17914: (Hermantin) Miami-Herald-Age dispute holding young detainee back (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Wed, Jan. 14, 2004

HAITIAN MIGRANT
Age dispute holding young detainee back
Medical tests performed on a Haitian youth held in immigration detention
provide mixed answers about his age.
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES
jcharles@herald.com

Three months after U.S. immigration authorities took Haitian teen detainee
Ernesto Joseph back into custody, government-ordered dental and skeletal
exams trying to determine his age have yielded mixed results.

As part of an investigation into Joseph's claim that he is 16 years old,
U.S. Department of Homeland Security authorities ordered several exams,
including wrist and knee X-rays and an examination of his teeth. Their
reason: They suspect that Joseph is 19 years old and not 16 as he and his
attorneys claim.

AGE AN ISSUE

His age is an issue because immigration advocates argue that he is a
16-year-old orphan who ought to be allowed to stay in the United States.
They want him released to the custody of his uncle.

One of the tests -- a skeletal examination of Joseph's left wrist --
conducted by two independent examiners at Wright State University School of
Medicine in Ohio place him between 16.56 and 18.14 years old. A similar exam
of Joseph's left knee placed him between 16.31 and 18.08 years.

In both, Wm. Cameron Chumlea concluded there was a 95 percent confidence
rate of the age range.

Meanwhile, a dental exam performed by Coral Gables dentist and Miami-Dade
Associate Medical Examiner Richard Souviron concluded that Joseph is in his
late teens or early 20s.

''The range of possible ages for such a black male is 17.26 years of age to
23.54,'' Dr. Souviron wrote, while noting that there was an 87.7 percent
chance that Joseph had reached his 18th birthday.

NOT BEYOND DOUBT

Souviron, who did a visual examination of Joseph and analyzed X-rays of all
his teeth, said in a telephone interview Tuesday that unlike DNA or
fingerprinting, the results of forensics exams are ``not beyond all doubt.''

There are a number of factors that could skew the accurate determination of
a person's age including the race of the individual and nutrition.

''He says he's 16 and that puts him right on the cusp. There is a 13 percent
chance he is. He could be,'' Souviron said.

Both reports were provided to The Herald by Joseph's attorneys at the
Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center. FIAC's executive director, Cheryl Little,
said her office had to go into federal court to demand that the government
turn over the test results. The government relented before the judge could
issue an order, she said.

PROBE CONTINUES

Nina Pruneda, a spokeswoman with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said
the investigation into Joseph's case continues and he remains under a final
deportation order.

Little said while she continues to believes that the use of forensic exams
to determine age is ''inherently unreliable,'' the results are ``much more
helpful than harmful.''

But she said the determination of Joseph's true age should be based on the
evidence presented in the case proving that Joseph is 16.

They include a birth certificate showing Joseph's birth as July 16, 1987,
and a declaration from Jean Wilfrid Bertrand, director general of the
National Archives of Haiti, attesting to the certificate's authenticity.

''This is cruel. Ernesto has been held in legal limbo for months now, since
his redetention on Oct. 2,'' Little said. ``We were told weeks ago that the
government had enough documentation to make a decision in his case. What is
holding this up?''

Little said Joseph, who arrived in South Florida on Oct. 29 with more than
200 Haitian migrants, remains at a West Miami-Dade hotel where ``he is
extremely depressed and extremely anxious.''

''He believes they are going to deport him,'' she said. ``With the political
situation only worsening in Haiti, our concerns for Ernesto increase
daily.''

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