24586: Hermantin (News) Righting a wrong

[sak-pase@bimini.ws]

leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


Posted on Tue, Mar. 29, 2005
Righting a wrong
OUR OPINION: AUTHORITIES SHOULD EXPEDITE TEENAGER'S GREEN CARD

Department of Homeland Security authorities in Washington, D.C., have 
settled the question of Ernso ''Ernesto'' Joseph's eligibility for permanent 
legal status: He is a Haitian orphan, 17, and allowed to apply for U.S. 
residency. Now after 2 ½ years of trying to deport Ernso, it's time for 
local DHS authorities to help him stay. It's about time. Attempting to 
deport a 15-year-old was unconscionable.

When Ernso arrived in October 2002, he was only 15. Not long after, local 
officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement decided that he was older 
using bone tests and X-rays -- notoriously imprecise methods -- and locked 
him up with adults for seven months. When an immigration judge later granted 
him asylum, local officials appealed, and his asylum was overturned. Ernso 
was rearrested and spent more months in DHS detention.

Ernso's attorneys, meanwhile, collected evidence of his true age. Documents 
from Haiti, including a birth certificate, showed that he was born on July 
16, 1987. U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Miami, had to approach then-DHS 
Secretary Tom Ridge about the case before local authorities would allow a 
state court to consider whether Ernso was a juvenile. The court declared him 
a minor and a dependent of the state. Still, local Citizenship and 
Immigration Services head Jack Bolger denied him a Special Immigrant 
Juvenile visa, insisting that Ernso was an adult. DHS's Administrative 
Appeals Office overruled that denial last week, allowing Ernso to apply for 
residency as a Special Immigrant Juvenile.

Now it's a race against time. Ernso must get his green card before he turns 
18 in less than four months or face deportation. We hope that all the 
agencies involved will understand the urgency and expedite the process. That 
includes local ICE officials, the Bureau of Immigration Appeals and the 
local immigration court.

Ernso, now in foster care, has suffered limbo too long. Let him make his 
case for residency and a new life in America.