17994: (hermantin)Miami-Herald-Ernesto's inferno (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Fri, Jan. 16, 2004

Ernesto's inferno
OUR OPINION: DHS SHOULD RELEASE HAITIAN TEEN SO HE CAN SEEK STATUS

Why is Ernesto Joseph still a prisoner of the Department of Homeland
Security? The Haitian teen should be released to make his case for legal
status as an orphaned minor.

Ernesto has been in legal limbo since arriving here in October 2002. He has
been locked up except for several months during which he was released to his
uncle on humanitarian grounds. After three months alone in a motel room,
he's now increasingly depressed and anxious. Who wouldn't be?

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is still spending tax dollars
trying to deport him by proving that he's an adult, even though Ernesto has
an authenticated birth certificate that says he's 16. His lawyers had to go
to court before the agency released its evidence: A dental exam concluded
that he's 18 or older, but two other bone tests by independent examiners
suggest greater odds that Ernesto is younger. Such imprecise, even
unreliable methods shouldn't trump the documentary evidence that Ernesto is
a minor.

The agency charged with deporting adults shouldn't be determining age in any
case. That job belongs to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the experts
charged with looking out for the welfare of unaccompanied immigrant
children.

Ernesto isn't a flight risk. Where is he going to run to? Immigration
authorities can't deport him, either: Haiti won't give travel documents to
an orphaned minor. Decency demands that Ernesto be released.


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