joseph, who was
aboard the rickety vessel, led to Ashcroft's legal opinion.

An immigration judge and appeals board concluded they did not have authority
to deny bond to Joseph. But Joseph remains in custody, based on national
security concerns cited by the government on appeal.

Among the migrants, 131 have been ordered removed while 52 migrants were
granted asylum, said Greg Gagne, a spokesman for the Executive Office of
Immigration Review. The government has appealed 49 of the 52 asylum cases.

``Many of them went to court on their own, unrepresented, and they were able
to prove without any doubt that they had a credible fear of persecution,''
said Marleine Bastien, executive director of the Haitian Women of Miami, in
a phone interview. She called the appeals a ``waste of taxpayers' money.''

Bastien said she has been particularly concerned with the detention of
children. She said four children from the October boat remain at a Miami
juvenile center.

Since December 2001, Haitian immigrants applying for asylum have been kept
in custody. Before the change, Haitians were generally released into the
community while their requests were processed.

The issue is sensitive in South Florida because Cuban migrants who reach
land are almost always released from U.S. custody within a few days. The
1966 Cuban Adjustment Act lets any Cuban allowed to stay to apply for
permanent residency after a year.

Cubans caught at sea are usually taken back.

The delegation of Miami leaders also plans to lobby for the passage of a
Haitian economic recovery act to help give people a reason to stay in Haiti;
the act would also establish a refugee and immigrant processing system in
Haiti to serve as a ``safety valve'' to discourage illegal immigration.
Copyright © 2003, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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