17766: (Chamberlain) Haitian Girl Freed (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   MIAMI, Jan 7 (AP) -- An orphaned Haitian teenager who spent more than a
year in U.S. immigration custody was freed to go live with a relative, but
she still could face deportation when she turns 18.
   Rose Thermitus, 17, was among more than 200 Haitians who arrived on an
overcrowded wooden freighter that ran aground in Miami in October 2002. She
was freed from a Miami shelter Tuesday and flew to New York, where she will
live with a cousin.
   "I am very happy," Thermitus told The Miami Herald. "I didn't believe
they would release me."
   Her request for asylum had been rejected, but she couldn't be deported
to Haiti because the Haitian government had refused to issue a travel visa
to a child traveling alone with nowhere to go when she arrived. Her parents
are believed dead, and federal officials had failed to find anyone in Haiti
willing to take her in.
   "I am convinced that releasing Rose today was the right and proper thing
to do," said Wade Horn, assistant secretary for children and families at
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He oversees the federal
office that is responsible for underage foreigners living illegally in the
United States.
   U.S. officials could still seek to deport her when she turns 18 and is
no longer an unaccompanied minor, said Cheryl Little, executive director of
the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center.
   Officials with the Homeland Security Department, which had sought to
deport her, had no immediate comment Wednesday.
   Thermitus and her older brother left Haiti after the family's home was
burned down by a mob. Her brother was deported to Haiti after his asylum
request was denied. She does not know where he is now.
   Thermitus' case, and those of other children like her, has cast a
spotlight on the U.S. government's policy of detaining Haitians
indefinitely.
   Haitians seeking asylum generally used to be released on bond, free to
live with family members while they pursued their claims. But in April,
Attorney General John Ashcroft, citing national security concerns and a
possible mass migration from Haiti, stated that Haitians must remain in
custody while their cases are considered.