a1443: Miami Herald: INS rejecting Haitian asylum claims (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: JD Lemieux <lxhaiti@yahoo.com>

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 Posted on Wed, Mar. 20, 2002

INS clamping down on Haitian asylum-seekers
BY ALFONSO CHARDY
achardy@herald.com

The Immigration and Naturalization Service is no longer
routinely releasing Haitian asylum-seekers as part of a
strategy to deter a refugee exodus from the impoverished
nation, a senior INS official acknowledged Tuesday.

The statement, contained in a court filing in Miami, was
the first public explanation that the indefinite detention
of Haitian nationals at Krome Service Processing Center and
other facilities is meant as a message to prospective
refugees not to attempt the perilous voyage to Florida.

Peter Michael Becraft, acting deputy INS commissioner in
Washington, was responding to a class-action lawsuit filed
Friday on behalf of more than 240 Haitians held since
December.

Until the arrival of 187 Haitians by sea Dec. 3, the Miami
INS district office had regularly paroled asylum-seekers if
they could show a credible fear of persecution in Haiti.

The release was pending a final resolution by an
immigration judge on their asylum request.

INS officials contend the releases were the result of a
discretionary practice by the Miami district office, not
part of a nationwide INS policy. However, the reason for
the change had not been explained until Tuesday.

''In the wake of this sharp increase in dangerous maritime
departures from Haiti,'' Becraft wrote, 'adjusting the INS'
parole criteria'' would be a ''reasonable step'' to
discourage future trips.

The lawsuit was filed by several Miami immigration
attorneys, including Cheryl Little, executive director of
Miami-based Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, and Ira
Kurzban, a longtime defender of Haitian refugees' rights.

Kurzban said Tuesday that Becraft's statement strengthens
their argument that the INS is discriminating against
Haitian asylum-seekers.

'The government has acknowledged that they are using the
Haitians' national origin as a criteria to determine parole
decisions,'' Kurzban said. ``The Supreme Court in 1985
ordered the government not to use race or national origin
as criteria to determine parole, and therefore they are in
violation of a direct order from the Supreme Court.''

The federal government's lawyers urged U.S. District Judge
Joan Lenard to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds it would
undermine the authority of the U.S. government to decide
whether a foreign national is admissible.



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