16790: (Hermantin) Sun Sentinel-False documents come back to haunt Haitians seeking asy (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

False documents come back to haunt Haitians seeking asylum in S. Florida



By Tanya Weinberg
Sun-Sentinel

September 22, 2003

When Haiti's military coup unleashed three years of merciless brutality and
chaos in 1991, Herve Mauricette was not yet 10. His mother soon joined an
exodus of tens of thousands, risking peril at sea to flee for Florida, but
not daring to bring her son along.

Last year, the politically active uncle who raised Mauricette was murdered
and, fearing he was next, the young man followed his mother's path. In
Pompano Beach, he once again became part of a family, living with his
mother, stepfather and three siblings born in the United States.

Mauricette's mother gained permanent residency under the Haitian Refugee
Immigration Fairness Act, a 1998 law enacted to allow as many as 49,800 of
those who fled to stay in America legally. As her dependent, Mauricette was
eligible, too. He applied before he turned 21, but because his birthday came
before his interview, he lost his claim.

"Now I'm very, very, very scared. I don't know what's going on with the
immigration," he said. "I can't go back to Haiti. If I go back to Haiti, I'm
dead."

Mauricette is one of thousands of Haitians in South Florida who fear their
families may be torn apart because of unanticipated barriers in the HRIFA
law. Many of the disqualified adult applicants have lived here since 1995 or
earlier, as required by the law. But because they used false documents to
flee Haiti by plane, they do not qualify for HRIFA protections. Many have
children who are U.S. citizens, but for those who have exhausted
alternatives, deportation looms.

"There's a lot of complaint in the Haitian community that people are being
tricked when they are called in to go to immigration," said Patrick
Bernavil, vice president of the Haitian-American Community Health Center in
Delray Beach.

Lauderhill immigration attorney Carlo Jean-Joseph said three of his clients
were recently detained when they visited the Bureau of Citizenship and
Immigration Services Miami office to get new work permits. All were denied
HRIFA protection because they used false papers to depart Haiti by plane.

One already has been deported and Jean-Joseph has recommended his wife sell
their house and move in with relatives so she can support their children.
Another client is the mother of six. Detained and under a final deportation
order, she is married to a Haitian who has political asylum.

"It's already been established that if he goes back he's going to be killed,
so what are they going to do?" Jean-Joseph said. "This is the dilemma of the
HRIFA situation. A lot of people are going to be in limbo."

A final deportation order is cause for detention, said Garrison Courtney,
spokesman for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"In general, we only detain someone if there is a violation of the
immigration laws," he said.

Refugee crisis

The Haitian refugee crisis exploded in 1991, when Gen. Raoul Cedras
overthrew the democratically elected Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a Catholic
priest. Before the United States sent in troops to restore democracy in late
1994, soldiers and police terrorized Aristide supporters with rape, several
thousand murders, and a trail of mutilated bodies left as warnings. A
worldwide embargo strangled what was left of the country's economy, and
unprecedented numbers of Haitians fled, seeking haven in the United States.

Between 1991 and 1995, some 70,000 Haitian refugees were interdicted at sea,
some of them held at Guantanamo Naval Station for months at a time, others
immediately and forcibly repatriated.

The HRIFA law evolved out of an effort to give Haitians protections similar
to those granted to Central Americans fleeing that region's civil wars in
the 1980s. But most Central Americans entered the country surreptitiously
over the Mexican land border and were unaffected by a clause that excluded
applicants who arrived using false documents.

Thousands of Haitians, however, used false papers to board planes between
1991 and 1994 when untold numbers of refugees drowned at sea. The first Bush
administration, and then the Clinton administration flip-flopped on whether
to screen those refugees for legitimate asylum claims.

"The irony is that if you were politically active, you knew that fleeing by
boat would get you returned to your persecutors. So the more politically
involved you were, the more likely you'd go on a plane," said Miami
immigration attorney Steve Forester.

Seeking a solution

If applicants who came with false papers can convince authorities that
deportation will cause extreme hardship to a U.S. citizen or permanent
resident spouse or parent, they can be granted an exception. But that is
difficult and rare, said Forester, who has traveled to Washington several
times in recent months to lobby Congress for what he calls a HRIFA "fix-it"
bill.

As early as this week, Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Miami, plans to introduce a
bill that would expand HRIFA protections to those who arrived by 1995 but
used false documents, and to those dependents who applied before their 21st
birthday, but were only considered for asylum after they turned 21.

"It's about keeping families together, bringing families together, and
bringing fairness to immigration law," said John Schelble, Meek's chief of
staff.

Nearly 38,000 Haitians nationally applied for protection under the law,
paying fees that topped $2,000 for many families. With allowances for family
reunification, applicants could also apply for protection for children under
age 21.

Immigration attorneys think that thousands of HRIFA applications are still
pending and that many other dependents will likely "age out" before their
parents' cases are decided, unless the law is expanded.

Dan Kane, a Washington spokesman for the Bureau of Citizenship and
Immigration Services, said he could not get the number of pending
applications. Miami spokeswoman Nina Pruneda said 13,464 applications have
been approved and 4,224 denied in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

Immigration control advocates who opposed the HRIFA, say they oppose its
extension on the same grounds.

"Every time you grant a special amnesty to one group it leaves another
segment carping for a special exemption as well," said David Ray of the
Washington-based Federation for American Immigration Reform. "It literally
creates the expectation that Congress is weak-kneed on illegal immigration
and will eventually cave in on every special interest group that squeals
loud enough."

Supporters like Forester hope that members of Congress can be swayed by the
argument that a few thousand potential deportees in South Florida may
support more than 10,000 relatives in Haiti, where the average annual income
is $350 per year. The nation's economy relies on ever-declining subsistence
farming and rural marketing, and Haiti now ranks 150 of 175 countries, above
only Sub-Saharan African nations, on the United Nations human development
index, based on life expectancy, education, and per capita earnings.

"You're taking food out of their mouths, increasing desperation, and
increasing their likelihood to flee, which we care about," Forester said.

The Bush administration has said its policy of detaining Haitian asylum
seekers who come by boat is meant to deter maritime migration because it
diverts Coast Guard resources, threatens national security, and endangers
Haitian lives.

Application denied

When she fled Haiti via the Bahamas with her 10-month-old daughter in 1994,
Derline Francoeur said she dared not risk their lives at sea. So she used
false documents and traveled by plane. Last year, her HRIFA application was
denied, she said. But her daughter, now 10, was approved.

"If they don't give me the papers, then how will I live with my kids? It
don't make sense, you understand?" Francoeur asked.

Two younger children are natural-born citizens, and Francoeur, a
housekeeper, fears that she may be detained when she goes to get a new work
permit later this month. She cannot support her children without it, she
says. But deportation is a thought she cannot bear.

"I have to go work for them, to feed them, to dress them, to do anything for
them," Francoeur said. "I don't know what I'm going to do. Only God could
separate my life from them."

Tanya Weinberg can be reached at tweinberg@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5029.
Copyright © 2003, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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