16873: (Hermantin)Miami-Herald-Teen's return to Haiti is scheduled for today (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Thu, Oct. 02, 2003

IMMIGRATION
Teen's return to Haiti is scheduled for today
Nearly a year after arriving in the United States, an orphaned Haitian teen
may be forced back to Haiti and a life on the streets.
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES AND JACQUEE PETCHEL
jcharles@herald.com

After a year's wait, teen's return to Haiti is set for today

Ernesto Joseph was orphaned and homeless, lost in the violent tapestry that
has swallowed Haiti, a country where street children are often arrested,
assaulted or exiled to indentured servitude.

He fled his homeland last year on an illegal boat bound for the United
States, his hopes pinned on a trip to America and a life with the unfettered
simplicity of childhood.

But today, the U.S. government intends to deport him -- though he is
believed to be only 16, has no home, no parents and nowhere to go but the
same rough streets he fled. Experts believe there is a good chance -- as a
homeless teenager -- he will be killed or jailed if he is forced to return.

''Arrangements have been made for your departure to Haiti on Oct. 2, 2003,''
says the order from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. `` . . . you
should report to a United States immigration officer . . . at 9 a.m.
completely ready for deportation.''

Reached Wednesday, Joseph said he was trying to be optimistic: ``I'm just
going to go and see what happens.''

The order has stunned his attorneys and human rights advocates, who have
been fighting to keep Joseph in the United States since Oct. 29, when he
jumped off a rickety boat and waded ashore on Key Biscayne. This morning,
Joseph's attorneys plan to escort him to immigration headquarters on
Northwest 79th Street and Biscayne Boulevard where they will plead for
leniency.

''Everything now hinges on the good graces of the INS,'' said David
Shahoulian, an attorney with Holland and Knight, who has been working on
Joseph's case on behalf of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center. ``Once
he's deported, there's not much we can do. They will leave us with no
remedy.''

What they want is more time to apply for a special congressional provision
that allows unaccompanied minors who are here illegally to seek U.S.
residency.

They also want time to prove that Joseph is indeed 16 -- not 18 as the
government has continued to assert. Though attorneys have a copy of a birth
certificate and have been told by the Haitian government that it is
authentic, they say they are still waiting for a notarized letter of proof.

Nina Pruneda, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, would
not say what the agency will do today. But a spokesman with the Executive
Office for Immigration Review in Washington said the local district director
for immigration does have discretion to delay the deportation order.

''That is their prerogative,'' Greg Gagne said. ``There is no fixed timeline
on when a deportation order needs to be carried out.''

Joseph's story is a complicated one: Although he made it to shore along with
more than 200 other Haitians that day, his younger brother did not. The two
boys, both orphans, were separated as they jumped off the boat. Ophelio
Joseph, 14, was picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard in the waters off Key
Biscayne and returned to Haiti a few days later. It was days before Ernesto
Joseph learned his brother did not make it to shore.

Ernesto Joseph was handcuffed with plastic restraints, according to his
attorneys, and taken to the Krome detention center in West Miami-Dade
County. He was briefly held at a local motel before he was transferred to
Krome permanently.

Though he insisted he was only 16, he was detained with grown men at Krome
because government officials believed he was older than he claimed. They
made that decision based on medical exams, dental exams and X-rays of his
bone structure. The INS determined he had to be at least 18.

At Krome, he remained while attorneys pursued a claim for political asylum
on his behalf. But instead of arguing that Joseph had a well-founded fear of
returning to Haiti based on his political beliefs -- a common theme in
asylum cases -- they argued that his status as an orphan gave him a legal
category for asylum.

VICTIMIZED CHILDREN

As an orphan, they argued, Joseph would face persecution on the streets of
Haiti, where homeless children are often victimized, recruited by street
gangs and refused protection by the Haitian government who view them as a
menace.

On Jan. 29 came the first words of hope: An immigration judge granted Joseph
asylum, acknowledging he would be put in peril if deported back to Haiti.

''He has no access to the government because of his status,'' wrote
Immigration Judge Denise N. Slavin. `` . . . he could not stand up for
himself and had no one to stand up for him.''

An expert witness testified in a sworn statement that Joseph would run ``a
high likelihood of being arrested or killed in a very short period of time.
As a poor displaced male in Haiti's streets, it would make him a political
target by default.''

But despite the asylum, Joseph remained locked up at Krome.

The government refused to release him while they appealed the judge's
decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals.

''I don't know why they brought me here,'' Joseph said in an interview at
Krome earlier this year, his eyes swelling up with tears. ``Immigration say
I wasn't 16 for real. I'm always calling on God to help me live through
prison.

``I am suffering a lot inside. Everyday I think the lawyer is going to call
me. So I hope.''

The call finally came, nearly five months after the judge granted his asylum
request.

RELEASED TO UNCLE

Citing humanitarian grounds, immigration officials finally released Joseph,
based on attorneys' arguments that prolonged detention was causing
''irreparable harm'' and that he suffered from extreme depression and
post-traumatic stress disorder. Joseph, released to the custody of his
uncle, was elated.

It was short-lived: In late August, Joseph learned that an immigration
appeals court had overturned the judge's decision to allow him to remain in
the United States, claiming his status as an orphan is not valid for asylum.

''I feel horrible, very, very bad,'' said Joseph's uncle, Adelphin Pierre.
``I don't understand what's happening right now.''

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