a1333: URGENT (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Martine Caze <MCaze@nchr.org>

	FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

	Contact:  Dina Paul Parks
	212-337-0005


	Haitian Coalition Urges the Release of over 200 Haitian Asylum
Seekers in Miami

	New York, March 18, 2002 --  The National Coalition for Haitian
Rights (NCHR) is calling on Attorney General John Ashcroft to release
immediately a group of over 200 Haitian asylum seekers who have been held in
detention in Miami since December 3, 2001.  This group of Haitians is being
detained at three different facilities in Miami: the Krome Service
Processing Center, the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center and a
Miami motel.  Also, four Haitian minors have been transferred to a facility
in Pennsylvania, while newly arriving Haitians have been sent directly to
other detention facilities in states such as New Jersey.

	NCHR is gravely concerned that these Haitian asylum seekers remain
in detention uniquely because of  their nationality and that their treatment
in detention - including lack of meaningful access to lawyers, isolation
from community support and the accelerated processing of their claims
without the minimal safeguards of due process - amounts to wholesale
discrimination against Haitians.

	"This policy applies solely to Haitians," said Dina Paul Parks,
NCHR's Acting Director.  "And this was not the case before December.  We are
baffled by this abrupt and blatantly discriminatory change in policy."

	In addition to the detentions, NCHR is also troubled by the pace of
the proceedings.   In order to expedite these cases, three judges have been
detailed from their downtown Miami courtrooms and brought to the Krome
facility exclusively to hear these Haitian asylum cases.  It is highly
improbable that an asylum seeker would have a full and fair hearing under
such circumtances, particularly given the fact that INS detention officers
have been assisting Haitians in completing their asylum applications, which
they are neither equipped nor qualified to do.    Under these conditions, at
least 50 Haitians have already been ordered removed from the U.S., including
some who were unable to fill out their asylum applications at all.

	Before December 2001, the INS implemented a policy of community
release - parole -- toward Haitians and other asylum seekers, releasing them
to family or other supportive community members once they had established a
"credible fear of persecution" before an Asylum Officer and as they were
pursuing their claims.  They would generally then have about a year to find
attorneys and prepare thier cases.  In addition to being more humane for
asylum seekers and allowing them to secure adequate legal counsel, this
approach optimizes use of detention space, saving hundreds of thousands of
dollars in the process.  The practice has been very effective in helping
asylum seekers and nonprofit service and legal agencies achieve their goals
of securing a just and fair hearing.  It has also allowed the INS to
maintain a virtually perfect appearance rate, rendering the legal
proceedings fair, efficient and fiscally sound.

Throughout its 20-year history, NCHR has successfully challenged a number of
government polices aimed solely at keeping Haitians out of the US.  "We
thought we were beyond this," added Ms. Paul Parks.  "What's happening now
erases years of progress and hard-won victories not just for Haitians but
for the very notions of American justice and fair play.  Perhaps this is
just a temporary practice.  But NCHR, along with key allies such as the
Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, Lutheran Immigrant and Refugee Service,
Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, and US Conference of Catholic Bishops
will not rest until this discriminatory policy is rescinded and Haitian
asylum seekers are given a full and fair hearing."

Martine Caze
Office Administrator
The National Coalition for Haitian Rights
275 Seventh Avenue, 17th Floor
New York, NY 10001
(212) 337-0005 Ext:10
(212) 741-8749 Fax