23860: Hermantin (News) Metayer still detained (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Thu, Dec. 09, 2004


HAITI

Rebel leader traveled to see mom, family says
A top Haitian rebel leader who helped oust the country's president was
coming to Florida to go to the doctor and visit his mother when he was
detained by U.S. immigration officials at Miami International Airport.

BY JACQUELINE CHARLES
jcharles@herald.com

An anti-Aristide gang leader detained by federal immigration authorities in
South Florida was coming to the area to seek medical care and visit his
mother in Orlando when Homeland Security agents seized his passport and U.S.
residency card, family members told The Herald on Wednesday.

Butteur Métayer arrived in Miami from Haiti on Nov. 28 along with a brother
and cousin. The rebel leader, who led a three-week revolt that helped topple
Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Feb. 29, had stomach pains and
needed to see a doctor, said cousin Madene Jacques, 45, who was with him.

After arriving at Miami International Airport, Métayer was detained by U.S.
Customs and Border Protection agents. He was questioned for five hours
before being told he had to appear at immigration headquarters in Miami on
Monday, Jacques said.

When Métayer arrived, he was arrested and taken to the Krome immigrant
detention center in Southwest Miami-Dade County, Jacques said.

'He called me and said, `Jacques, I don't know what is going on. The way the
gentlemen are talking to me, I feel like they want to put me in jail. I
don't know what I did wrong. They don't want to let me go. They want to put
me in Krome,' '' Jacques said.

BEFORE COURT

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have declined to provide
details on the case, saying only that Métayer must appear before immigration
court. Métayer has told family members that he is being held because he
overstayed his visit outside of the United States.

Typically, foreign nationals with green cards can lose their residency
permits if they stay outside the United States for more than one year
without a reentry permit.

This case could be scrutinized at higher levels because of its potential
impact on Haiti's U.S.-backed interim government.

The Haitian government has been under pressure by both the United States and
the international community to disarm all armed groups -- including the
rebels, who remain heavily armed and in control of significant portions of
the country.

Immigration attorney Leopoldo Ochoa, who isn't involved in the case but is
familiar with cases to rescind U.S. residency status, said it isn't
unprecedented for immigration authorities to take action against those who
stay too long outside the United States.

But, he said, ``those cases are few and far between, and usually you are
talking about someone who has been out for years, who hasn't maintained
domicile here, paid taxes here and pretty much cut ties with the United
States.''

Jacques said Métayer had been out of the United States for seven months when
he took the last Miami-bound flight from Haiti on Nov. 28.

Raymond Métayer, an older sister, said her brother shouldn't have had to go
jail.

''This is something we don't understand at all,'' she said in a telephone
interview from Orlando.

FAMILY TIES

Butteur Métayer rose to prominence earlier this year when his gang of some
of Aristide's most feared foes helped forced the president's ouster. Métayer
had accused Aristide of ordering the slaying of his brother, Amiot Métayer.

Once a fervent supporter of Aristide, Amiot Métayer became Aristide's his
biggest enemy in Gonaives before his bullet-riddled body was discovered on
Sept. 22, 2003. The Aristide government denied complicity in the killing,
but Butteur Métayer traveled to Haiti the next day to avenge his brother's
death.

''He kept fighting from September to February,'' Jacques said. 'He said `You
killed my brother. You have two choices, you give me justice for my brother
or you leave.' ''