16192: (Craig) Article: Haitians Are Held in U.S. Despite Grant of Asylum (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dan Craig <dgcraig@att.net>

Haitians Are Held in U.S. Despite Grant of Asylum
July 25, 2003
By RACHEL L. SWARNS

MIAMI, July 23 - Four months ago, immigration lawyers
rejoiced after a federal judge granted political asylum to
two men who scrambled to shore with more than 200 Haitians
when their boat ran aground near this city last year. One
man had left Haiti after the killings of his brother and
sister. Another had fled after a pro-government mob
attacked his house.

But the sense of celebration has given way to frustration
and anguish.

Today, the two Haitian men are still behind bars, even
though the judge determined that their fears of persecution
were legitimate. Federal prosecutors have appealed that
ruling and government officials have ordered the continued
detention of the two men until the appeal is decided, a
process that could take several months.

Candace Jean, the lawyer for the two men, has petitioned
for their release on humanitarian grounds pending the
outcome of the government's appeal. She says one of the
men, Rochenel Charles, 55, suffers from severe chest and
stomach pain and is deteriorating rapidly. The other,
Gabriel Joseph, 53, suffers from depression and
post-traumatic stress and his mental state is worsening,
she says.

Both men have been detained since Oct. 29, 2002, when they
fled their boat along with their compatriots in a frantic
dash that was broadcast on national television. A third
Haitian who was detained for nearly six months after being
granted asylum was released last month after the detention
center determined that he was suffering from post-traumatic
stress syndrome.

"America's supposed to welcome someone who is a refugee,"
Mr. Joseph said in a telephone interview from the Krome
detention center this week. "It's four months ago that they
gave me asylum and they still keep me in prison. I get so
discouraged. I feel no hope."

The detention of Mr. Charles and Mr. Joseph has heightened
the debate over the treatment of Haitian immigrants.
Advocates say the decision to continue to detain the men
after they were granted asylum highlights what they
describe as the government's discriminatory stance toward
Haitian asylum seekers.

Under Bush administration policy, Haitian asylum seekers
are typically detained until they are deported or, less
frequently, granted asylum. Other immigrants are usually
allowed to remain with relatives in the community while
their cases or related appeals are decided.

Officials say they are trying to discourage Haitians from
migrating illegally to the United States. They say a mass
migration of Haitians would require the Coast Guard to
focus on interdicting people at sea, diverting precious
resources needed to protect the United States in the
aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

In April, Attorney General John Ashcroft ruled that
Haitians and other illegal immigrants without links to
terrorist groups could be detained indefinitely to address
such national security concerns. He said the State
Department had learned that Haiti had become a staging
point for Pakistanis and Palestinians hoping to enter the
United States illegally, a charge that has been disputed by
advocates for immigrants.

Officials say they have treated the Haitians fairly and
have made exceptions to the detention rule when such
exceptions were justified. Thirty-three of the people who
arrived on the boat last year have been released on
humanitarian or other grounds pending the outcome of their
cases, officials say. Many were pregnant women and small
children who spent months in detention before they were
released.

The overwhelming majority of people who have been granted
asylum have also been released.

Ana Santiago, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland
Security here, declined to discuss the cases of Mr. Charles
and Mr. Joseph. Departmental rules bar officials from
discussing asylum cases. But the judge who handled the two
cases described the concerns raised by immigration
officials in her two separate rulings.

In Mr. Charles's case, government lawyers said he had not
been threatened directly and questioned whether he had
actually gone into hiding after his siblings were killed.
The judge, Sandra S. Coleman, said she found Mr. Charles's
description of his time on the run detailed and persuasive.
She said it was also reasonable for Mr. Charles to fear for
his life after his brother and sister were killed.

In Mr. Joseph's case, the government lawyers questioned
inconsistencies in his chronology. The judge noted that Mr.
Joseph, a carpenter, could not read or write. She said his
testimony remained consistent during questioning and
attributed his confusion over dates to the confusion of an
uneducated man.

All told, 93 have been deported and 32 remain in detention,
including Mr. Charles and Mr. Joseph. Six people have been
charged with alien smuggling.

Jorge Martinez, a spokesman for the Justice Department,
which oversees the nation's immigration courts, said the
detention of the remaining Haitians is necessary to ensure
that they will appear in court.

"These are people who attempted to evade law enforcement,"
said Mr. Martinez, noting that many of the Haitians fled
the police when their boat ran aground last year. "Why
should we think these individuals are going to return for
their adjudication? The risk of flight is very real."

Advocates for the Haitians say they are no more likely to
flee than other immigrants applying for asylum.

A study released last month by Physicians for Human Rights
and the Bellevue-New York University program for survivors
of torture found a steady deterioration in the
psychological well-being of asylum seekers over the months
and years they were held in detention centers, many of
which offer little access to counseling and other mental
health services.

"This is not how the United States should be treating
people who have been found to merit refugee status in a
federal court," Ms. Jean said of her clients. "This kind of
detention causes much unnecessary misery."

In January, Florida's Catholic bishops deplored the
continued detention of the Haitians as "indefensible and
inequitable." In March, Senator Bob Graham, Democrat of
Florida, wrote to the Department of Homeland Security,
calling for the release of all Haitian minors. Officials
say two teenagers remain in detention.

In May, supporters of the Haitian detainees rallied at a
federal immigration building here. A month later, a group
of local Republican and Democratic lawmakers traveled to
Washington to lobby government officials on behalf of the
Haitians.

Ms. Jean said she still hoped that her clients would be
released. Mr. Joseph, who was granted asylum on March 20,
has relatives in New York, she says. Mr. Charles, who was
granted asylum on Feb. 13, has a brother who is an American
citizen living here in Miami.

She keeps in regular contact with the two men and tries to
help them understand what is happening in their cases. But
that is not easy.

Mr. Charles, who was a farmer in Haiti, is still struggling
to comprehend his situation.

"I got saved," he said in a telephone interview from Krome
detention center where Ms. Jean served as his interpreter.
"I got to America. I got asylum. Why am I still in prison?"


http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/25/national/25HAIT.html?ex=1060123853&ei=1&en=160f3691cead94b4
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