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30377: Hermantin(News) 2 supporters of detained Haitians on hunger strike (fwd)
From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>
Posted on Thu, Apr. 12, 2007
IMMIGRATION
2 supporters of detained Haitians on hunger strike
As Haitian migrants who arrived in Hallandale Beach wait in detention, two
Haitian Americans went on a hunger strike, and Cuban Americans in Congress
pressed for migrants to get their procedural rights.
BY TANIA VALDEMORO
tvaldemoro@MiamiHerald.com
Jetro Nelson, 25, of Little Haiti, has never starved. But on Wednesday the
Haitian American decided to join his friend, Henry Petit Homme, 32, of Little
Haiti, on a hunger strike at St. Paul Episcopal Church, to protest the
detention and possible deportation of 101 Haitian migrants.
''The policy needs to change. People are being held at detention centers and
being treated like prisoners. They are just refugees seeking a better life,''
said Nelson, a Realtor who works at the same firm with Homme.
Homme has been sleeping on a cot inside the church since April 4. He is
subsisting only on water and Gatorade.
''I didn't think personally I could not eat for days, but I'm still here,''
said Homme, who arrived in Florida with his parents and sister by way of the
Bahamas when he was 3. ``I want others to join me if they believe in the
cause.''
Haitian leaders planned a hunger strike within days of the migrants' arrival at
Hallandale Beach on March 28, but decided it was ''premature,'' said Marleine
Bastien, executive director of Haitian Women of Miami. ``We realized we were
making some inroads.''
Among the victories: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services director Emilio
González has given attorneys more time to prepare the Haitians for interviews
with immigration authorities, to show they have a credible fear of returning to
Haiti.
Four people have passed the credible-fear test in interviews, said immigration
advocates.
The exception to the credible-fear test pertains to Cubans, who under the
so-called wet foot/dry foot policy are generally allowed to stay if reach land.
Cubans caught at sea usually are returned to the communist island.
The Haitian adults remain at the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach,
and 14 minors are at the Boystown shelter in Miami-Dade.
South Florida's three Cuban-American members of Congress -- U.S. Reps. Lincoln
and Mario Díaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen -- sent Homeland Security
Secretary Michael Chertoff a letter Tuesday urging the Bush administration to
give the Haitian migrants ``access to proper legal representation.''
''These Haitians left their homeland in a desperate attempt to escape the
horrendous political, social and economic conditions in Haiti,'' they wrote.
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