16897: (Hermantin) Miami-Herald- Haitian youth, Rose Thermitus awaits word on fate (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Sat, Oct. 04, 2003

MIAMI
Haitian youth awaits word on fate
Rose Thermitus, a teenager from Haiti whose parents are presumed dead,
arrived in Miami seeking asylum yet her case remains unresolved.
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES
jcharles@herald.com

Haitian girl's

life in limbo

Sixteen-year-old Rose Thermitus, her parents missing and presumed killed in
Haiti, has been locked up by the U.S. government for 339 days -- yet another
child held by the Bush administration and its policy on detaining illegal
foreign minors.

Any day now, she could be deported to Haiti, though where she would go, no
one can say.

Accompanied by her older brother Franquelyn, she arrived in Miami by boat
Oct. 29, along with more than 200 others seeking political asylum from the
turmoil in Haiti. For months, she's been held at a shelter in West
Miami-Dade County, separated from her brother, who she only recently
discovered had been deported to Haiti in August.

Rose never got to say goodbye. And she hasn't heard a word from him since --
just one more story precipitated by a U.S. immigration policy woven with
complications in which Haitian children seeking refuge have become its most
unwitting victims.

''That's ridiculous. No child should be institutionalized that long because
we end up doing further harm to kids who are already traumatized,'' said
Wendy Young of the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children in
Washington, D.C. ``It is cruel for the U.S. government to allow the lack of
clarity to persist in this instance because it's obvious it's children's
lives that get caught in the crossfire.''

Rose is one of two Haitian teenagers without parents, without homes in
Haiti, who have languished in federal detention, separated from family
members in the United States, while the federal government weighs and
dissects their pleas for release.

The other, orphan Ernesto Joseph, also believed to be 16, was supposed to be
deported Thursday. But his lawyers, worried that he'll be killed if he's
returned to Haiti, persuaded immigration authorities to delay the
deportation.

He was held for months at the Krome detention center, until his attorneys
successfully argued that detaining him was causing psychological harm. He
was released to his uncle in June. On Thursday, he was taken back into
immigration custody, sent to live in a motel under guard, until his case is
resolved.

''The wheels of fair play don't necessarily move quickly,'' said U.S. Rep.
Kendrick Meek, who is pressing for the teens' release. ``This young man and
Rose are going to be out there for some days, or weeks, or months if we
leave it up to the mechanics of the Department of Homeland Security.''

Prior to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, most Haitian children and families
seeking asylum would have been released on bond, free to live with family
members, while they pursued their claims. That all changed under the Bush
administration.

In April, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, citing national security
concerns and a possible mass migration from Haiti, stated in a
precedent-setting decision that Haitians must remain in custody while their
cases are considered.

And that's exactly where Rose Thermitus has been since Oct. 29, the day she
jumped from a boat off Key Biscayne, thinking she had escaped Haiti and its
upheaval.

Both she and her brother, who is 25, decided to leave Haiti after the
family's home was burned by supporters of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's
government and their parents disappeared.

'Her parents said, `We are going out' and never came back,' '' said Lisa
Frydman, an attorney with the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center who is
working to get Rose released from Boystown.

Repeated requests by The Herald to interview Rose Thermitus have been denied
by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is responsible for the care and
custody of undocumented minors living illegally in the United States.

''She is sad. She is withdrawn,'' Frydman said.

In an interview with The Herald earlier this year, before his deportation,
Franquelyn Thermitus spoke of the hardship of detention and the
gut-wrenching sadness he felt about not being able to see or speak with his
sister.

`ALWAYS SUFFERING'

Until April, both had been living at a guarded motel in separate rooms in
West Miami-Dade County. Then immigration officials decided to separate the
two, sending him to Krome and her to Boystown, a shelter where they keep
detained minors. That was the last day they saw each other.

''My little sister was crying,'' said Franquelyn Thermitus.

At the hotel, Franquelyn said the two were not allowed any physical contact.

He recalled that even though the door remained locked at all times, he could
not stand in the doorway to talk to his sister.

''It made me feel bad. I don't know why they did that to us. We didn't
commit a crime,'' he said.

At Krome, it was even worse.

''She is far, far away. I can't hug her. It makes me feel bad a lot,'' he
said. ``You are in a place where you lose hope. I'm always suffering.''

Rose and Franquelyn Thermitus applied for political asylum, saying their
family had been the target of pro-Aristide supporters. Their petition was
denied and orders for deportation issued for both.

He was deported in August. No one in Haiti has seen or heard from him.

''It is alarming that the brother has not been located. There is this
fearful concern these people are disappearing into the prisons of Haiti, one
more reason why a minor should not be returned to Haiti,'' said Candace
Jean, a Catholic Charities attorney working on the case.

Ulna Thermitus, a first cousin who lives in New York and who is seeking
custody of Rose, said she went to Haiti herself to look for Franquelyn.

AWAITING ACTION

Meanwhile, the U.S. government is still seeking to deport Rose. But like
Ernesto Joseph, the Haitian government is refusing to issue a travel visa
because she is an unaccompanied minor and her parents are presumed dead. Her
attorneys are trying to get her released to live permanently with Ulna
Thermitus through a federal program under the Office of Refugee Resettlement
for displaced children. Because she is still facing a final deportation
order, only the Department of Homeland Security can agree to it -- the very
agency that is trying to deport her.

_________________________________________________________________
Share your photos without swamping your Inbox.  Get Hotmail Extra Storage
today! http://join.msn.com/?PAGE=features/es