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26221: Hermantin(News) A father is gone, guilty of being Haitian (fwd)
From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>
Miami Herald
Posted on Sat, Sep. 10, 2005
In My Opinion
A father is gone, guilty of being Haitian
By Ana Menendez
On July 6, 2005, the day George W. Bush turned 59, Wilbert Benoit, an
apprentice electrician and Haitian immigrant, was arrested as he set out for
work.
Before the month was out, he'd been deported. His oldest son, who turns 3 next
month, thinks his father is on vacation.
''I don't know what else to tell him,'' said Wilbert's wife Hermanise, as her
1-year old son wailed in the background. The family has been left without a
husband and father and Hermanise is now looking for full-time work.
Wilbert wasn't a criminal, just Haitian. He arrived in the country in 1994 and
filed for asylum in 1997. The Miami asylum office denied his request, saying
his persecution wasn't countrywide, said his current attorney Candace Jean.
Shortly after, the courts ordered his deportation. Wilbert Benoit could have
given in and returned to Haiti. Instead, he fell in love. In 2000 Wilbert
married Hermanise, a newly naturalized citizen. A few years later they had two
babies, two jobs and an apartment off Hypoluxo Road in Lantana.
But for Haitians in this country, life has been stingy with happy endings.
Since last October, at least 387 Haitians with no criminal histories have been
deported to Haiti. Many, like Wilbert, left behind young children. It's bad
enough that their deportation leaves families on both sides without a
breadwinner. It's unacceptable that deportations are happening at a time when
conditions in Haiti are so bad that American citizens are warned not to travel
there. The country, which has not yet recovered from its own killer hurricane
last year, is also crippled by political chaos, mass murder, and kidnappings.
It is precisely for countries like Haiti that U.S. law allows the Secretary for
Homeland Security, in consultation with the State Department, to provide
Temporary Protective Status to aliens who are unable to return to their home
country because of armed conflict or environmental disaster.
Why has the department refused to do so?
It hasn't been for lack of pleading. Democratic congressmen like Alcee Hastings
and Eliot Engel have written letters and launched legislation supporting TPS
for Haiti. So have Republicans like Lincoln Díaz-Balart, Mario Díaz-Balart and
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.
A letter the three Florida Republicans wrote to then-Homeland secretary Tom
Ridge last year asking for a halt to deportations went unanswered. The State
Department, for its part, says it is ``continuously monitoring the situation.''
A RENEWED CALL
The inaction is repugnant. While officials weighed their options, a mother was
shot dead in front of her 5-year-old son, 10 merchants were burned alive, at
least six died when thugs with machetes stormed a stadium and tens of thousands
continue to live a life consumed by fear in a country abandoned to poverty and
hopelessness. How many more have to die or be separated?
I spoke to Lincoln Díaz-Balart Friday and he said he would renew his call for
TPS for Haiti in the coming weeks.
''This is a matter of fairness,'' he said.
CASES BEFORE
There are precedents for compassion for aliens of troubled countries. In 1998,
TPS was given to Hondurans and Nicaraguans after Hurricane Mitch.
And there are cases where immigration judges grant deferral of deportation to
certain foreign nationals. Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles, a Venezuelan
citizen, also entered this country illegally. But though he is a terror
suspect, he may yet avoid deportation to Venezuela.
Wilbert Benoit, who has never been accused of a crime, did not receive the same
considerate care. The shame is ours.
There is still time to do the right thing. Parole Wilbert Benoit back into the
U.S. and stop deporting Haitians now. Show that to be black and poor in this
country does not always mean forgoing a measure of justice.