16329: (Craig) Article: Prosecution of Asylum Seekers Challenged (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Dan Craig <hoosier@att.net>


Prosecution of Asylum Seekers Challenged
August 9, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 6:49 a.m. ET

MIAMI (AP) -- Immigration officers at Miami International
Airport decided Yvon Bleus had strong grounds for pursuing
asylum.

A senator he worked for in his native Haiti was shot and
killed, as was a friend who was also involved in the
volatile world of Haitian politics. Bleus arrived home one
day and found a warrant for his arrest.

But after fleeing to Miami and completing the first step
toward freedom from political persecution, Bleus was
arrested. He had used a doctored passport to enter the
country. Now, he could be deported.

Bleus, a 26-year-old involved in the student movement
against Haitian President Jean-Claude Aristide, is one of
dozens of recent arrivals with legitimate asylum claims who
have used fake documents -- often the only way to get out
of their country -- and found themselves charged with
impersonating a U.S. citizen, part of a recent crackdown on
illegal immigrants since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

``It violates the spirit of the asylum law,'' said Stephen
Yale-Loehr, an immigration law professor at Cornell Law
School. ``It's part of the general restrictionist trend
since Sept. 11.''

The way Bleus got into the country is typical of many
asylum seekers. He replaced the photo in a U.S. passport
obtained by his brother-in-law with his own, and flew to
Miami on Feb. 27.

Haitians represent the largest number of indicted asylum
seekers, but Latin Americans also are being prosecuted.
Many end their criminal cases with guilty pleas and
sentences of time served, but immigration officials can use
the convictions to reject asylum claims and expel them.

A coalition of 58 refugee, human rights and religious
groups wrote Attorney General John Ashcroft and Homeland
Security Secretary Thomas Ridge in late July arguing the
practice of indicting asylum seekers who enter the country
using doctored documents contradicts federal law.

Marcos Jimenez, the U.S. attorney for South Florida,
defended his office's decision to target asylum seekers
caught with fake travel papers.

``We're not going to tolerate people who are sneaking into
our country,'' said Jimenez, whose district stretches 220
miles from Key West to Fort Pierce. ``At other airports,
the problem has been solved. We've got a sieve at our
airport.''

Paul Rosenzweig, a senior fellow at the Heritage
Foundation, a conservative think tank, said entry on false
papers is illegal and special provisions for asylum seekers
in a 1951 international treaty on refugees are not binding
on the United States.

``People who come in and use false documents and enter
through other illegal means start off by evidencing a kind
of disrespect for the law,'' he said. ``There's a good case
to be made for changing the law if you want to make it, but
you don't have a right to violate the law just because you
disagree with it.''

Immigration officers decide initially whether a refugee
demonstrates a credible fear of persecution in their
homeland based on their race, religion, nationality,
membership in a particular group or political opinion. An
immigration judge makes a final decision on asylum claims,
often years later.

Neither the U.S. attorney's office nor the U.S. public
defender's office, which handles most of the cases, had
specific figures on the number of prosecutions.

Bill Strassberger, spokesman for Homeland Security, said he
had no comment on the letter sent to Ridge.

Bleus has been in jail since his arrival and is awaiting a
Sept. 8 trial.

Cheryl Little, head of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy
Center, said expulsion is unusually risky for Haitians.
Criminal deportees are jailed on their return to
Port-au-Prince, and international observers report deaths
from malnutrition and abuse are commonplace in Haitian
jails.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Indicting-Immigrants.html?ex=1061427177&ei=1&en=3a78ad80e20b675e
Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company