a1276: Haitian migrants plight challenged in Fla. court (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Brian Bandell

     MIAMI, March 15, (Reuters) - Immigrant advocates filed a lawsuit on
Friday in federal court challenging the Immigration and Naturalization
Service's detention of more than 240 Haitian asylum-seekers in south
Florida.
     According to the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center (FIAC), which filed
the class-action suit on behalf of the detainees, the INS adopted a policy
of detaining Haitian asylum-seekers in south Florida after 187 Haitians
arrived in an overcrowded boat off the coast in December last year.
     Two of the refugees on the dangerously overcrowded vessel drowned, 20
swam to shore and the rest were brought ashore by the Coast Guard.
     Almost all of the surviving refugees and subsequent arrivals from the
impoverished Caribbean nation have remained in detention, the FIAC said. At
least 90 of them were denied asylum after brief hearings.
     The lawsuit seeks the release of the Haitian asylum-seekers, the
reevaluation of the asylum requests of detained Haitians that were denied
by the INS, and an injunction against an alleged policy of basing detention
on race and nationality.
     Asked about the suit, an INS spokesman declined to comment on it
specifically. However, spokesman Rodney Germain said, "Our policy and
procedures are based solely on the law and they are not based on race or
national origin."
     Prior to December 2001, according to FIAC Executive Director Cheryl
Little, Haitian immigrants who proved to the INS that they had "credible
fear" of harm if they returned to Haiti were released within a few days.
Now they are being detained, while immigrants of other nationalities who
pass the "credible fear" test are being released, she said.
     "While the United States is creating the conditions for people to
leave Haiti by cutting off all aid to Haiti, it's keeping them in detention
when they come here and sending them back," said attorney Ira Kurzban,
representing the refugees.
     Little called the detention of the refugees "racist and
discriminatory" and said it hindered their ability to hire lawyers to
assist them in their asylum hearings.
     "They (the INS) should go after the Mohamed Attas of the world and
leave Haitians alone," said Little, referring to one of the 19 men named by
federal authorities as carrying out the suicide hijack attacks on the
United States on Sept 11.
     In a major embarrassment for the INS this week, the Florida flight
school where Atta and another hijacker studied was told by immigration
authorities their student visas had been approved.
     Little said that INS District Director John Bulger admitted to the
policy of detaining all Haitian asylum-seekers while giving her and U.S.
Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, a tour of the detention facilities
on March 9. She said Bulger told them the INS did not want to do anything
"to send a signal to Haitians that they should embark on a dangerous
journey."
     The FIAC said it found numerous problems with the detention centers.
At the Turner Guilford Knight correction center, a prison near Miami
airport, female detainees complained of officers "berating and humiliating"
them, said Little, adding the women had trouble asking for medical or legal
aid since guards do not speak Creole, their native language.
     Hundreds of Haitians seek to leave their homeland, the poorest country
in the Americas, for the United States every year on often overcrowded
vessels. If they are picked up at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard, they are
generally sent home.