27302: Hermantin(News)Haitian groups want end to 'immoral' deportations (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

Leonie Hermantin

Posted on Fri, Jan. 20, 2006


IMMIGRATION
Haitian groups want end to 'immoral' deportations
Haitian activists and lawyers launched an effort to get immigration judges to 
stop deportations to Haiti.
By JACQUELINE CHARLES
jcharles@MiamiHerald.com

Any day now, Kevin St. Louis, husband and father, can be deported back to 
Haiti, a country he left a decade ago in search of a safe haven in the United 
States.

Jeannette Jasmin, a single mother of a 6-year-old asthmatic son whose father 
was killed in Haiti, could also find herself on a one-way flight to 
Port-au-Prince. She may have to decide whether to take her son with her or 
leave him here with relatives.

The migrants, both of whom are under final deportation orders from the U.S. 
Department of Homeland Security, are among thousands of undocumented Haitians 
living in the United States whose stories are being told as part of a 
nationwide effort by immigration attorneys to get judges to stop deportations 
to Haiti.

In the coming weeks, immigration lawyers in key U.S. cities with growing 
Haitian populations plan to file individual motions asking judges to either 
continue or administratively close the cases of their Haitian clients in final 
removal proceedings. If the judges agree, the individuals would not be 
immediately deported.

ASKING FOR TIME

''The conditions in Haiti are such right now that deportations would only 
worsen the crisis,'' said Ariol Eugene, an immigration attorney and member of 
the Haitian Lawyers Association, which launched the campaign in Miami on 
Thursday. ``We are not asking for a hand-out . . . but to give Haiti some time 
to recoup to settle its internal conflicts.''

Eugene's plea was among several made Thursday as immigration lawyers and 
Haitian advocates in Miami, Boston, Philadelphia, New York and Washington, 
D.C., held press conferences to announce their unprecedented effort to get the 
court to eliminate deportations of Haitians.

The push comes as Haitians prepare to head to the polls in repeatedly postponed 
elections, and after the failure of the Bush administration to grant temporary 
protected status, known as TPS, to Haitians despite repeated requests by 
Haitian activists and Haiti's own interim prime minister.

The special privilege, which is already afforded to nationals from several 
countries including Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador, would allow an 
estimated 20,000 undocumented Haitian migrants to live and work temporarily in 
the United States.

''It's immoral to deport anyone to such conditions,'' said Steve Forester, who 
was among 20 community activists at the Miami press conference. ``Why aren't 
Haitians good enough for the same basic protection?''

Marleine Bastien, executive director of Haitian Women of Miami, said the 
decision is not only racist, but it's also devastating families: ``There is 
nothing more tragic than children living in daily fear of being separated from 
their parents.''

`WHERE'S DADDY?'

Four-year-old Rayvin St. Louis is among them, says his mother Karline. Every 
day, the youngster asks, ''Mommie, where's daddy?'' she said.

''It's very hard making a living without a husband,'' said Karline St. Louis, 
whose husband Kevin would be barred from reentering the United States for 10 
years if he's deported back to Haiti. ``He may never see his son again.''

Jasmin, who fled Haiti nearly seven years ago, said she doesn't know what she 
would do if she's sent back.

''I want to stay and work because most of my family needs my help,'' said the 
Miami mother who takes care of six family members in Haiti. ``I need to stay to 
take care of my son. I am mother and daddy.''