16884: (Hermantin)Miami-Herald-Haitian youth won't be deported now, but he's sent back (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


Posted on Thu, Oct. 02, 2003

Haitian youth won't be deported now, but he's sent back to Krome
indefinitely
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES
jcharles@herald.com

An orphaned Haitian teenager won't be deported today because the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security has agreed to delay his return for 30 days.

Instead, Ernesto Joseph -- who has documents showing he is 16 but who the
U.S. government says is 18 -- will be held indefinitely at the Krome
detention center.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security had ordered Joseph, who has been
living with his uncle in South Florida, to report to an immigration officer
this morning at 9, ``completely ready for deportation.''

''He doesn't have any parents. If he goes, who will take care of him,'' said
Adelphin Pierre of Miami. ``I am here and willing to do whatever it takes.''

Immigration authorities have not given an official reason for the delay.

But meanwhile, the Haitian government is refusing to issue Joseph's travel
documents, which are required to re-enter his native country. Haiti will not
authorize the deportation of a minor without the parent's permission.
Joseph's parents are dead.

His uncle will ask the courts to give him legal guardianship of the youth.
That would allow Joseph to apply for legal residency. But his lawyers have
to get permission from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to go to court.

Joseph arrived in Miami on Oct. 29 and, with dozens of other Haitians,
jumped off the boat and waded ashore at Key Biscayne.

Initially, he was held as an unaccompanied minor. But immigration officials
said he looked older, and based on medical and dental exams and x-rays of
his bones, said he was at least 18.

His age was the crux of his plea for asylum -- and the basis of how the U.S.
government treated him.

His attorneys argued that as an orphan, Joseph would face persecution on the
streets of Haiti, where homeless children are often victimized.

A judge granted his asylum request, but the immigration agency appealed the
ruling and another judge eventually said his status as an orphan was not a
valid basis for granting asylum. The deportation order followed.

>From Haiti, his lawyers obtained his birth certificate showing his age as 16
and Thursday obtained a certified letter from the Haitian government that
the document was official. That record has been given to the U.S.
government. Joseph can be held indefinitely at Krome.

''Hopefully, we can get him out,'' said David Shahoulian, one of his
attorneys.

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