15937: (Hermantin) Miami-Herald-Editorial-Out on Parole At Last (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Mon, Jun. 16, 2003

OUT ON PAROLE AT LAST

After more than seven months in the custody of immigration officials,
Ernesto Joseph is out on parole. Now 18, Mr. Joseph was among more than 200
Haitian asylum-seekers who arrived by boat on Oct. 29, 2002. His release is
welcome news.

For Mr. Joseph's sake, we're relieved; and for the assistance provided him
by Amnesty International and the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, we're
grateful. But that doesn't dispel the outrage over the federal government's
treatment of Mr. Joseph or of Haitian migrants in general.

Why did Mr. Joseph have to spend almost five months in the Krome Detention
Center after an administrative judge granted him asylum? He was detained so
long that a trauma specialist found him in danger of ''irreparable harm.''
Why did it take so much effort -- tireless work by FIAC lawyers and a
letter-writing campaign by Amnesty International -- to deliver justice to
one young man?

The Department of Homeland Security inevitably answers these questions with
the words national security as an excuse for singling out Haitian
asylum-seekers for detention. Even after his asylum request was granted,
immigration authorities weren't ready to let go of Mr. Joseph. The
department appealed the immigration judge's decision. Eventually he may yet
be sent back to Haiti, where chimere -- armed bands of government supporters
-- roam freely and terrorize dissenters.

Haitian migrants deserve the same dignity we offer other asylum-seekers.
There is simply no excuse.

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