16396: (Hermantin)Sun Sentinel-Haitian teens who landed in Biscayne Bay win review of a (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Haitian teens who landed in Biscayne Bay win review of asylum claims



By Tanya Weinberg
Staff Writer

August 12, 2003

The young man whose case Attorney General John Ashcroft used to deny bond to
all Haitian boat refugees has been granted a new asylum hearing.

In a decision dated Friday, the Board of Immigration Appeals ordered the
immigration court to rehear the case of David Joseph, 18, and his brother,
Daniel, 17, in light of new evidence of political persecution. In April,
Ashcroft issued a written decision to overturn the board's decision to allow
David Joseph bond, citing a potential increase in Haitian migration as a
national security threat.

The latest ruling will not end the Josephs' detention, which began on Oct.
29 when they were among more than 200 passengers on a boat that sailed into
Biscayne Bay. But unlike their first asylum hearing, the brothers will have
legal representation in court.

The Joseph decision is the latest of several events that immigration
advocates see as hopeful signs for Haitian asylum seekers amidst the tougher
detention and procedural policies applied to their cases since late 2001.
Two weeks before the Joseph decision, the Board of Immigration Appeals
reversed an immigration court's denial of asylum to another passenger who
arrived with the Josephs. Their companions on the boat also are receiving
asylum at a higher rate than Haitians have in recent years.

"Despite the best efforts of the administration to keep Haitians out,
Haitians are being granted [asylum] at a higher rate. It's indicative to me
that the situation in Haiti is deteriorating and there are real political
refugees coming out of Haiti," said Wendy Young of the New York-based
Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children.

One quarter of the Oct. 29 passengers have won asylum, and more cases are
pending. That's higher than asylum approval rates for Haitians in the
previous four years, which averaged 13 percent nationally and 8 percent at
the Krome Detention Center west of Miami.

Advocates say a new policy of expedited asylum hearings for boat passengers
have initially hurt those who did not obtain legal counsel in time, but also
may have helped some refugees. Some of the Miami immigration court judges
brought in to hear the cases have asylum approval rates closer to the
national average than the two judges who regularly hear cases at Krome,
attorneys say.

On July 23, the Board of Immigration Appeals also reversed an immigration
court's decision to deny asylum to another passenger from the Oct. 29 boat.
The decision was the first reversal after about 130 appeals filed by the
Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center on behalf of passengers from the Oct. 29
boat and a Dec. 3, 2001, boat, the center said.

In the July decision, the board rejected the lower court's characterization
that the applicant, a member of an opposition political party who testified
that his son and grandfather were killed when a mob burned down his house,
was merely a victim of criminal violence in an unstable country.

Appeals board member Frederick Hess cited in the decision the U.S.
Department of State's 2001 human rights report on Haiti, which discusses
abuses by the ruling political party, Fanmi Lavalas.

"In citing the State Department's report, it's recognizing that many people
targeted by Lavalas mobs have been victims of political persecution, and
that's extremely important given the number of Haitians fleeing Lavalas
violence today," said Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida
Immigrant Advocacy Center.

David Joseph's attorney said that the immigration judge who heard her
client's case also referred to violence perpetrated against Joseph's family
by fanatical followers of the Lavalas as generalized violence.

"The government does nothing to control these groups or to punish them, and
therefore the harm they perpetrate is persecution, and we are winning on
these issues," said Candace Jean of Catholic Charities.

Some of the evidence Jean will present draws from a phone call David Joseph
made after he had lost his asylum hearing.

"He tried to talk to his parents; he couldn't find them," said Jean. "He
talked to neighbors; they said the house was destroyed."

Tanya Weinberg can be reached at tweinberg@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5029.
Copyright © 2003, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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