27291: Hermantin(News)Legal campaign seeks to curb U.S. deportations to Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>


Posted on Thu, Jan. 19, 2006


IMMIGRATION
Legal campaign seeks to curb U.S. deportations to Haiti
Frustrated by Homeland Security's inaction, immigration attorneys will seek a 
temporary halt to deportations of Haitians to their Caribbean country.
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES
jcharles@MiamiHerald.com

As an increasingly violent Haiti staggers toward long postponed elections, 
lawyers representing Haitian migrants will ask immigration judges in the coming 
weeks to halt all deportations to Haiti temporarily.

The coordinated effort on behalf of Haitians facing deportation comes after 
unsuccessful attempts by immigration advocates -- and Haiti's own interim prime 
minister -- to get the Bush administration to grant temporary protected status, 
known as TPS, to thousands of undocumented Haitians living in the United 
States.

By filing individual motions on behalf of their Haitian clients, lawyers would 
be leaving it up to immigration judges and not the federal government to decide 
whether to grant a temporary stay until conditions in Haiti improve.

Although it isn't unusual for attorneys to ask a judge to issue a continuance 
or administratively close a case, Miami immigration attorney Ira Kurzban said 
the current effort is ''extraordinarily unusual,'' because it's happening as 
part of a concerted effort by immigration lawyers nationwide.

It is unclear how many lawyers will file the request on behalf of an estimated 
20,000 undocumented Haitian migrants living in the United States or whether 
immigration judges will adhere to the motions by attorneys.

Still, the coordinated effort, which is officially being launched in key U.S. 
cities today, including Miami, may be the best hope for undocumented Haitians 
at a time when anti-immigration sentiments are sweeping Washington and when the 
U.S. Department of Homeland Security is considering ending temporary protected 
status for hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans, Salvadorans and Hondurans.

''This is a very small Band-Aid, but a giant recognition there is a problem in 
Haiti,'' said Thomas Griffin, a Philadelphia immigration attorney, who spent 
hours drafting the motion and has traveled to Haiti extensively since 2000.

The motion, which Griffin said has already been requested by about 200 lawyers 
across the country, states that ``despite the ongoing chaos that continues in 
Haiti, including brutal civil strife, documented bloody political conflict, 
indisputable countrywide insecurity and the proven inability of the Haitian 
state to protect its own people, the United States continues to refuse refuge 
to fleeing Haitians.''

In addition to Miami, the effort is being launched today with scheduled press 
conferences in key cities with growing Haitian populations, such as 
Philadelphia, Boston, Washington and New York. It comes a little less than 
three weeks before Haiti's Feb. 7 presidential election, which has been 
postponed repeatedly.

Fifteen months ago, interim Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue formally 
asked the homeland agency to grant temporary protected status for Haitians, but 
to no avail. The privilege, which would allow Haitians temporarily to live and 
work in the United States legally, has not been granted.

''The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State continue to 
closely monitor the situation there,'' said State Department spokesman Peter 
Eisenhauer.

Miami attorney Ariol Eugene, who is spearheading the campaign on behalf of the 
Haitian Lawyers Association, said he plans to file the motion on behalf of 10 
of his Haitian clients.

''It is very clear the conditions in Haiti are horrendous,'' Eugene said. ``The 
government right now cannot protect its own people. It is in the best interest 
of the U.S. government and Florida to have stability in Haiti. When there is no 
stability in Haiti, there is a mass exodus.''