27387: Hermantin(News)Lawyers ask for a halt to deportations. (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

lhermantin@hotmail.com


Haiti




South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board

January 30, 2006



ISSUE: Lawyers ask for a halt to deportations.

As a critical election looms less than two weeks away, and with pre-vote 
violence on the increase, it makes no sense to deport Haitians seeking 
temporary protective status in the United States back to their volatile, 
war-torn country.

Attorneys throughout the United States have filed motions asking the federal 
courts to halt the senseless deportations, which run counter to political 
reality in Haiti. U.S. immigration authorities shouldn't wait for a ruling.

They should suspend the deportations -- now. Then they should go a step further 
and grant Haitians temporary protective status. TPS is a program that grants 
work permits and temporary haven to people whose home countries are torn by 
civil conflict or natural disasters.

It should be pretty clear by now that Haitians living and working in America 
qualify for TPS.

Haiti has been consumed by civil strife for years. The ouster of exiled 
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide almost two years ago has done little to usher 
in peace or social calm.

Kidnappings, murders and attacks continue, and Haitians are not the only 
targets. Earlier this month, two Jordanian peacekeepers who were part of the 
United Nations contingent were killed.

Yet, U.S immigration authorities insist on deporting hundreds of Haitians who 
have sought refuge in America, and especially in South Florida. Many have 
families here, and jobs as well.

Attorneys are not asking for handouts, just safe haven for the Haitians they 
represent. The law provides for protective status, and these Haitians certainly 
qualify for it.

BOTTOM LINE: Granting Haitians TPS satisfies the law's purpose.


Copyright © 2006, South Florida Sun-Sentinel