16904: (Hermantin) Maimi-Herald--letter to the editor-Detained Haitian teenager deserve (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Sat, Oct. 04, 2003

KAREN F. GROSSMAN,
THE READERS' FORUM | www.herald.com/opinion
Detained Haitian teenager deserves chance at freedom

If the U.S. Department of Homeland Security forces Ernesto Joseph to return
to Haiti, it not only will be a human-rights violation but an indictment of
our entire ''justice'' system.

Whether he is 16 or 18, Ernesto is a teen whom immigration authorities
imprisoned, released and then cruelly resentenced to certain suffering and
likely death by deportation. If anything proves that he should be treated as
a minor it is his childlike hope that the United States would allow him to
stay with his uncle in Miami. What down side is there to turning this young
person over to the safety of his uncle's care?

The government should look at Ernesto as a young person who might actually
be of value to our community and our country. Given the chance, young men
like him might join our armed forces. A chance given to a young person is
what our land of opportunity is all about.

Maybe Ernesto believed when he arrived that others would recognize him as
the victim, not the criminal. Imprisoning and sending a child away to be
victimized is what is criminal.

Pinecrest

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