18072: (Hermantin)Miami-Herald-U.S. government making example of Haitian child (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Thu, Jan. 22, 2004

JIM DEFEDE/COMMENTARY
U.S. government making example of Haitian child

Since arriving in the United States 15 months ago, Ernesto Joseph has lived
a life that would make even Kafka wince.

Joseph is one of the Haitians who landed on the Rickenbacker Causeway on
Oct. 29, 2002. He says he is 16 years old and has a birth certificate to
prove it. As a juvenile, Joseph would have a greater chance of being able to
stay in this country. Both of his parents are dead, and if he were returned
to Haiti, he would face an uncertain life as a homeless juvenile who could
be easily preyed upon by street gangs.

Last year, an immigration judge granted him asylum.

But for reasons that no one can explain, the Department of Homeland Security
has decided to fight this child's asylum with a zeal unprecedented in an
immigration case.

Because Joseph supposedly gave conflicting statements to immigration
officials, the Department of Homeland Security doesn't believe that he is 16
and contends that he is actually 19. In an effort to prove that he is not a
juvenile, the federal government has conducted bone-density tests, dental
exams and X-rays of knees and wrists to study his physical development.

The test results have been inconclusive. The skeletal exams place his age
between 16.31 years and 18.14 years. A dental exam, however, said there was
only a 13 percent chance that Joseph is a juvenile and an 87 percent chance
that he had already reached his 18th birthday.

Except for a brief release on humanitarian grounds, Joseph has remained
locked up and under armed guard. His case has drawn national attention, and
U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek has been one of his loudest supporters.

On Friday, about 11 a.m., Meek was notified by a senior immigration official
in Washington, David Venturella -- the assistant director of the Office of
Detention and Removal Operations -- that Joseph was now considered a
juvenile and would be released to his uncle in Miami.

Meek passed the word to Joseph's attorneys and others. Everyone was
ecstatic. Plans were made to pick up the boy as soon as possible. Meek's
office called immigration officials in Miami, who said they also had been
told that Joseph was to be released.

Two and a half hours later, however, Meek's staff received an e-mail from a
Homeland Security official in Washington. Joseph's pending release, it said,
was a mistake.

''Unfortunately, we have just discovered that there was a miscommunication
and the decision was made to NOT treat him as a juvenile but instead treat
him as an adult,'' the e-mail stated. ''As such, he will be moved to Krome
and remain in detention.'' The e-mail went on to state: ``Obviously we are
deeply embarrassed about this mix up and apologize profusely for any
misunderstanding that occurred.''

The miscommunication was between Homeland Security officials. Apparently,
the legal counsel for Homeland Security had written a memo saying that
Joseph was a juvenile, when he meant to write that Joseph was not a
juvenile. The attorney had left out the word ``not.''

By then, of course, Joseph had been told that he was being freed.

Initially, Homeland Security officials tried to blame Meek's office for the
mistake, saying he had misunderstood what was happening. But once Meek
produced a trail of e-mails from them over the previous few hours, they
backed down.

Facing a public-relations disaster, officials in Homeland Security reversed
themselves yet again, and by 3:30 p.m. Friday decided to release Joseph on
humanitarian grounds after all. But at the same time, immigration officials
continue to maintain that Joseph is an adult. They are still working to
deport him.

Which raises the most basic question of all: Why?

Why is the federal government going to such ridiculous lengths to keep one
child out of the United States?

And the only answer that makes any sense is that by making an example of
Joseph, by bureaucratically torturing him, they believe it will deter others
from coming.

Of course, it won't.

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