16394: (Hermantin)Sun Sentinel-Haitian council in Delray criticized for work on asylum (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Sun-Sentinel

Haitian council in Delray criticized for work on asylum cases


By Leon Fooksman
Staff Writer

August 12, 2003

Fenol Henrius went to the Haitian American Community Council looking for
help with an asylum application.

What he got, he said, was anything but helpful: His application may have
been mixed up with another client's and sent out too late to make a key
deadline, he later told the Florida Bar Association. It also incorrectly
dated his arrival in the United States and stated erroneously that the
farmer worked in the oil business, he said.

Henrius' spring 1998 asylum application also said he had never been
arrested, even though he told the council's employees otherwise, according
to a bar association complaint.

Henrius wasn't alone in his troubles with the Delray Beach social services
agency.

Even before the group came under city and county scrutiny this summer for
alleged mismanagement, nepotism and conflicts of interest, the bar
association investigated charges that it practiced law without a license.

Henrius and three other immigrants complained that the Haitian council
"irreparably harmed" their chances for political asylum.

The immigrants told bar association officials in 1999 that Haitian council
employees promised to help them get asylum for a fee.

But the documents they got were botched and the men were out hundreds of
dollars, according to their complaints.

They blamed the council for mixing up their paperwork, missing deadlines,
putting wrong information in official paperwork and giving them the
runaround before their asylum applications finally were sent to immigration
agencies.

When their cases came before immigration judges, they were rejected. An
appeals court also denied their requests.

Now, deportation orders are out for Henrius, Wilford Louis, Patrick Medastin
and Esperendieu Aneus.

Authorities haven't located them. It's unclear exactly how much the Haitian
council's work affected the deportation decision because transcripts of
their immigration hearings were unavailable.

`Good heart'

But bar association documents reveal that Haitian council director Daniella
Henry admitted in 2001 that her agency completed asylum applications --
something only lawyers and licensed agencies are supposed to do.

Bar association officials chastised Henry for not understanding immigration
law and application deadlines, and not knowing much about the backgrounds of
her agency's volunteers.

"You may have a very good heart, but at the same time you're putting people
that you want to help in danger of having them lose their right that they
have through the immigration laws," Damaris Garcia, an immigration attorney
and member of the bar association committee that investigated the council,
told Henry at a 2001 hearing.

Henry and board president Carolyn Zimmerman were required to sign affidavits
promising to never do anything that could be considered unlicensed legal
work.

By signing, they admitted no wrongdoing.

"The committee feels very strongly that there are very serious problems and
some serious harm that has resulted and could still result from the
activities that are going on," bar association attorney Janet Bradford
Morgan told Henry at the hearing.

Henry could not be reached for comment, despite several attempts to contact
her in the past three weeks.

The four Haitian immigrants said that they feared they'd be killed if
deported because of their former ties to government opposition.

Among their complaints to the bar association:

Henrius, now 36, said he paid an undisclosed amount to the Haitian council
to complete an asylum application. But he said it wasn't sent out until
about three months after the deadline.

"I put my trust in them because ... Henry acted like she was an attorney and
knew what to do," he said in the complaint.

Louis, now 35, said he paid Henry $100 to fill out and file an asylum
application. But Henry never sent it and instead referred him to a Haitian
man known only as "Forde" who charged him $40, according to the complaint.
He didn't send the documents, either. Louis eventually found a notary and
immigration business that charged another $100 and sent the application.

Medastin, now 32, told the bar association he paid the agency $300. Henry
took information from him and did a lot of typing, according to his
complaint. She then gave him a cassette and said it was "my story." When he
listened to the tape, he said he heard information that wasn't accurate. His
complaint didn't give details about what was wrong.

Aneus said he paid a council employee $150 to process an asylum application.
By the time it was filed, Aneus, now 35, said the deadline had passed and he
couldn't be considered for asylum.

The bar association case was based primarily on hearings at which the four
Haitian men, Henry, and bar members testified. An undercover bar association
investigator also testified that a Haitian council employee offered him help
to get asylum if he brought in immigration documents. "I had asked her how
much money would it cost. Her response was that it might be a few hundred
dollars but she wouldn't know, that I had to come back and when she saw my
documents she would let me know exactly how much it would cost,"
investigator David Francois testified.

Handling cases

Henry admitted in testimony that her agency handled asylum cases until 1998
but none since. She said she directed her staff to translate for clients and
help them fill out asylum applications, but said she never directed her
staff to offer legal advice.

"I have not seen an asylum application since March 1998. I have never seen
one. I never, never, never, never, never done an asylum application since
1998," she testified.

Henry didn't address at the hearing the specific allegations raised by the
four Haitians, but she said she was shocked by the accusations and
considered them lies.

The bar association was one of the first in a line of agencies to question
the 11-year-old, taxpayer-supported agency.

West Palm Beach has a pending inquiry into possible conflicts of interest
involving Haitian council clients placed in rental homes owned by the
organization's employees or their business acquaintances. The Palm Beach
County Department of Community Services and the Children's Services Council
of Palm Beach County have raised concerns that Henry and former supervisor
Gethro Louis Jean may have violated nepotism rules by co-owning a West Palm
Beach house.

The three agencies placed the council under closer supervision and required
Henry and board members to affirm conflict-of-interest policies and resolve
administrative problems such as poor record keeping. The council gets
$854,628 in public money to provide immigration assistance, prenatal care
and housing for AIDS clients.

Sharon Nangle, a program monitor for the county, said her two years of
reviewing the council's activities haven't uncovered any asylum
applications, but she said she has never been told to look for them. Council
employees can provide blank legal forms and help clients type the forms, but
aren't allowed to ask them questions about the forms or give advice,
according to the bar association.

Zimmerman said her board didn't discipline Henry after the bar association
investigation because no significant problems were found.

"I don't think she did anything wrong. I don't think we've had anything
serious. Most of the problems we've had have been with paperwork," Zimmerman
said. The four Haitian immigrants filed their complaints with the bar
association through Miami immigration lawyer Candace Jean. Medastin, and
Aneus ended up changing the focus of their complaints against the Haitian
council when they appeared before the bar association.

The day Henry testified to the bar association committee in February 2001,
she arrived with Medastin and Aneus, according to transcripts. Henry told
the committee that, when she learned of the complaints, she put word out on
a Haitian radio station that she wanted to talk to the four immigrants.

Medastin testified that he called Henry and accompanied her to the hearing.
He said Jean filed the complaint without him understanding it. Aneus
testified that Jean filed the complaint even though he didn't agree that the
person to whom he gave $150 was representing Henry. Jean declined comment,
saying the records speak for themselves. Transcripts of testimony by Louis
and Henrius -- who stood by their stories, according to the bar association
-- were unavailable.

Immigration courts rejected the refugees' asylum applications and their
appeals were rejected, said Elaine Komis, spokeswoman for the federal
Executive Office for Immigration Review. They are now being sought for
deportation, said Barbara Gonzalez, spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of
Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Leon Fooksman can be reached at lfooksman@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6647.
Copyright © 2003, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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