26705: Wayne (news) Politics at root of migrants' economic pain (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Desiree Wayne <desiree_wayne@msn.com>

The Miami Herald printed the following letter
from Tom Griffin in response
to a two-part series the paper ran on November 13
and 14, 2005 by Joe
Mozingo.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted on Sun, Nov. 20, 2005


ESCAPING HAITI
Politics at root of migrants' economic pain



I am the lead investigator/author of the
University of Miami's Haiti Human
Rights report, which was published in January. I
am also an immigration
lawyer in Philadelphia. I thank The Herald for
Joe Mozingo's heartwrenching
Nov. 13 article, Sailing north only way to escape
for some Haitians, on the
desperate boat builders and sailors trying to get
out of Haiti.

Such stories can help wake up America, but it can
help the suffering
Haitians directly -- sometimes. The problem in
immigration courts is that
the judges, who are an arm of the U.S. Attorney
General, generally look for
a way to label someone an ''economic refugee''
just looking to escape
poverty and ''make it rich'' in the United
States. That leads to certain
deportation.

As the story conveys correctly, any people who
come here on a makeshift boat
will be an illegal alien, subject to detention
and deportation, unless they
are Cuban. Making it here is one thing, but
staying here legally is quite
another.

Many Haitians escaping the current crisis cannot
articulate, let alone
document, a reason for a viable asylum claim
under existing refugee
statutes.

That opens the door for the ''economic refugee''
label, which the law does
not recognize or legalize. The suffering and
persecution one has endured or
fears returning to must, under law, have a basis
in politics or other
enumerated human-rights discrimination.

What Haitians need is reporting that confirms
that their hunger, poverty and
suffering are based in political choices by those
with power. One symptom is
abysmal poverty. But others include
dehumanization and criminalization of
the poor through the media, then the
disfranchisement, brutality, rape,
unlawful arrest and summary executions, which
flow naturally from poverty.
In Haiti, an entire generation is being
destroyed.

If immigration judges read Mozingo's article, the
gut-wrenching picture of
poverty would impact them. But, devoid of
political causes, it would also
support the ''economic refugee'' label. That
would result in an order of
deportation.

We need courageous voices that speak for the
voiceless. We can change the
story. When that happens, people like Jippy
Hamilton and the boat builders
and passengers, can find true refuge here or,
even better, peace and justice
in their beloved Haiti.

THOMAS M. GRIFFIN, Philadelphia, Pa.