22564: Mulcahy: current situation of criminal deportees in Haiti

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Clinicamu@aol.com

I am an attorney in Miami representing a mentally ill Haitian woman in
removal
proceedings.  Her only form of relief is a Convention Against Torture
claim,
based on the fact that if she is deported, she will be detained by the
Haitian
government because she has a criminal conviction in the US.  She has no
family
in Haiti, she will likely be detained indefinitely.  The prison
conditions,
lack of food/water, and her mental/physical health (audio/visual
hallucinations, and HIV+) make it likely that she will suffer torture upon
her
return.

The main problem I'm having right now is that in February, everyone in
prison
escaped/was released, so at the moment, it seems that the Haitian gov't is
not
detaining criminal deportees.  Since the coup, the US has not sent any
flights
full of deportees with criminal convictions, so it is unclear if the new
government's policy regarding criminal deportees will be the same as the
prior
government's policy (detention).  The burden is on my client to show that
she
will in fact suffer torture if she is returned, however the Miami
immigration
judges are generally saying that because there is no evidence that
criminal
deportees are being detained now, people cannot meet their burden of proof
(the
fact that no criminal deportees have been deported in the last 4 months is
irrelevant; as is the long-standing history of detention).

If anyone has any information about the new government's policy regarding
criminal deportees, or about the situation of people with criminal
convictions
recently deported to Haiti, I would greatly appreciate you passing on the
information.  My client's first hearing is July 12 and the second hearing
will
probably be by the end of July, so if anyone learns any new information
about
these issues, please let me know.

Also, if we are unable to obtain info about the detention of criminal
deportees, I am going to try to fashion a claim based on her HIV+ status,
and
her mental illness.  If anyone has advice/knowledge about the treatment of
people with HIV or mental illness in Haiti (who have no family to look
after
them), I'd really appreciate your thoughts.

Thank you,
Anne Marie Mulcahy

*********************************************************
Anne Marie Mulcahy, Esq.
Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC)
c/o Catholic Charities Legal Services
3661 W Oakland Park Blvd, Suite 305
Lauderdale Lakes, FL   33311
(954) 486-2070 (phone)
(954) 486-5090 (fax)
CLINICamu@aol.com