27282: Karshan: (PressRel) NY Press Conf Jan 19 on Legal Action to Stop Deportations to Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Michelle Karshan <michellekarshan@yahoo.com>

INFO ON NEW YORK 1/19 PRESS CONFERENCE INCLUDED

Press Release
For Immediate Release
Date: January 18, 2006
Contact:  Thomas M. Griffin, Esq., (215) 925-4435 ext.
108, griffin@msgimmigration.com
Or Ira Kurzban, Esq., (305) 444-0060, Ira@kkwtlaw.com

Nationwide Legal Actions to Stop Deportations to Haiti

Lawyers file simultaneous motions across the country
to save Haitian lives

Immigration attorneys and rights organizations cite
catastrophic human rights conditions

Hundreds of national and local organizations* endorse
action

Filings and press conferences to be held in
Washington, D.C., New York, Boston, Miami, and
Philadelphia

New York, New York -- On January 19, 2006, immigration
attorneys and advocates on behalf of Haitians facing
deportation in removal proceedings in key cities
throughout the United States will simultaneously
submit motions. The Motion to Stop Deportations to
Haiti asks Immigration judges in each particular case
to administratively close the case due to catastrophic
and ever-deteriorating human rights conditions there.
The Motion asserts that an immediate decision
?protecting Haitians from forced return is
imperative.?  Local press conferences will be held in
Washington, D.C., New York, Boston, Miami, and
Philadelphia to discuss the filings of these motions.
The New York press conference will be held Thursday,
January 19th, at 10:00 a.m. at DC 1707, 75 Varick
Street, Suite 1404, in lower Manhattan.  Present at
the press conference will be attorneys filing the
Motion, immigrant and rights advocates, Mark Dow,
author of American Gulag, Inside U.S. Immigration
Prisons, and other key personalities.

The Motion states, ?Despite the ongoing chaos that
continues in Haiti, including brutal civil strife,
documented bloody political conflict, indisputable
countrywide insecurity and the proven inability of the
Haitian state to protect its own people, the United
States continues to refuse refuge to fleeing
Haitians.?

The Motion is a necessary response to the Department
of Homeland Security?s (DHS) failure to grant
Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Haitians facing
removal from the United States.  TPS temporarily
suspends the forced repatriation of nationals to
countries whose governments cannot protect them from
immediate threats to their lives, freedom, and welfare
based on a broad variety of conditions.

Ira Kurzban, past President of the American
Immigration Lawyers Association, who since 1977 has
led legal efforts to protect Haitian refugees, states
that, ?Conditions in Haiti are catastrophic --
uncontrolled violence, political paralysis, economic
meltdown, and natural disaster.  It?s immoral to
deport anyone given such horrendous conditions, and
it?s getting worse, not better. The Bush
administration is in large measure responsible for the
current situation in Haiti and should recognize its
responsibility by granting Temporary Protected Status
to Haitians in the United States.?

DHS can designate a country for TPS based on internal
armed conflict, overwhelming natural disaster, or
extraordinary temporary conditions preventing safe
return of its nationals.  In addition to the above
catastrophic conditions, Haiti continues to suffer the
repercussions of recent hurricanes, devastating
floods, and landslides in which more than 10,000
people died and hundreds of thousands were made
homeless.  There is no doubt that conditions for TPS
eligibility have been met.  In light of the
overwhelming need for it to be granted to all Haitian
nationals, the U.S. government must stop deportations
to Haiti.

*National organizations, and personalities endorsing
this action include: World Service Immigration and
Refugee Program, Dr. Paul Farmer, TransAfrica Forum,
Ira Kurzban, Esq., American Immigration Lawyers
Association, Church World Relief, National Council of
Churches of Christ USA, Mark Dow, Jonathan E. Avirom,
Esq., Haitian Lawyers Association, Episcopal Migration
Ministries, Haitian Physicians Association, National
Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild,
Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, Bishop
Thomas Wenski, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, and the Jesuit
Refugee Service.

CONTACT INFORMATION FOR LOCAL CITY PRESS CONFERENCES:

Washington, D.C.:      Joia Jefferson Nuri, (202)
223-1960, JNuri@transafricaforum.org

New York:  Michelle Karshan, (786) 897-6572,
mkarshan@aol.com, Press conference, Thursday, January
19th, 10:00 a.m. at DC 1707, 75 Varick Street, Suite
1404, in lower Manhattan.

Boston: Paromita Shah, (617)227-9727 x 1,
paromita@nationalimmigrationproject.org

Miami: Steven David Forester, Esq., 786 877-6999,
SteveForester@aol.com

Philadelphia: Thomas M. Griffin, Esq.,  (215) 925-4435
ext. 108, griffin@msgimmigration.com

Chicago, Buffalo, Colorado, and California: Please
call for contact numbers.

-          30 ?







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