26895: Hermantin(News)Family apart as immigration debate goes on (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


Posted on Wed, Dec. 14, 2005
IN MY OPINION  Family apart as immigration debate goes on  BY ANA 
MENENDEZamenendez@herald.comHermanise

Benoit hasn't put up a Christmas tree: too many memories, not enough heart, and 
a season of sad tidings.
''I'm just not in the mood,'' she said. 'Some people say go out and chill and 
I'm like `Oh, my God. I can't do that.' ''
It's been almost six months since Hermanise's husband, Wilbert, was deported to 
Haiti, leaving her and their two young boys behind in Lantana.
Benoit, who arrived in this country in 1994, was ordered deported after his 
request for asylum was denied. I first wrote about Wilbert's story in 
September. Since then, Hermanise has gotten a congressman interested in the 
case, received a $100 donation from a reader and secured a full-time job. But 
her husband remains in Haiti. She makes too little -- barely $300 a week -- to 
help support him or his family back home. And for all the generosity of 
strangers, the season's promise of joy will elude the family this year.
LOUD DEBATE
Like thousands of others, the Benoits will spend this Christmas apart, 
separated by an immigration debate that has grown increasingly fractious and 
abstract.
''Send him back; he broke the law.'' That was the gist of the messages I 
received after I wrote about Wilbert's case the first time. It's a typical 
knee-jerk reaction to an issue that too often substitutes passion for clarity.
The law, such as it is, is broken. And the coming year will see a flurry of 
legislation meant to fix it.
No one doubts we need immigration reform. The challenge will be to get beyond 
partisan mean-spiritedness to find humanitarian solutions. It's not an 
impossible dream.
Last week, the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, a nonpartisan 
foundation, released a study that challenges many assumptions about immigration 
and the economy.
Think that immigrants suck up free government money? Think again. On average, 
the report found, immigrants pay more in taxes each year than they use in 
government services.
Believe that every immigrant with a job has taken it from someone native-born? 
Not necessarily, said the study's author, Amy Traub.
''It's not a zero-sum gain,'' she told me Tuesday. ``The fact is, that 
immigrant worker is spending money and buying products and services.''
Convinced that undocumented immigrants drive down real wages? Blame it on the 
corporations that hire them and then threaten them with deportation, thereby 
making it impossible for them to assert their rights.
''It's clear that our current laws are not functioning adequately and there's 
frustration,'' Traub said. ``But immigrants give a tremendous amount to this 
country. It's important not to have a policy of kicking out the ones we have 
and closing our borders.''
SUPPORTED TWO FAMILIES
Wilbert Benoit's job as an electrician's apprentice not only put food on the 
table for his wife and kids here, it helped feed his relatives in Haiti. His 
deportation left two families without a breadwinner. Who benefits from that? 
The idea that deporting someone like Wilbert sends a message to others who 
would flee Haiti is laughable: The desperate are high-stakes gamblers. So long 
as the most powerful nation in the world sits mere miles from one of the 
poorest, there will be people willing to bet even their lives on the dream of 
America.
After the first column on Wilbert ran, U.S. Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart offered to 
support a humanitarian parole that would reunite Benoit with his family. 
Wilbert's attorney is working on the paperwork.
In this season of good will, it would be too hard-hearted to point out that 
individual charity brings us no closer to fixing the deep inequalities in our 
immigration policies.
If Wilbert is allowed to return, it won't solve the problem for thousands of 
others in similar situations who weren't lucky enough to have their stories 
publicized. But it would be a good thing for the Benoit family. And it would be 
especially joyful for his oldest son, who still believes that his father is 
only on vacation.
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