a1824: migrants found on Jupiter beach (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: amedard@gte.net

Posted on Sun, Apr. 28, 2002

7 migrants found on Jupiter beach

BY SANJAY BHATT
Palm Beach Post

JUPITER ISLAND - Seven migrants, at least four of them from impoverished Haiti,
landed Saturday on the shores of one of the richest towns in the United States, the
latest in a surge of Haitians fleeing their nation's meltdown.

At about 7 a.m., police captured three teenage boys and a woman, all unrelated, as
they walked along the beach of ultra-wealthy Jupiter Island.

The boys were being sent to the federal Krome Avenue detention center in South
Miami-Dade, while the woman was taken to Palm Beach County Jail to be interviewed,
said U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Art Bullock.

Bullock didn't know how many others might have arrived with the four.

No boat was found. Three other men, possibly from Haiti, were found walking along the
beach on Jupiter Island about 11 a.m., police said.

What will happen to them was unclear late Saturday.

The numbers of Haitians trying to reach South Florida appears to be on the rise. From
January to March, 1,485 Haitian migrants bound for the United States were intercepted
at sea -- a 19 percent increase over the same period last year.

Leaders in Washington are scrambling to address Haiti's current crisis -- stemming
from disputed May 2000 parliamentary elections and an international embargo --
fearing a new wave of illegal migrants.

Historically, U.S. Coast Guard interdictions of Haitians at sea have risen when their
nation was in crisis. In 1992, the year after President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was
thrown out of power, Coast Guard interdictions peaked at 31,438. Interdictions of
Haitian migrants reached a low of 733 in 1996 and reached a new plateau of 1,956 last
year.

The political violence in Haiti culminated last December with attacks on the
presidential palace. Nearly 800 Haitians were intercepted en route to South Florida
that month.

Congress is debating a long-term solution, such as ending the U.S. economic embargo
against Haiti.

''It's a matter of fairness,'' said Mikel Jones, a senior aide to U.S. Rep. Alcee
Hastings, D-Miramar.

Hastings is among 38 sponsors of a resolution an end to the embargo against Haiti and
not require the political impasse in Haiti be solved as a condition of humanitarian
aid.

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