Results 1 to 6 of 6

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

  1. #1
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    PARADISE (San Diego)
    Posts
    99,040

    Haitian quake refugees worry as U.S. visas expire

    Haitian quake refugees worry as U.S. visas expire

    By Marisol Bello, USA TODAY
    Updated 58m ago |

    MIAMI — Time is running out for many Haitians who came to the USA after the 2010 earthquake and now may be sent back to a country in chaos.

    Sandrise Vitale, who was paralyzed in the 2010 Haitian quake, was issued a tourist visa when she was taken to Florida for care.

    President-elect Michel Martell, who will be inaugurated Saturday, has an ambitious agenda to restore his country, but conditions are grim: hundreds of thousands still living in tents, scant public services, a stubborn cholera outbreak.

    In the USA, meanwhile, many earthquake survivors are jobless, scrambling for medical care and relying on friends and family for food and shelter.

    Visas are expiring, and immigration officials have not acted on most requests for a change in status that would let them stay in the USA and earn a living.

    After the earthquake on Jan. 12, 2010, the U.S. government allowed Haitians to be in this country under various conditions:

    •Humanitarian parole is an emergency status that was granted to 1,400 Haitians, including those who came for medical care. They are allowed to stay and work for up to one year. However, if the parole is not extended, they must go home.

    •Visitor visas were issued to 1,300 Haitians, including some escorting children or medical evacuees. Visitor or tourist visas are good for up to a year, and extensions may be granted, but the visitor is not allowed to take a job. Since the earthquake, Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) has approved 77% of 1,736 requests from Haitians with visitor visas, including some who were here before the earthquake, who want to extend their stay.

    •Deferred action allows those with visitor visas to upgrade their status to stay longer and work. Since the earthquake, 835 Haitians have requested deferred action. Of those, a third have been approved; the rest are pending.

    Such requests are often granted in less than a month, says Cheryl Little of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center.

    "The fact that the government has not granted deferred actions (to Haitians) is appalling," she says. "Why would we not grant a small number of Haitians the ability to recover and give them a temporary reprieve?"

    Gepsie Metellus, executive director of Sant La Haitian Neighborhood Center, a Miami social service agency, says Haitians who came after the earthquake need to work so they can rebuild their lives and return to Haiti. "The tourist visa enables you to see tourist sites," Metellus says. "You can go to Disney World, but that's it."

    The Manigat family wants to go home, but not with Haiti in its current condition. For now, they want to get jobs in Miami.

    The Manigats arrived on visitor visas a little more than a month after the earthquake. They had been living on the street in Port-au-Prince with their daughters, then 7 and 2, after their third-floor apartment collapsed. In Miami, they moved in with Fritz Gerald Manigat's sister. They sleep on the floor.

    Last summer, the family's visas expired, and they filed for deferred action.

    Still no decision, Manigat, 39, says in Creole through a translator. "We are not able to work. We are in limbo."

    Crowding in with his sister, her husband and their young son has strained relationships. Manigat returned to Haiti briefly last spring to look for work, but he says things were so bad he couldn't take his wife and daughters back. He and his wife, Marie France, 35, worry that they will be deported.

    Matt Chandler, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees CIS, would not comment on why CIS has granted few deferred actions for Haitian visitors. "We are continuing to review the issue," he said in an e-mail.

    Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., says the plight of the earthquake survivors has become entangled in the stalled national debate over immigration.

    After the earthquake, the Department of Homeland Security created a temporary status to allow Haitians who were here illegally before the disaster to remain and work for up to 18 months. The department has approved 47,000 of 54,000 applications for "temporary protected status." Wilson wants President Obama to give post-quake refugees the same deal.

    Even the few Haitians who have had their status upgraded face challenges.

    Sandrise Vital, 30, had a tourist visa when she was flown to South Florida for medical care. A wall fell on her after the earthquake, and doctors had to amputate her left leg. She is paralyzed from the waist down and uses a wheelchair.

    She received deferred action and would like to work, but for now, she says, she needs to recuperate. She needs neurological care and rehabilitation therapy she can't afford. She is not eligible for government medical benefits.

    Vital spends her days in the home of her cousin's ex-wife, a nurse, in West Palm Beach. She speaks English, French and Creole and would like to work as a translator.

    "There are more options here," Vital says. "To stay would be a good thing."

    http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2011 ... isas_n.htm
    NO AMNESTY

    Don't reward the criminal actions of millions of illegal aliens by giving them citizenship.


    Sign in and post comments here.

    Please support our fight against illegal immigration by joining ALIPAC's email alerts here https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  2. #2
    Senior Member Mickey's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Posts
    777
    "The fact that the government has not granted deferred actions (to Haitians) is appalling," she says. "Why would we not grant a small number of Haitians the ability to recover and give them a temporary reprieve?"
    You ask why shouldn't we grant a small number of Haitians the ability to recover through a temporary reprieve. Well, to that I say, why can't Tahiti take responsibility for the care and aid of its own citizens? The United States is not a refuge for every citizen from another country that has problems or falls on hard times. We obviously have enough of our own to take care of! If you don't believe me, just check our welfare rolls and medical facilities.

  3. #3
    Banned
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    In the water
    Posts
    1,235
    That was the trouble of bringing them here in the first place getting them to go back home.They knew when they came here they werent going back and you wait and see how many stays.We as a nation needs to stop bringing them here and help them in their own counties.I hate what happens to anyone and sometimes you just got to help but if something bad happens in U.S.lets see how many comes to help.

  4. #4
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    PARADISE (San Diego)
    Posts
    99,040
    All I can say is

    Na na na na, na na na na / Hey hey-ey , goodbye
    NO AMNESTY

    Don't reward the criminal actions of millions of illegal aliens by giving them citizenship.


    Sign in and post comments here.

    Please support our fight against illegal immigration by joining ALIPAC's email alerts here https://eepurl.com/cktGTn

  5. #5
    Senior Member moptop's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Posts
    446
    They're dumb all they have to do is say their latino and they'll get the keys to the country haha jk. Times up free ride should be over they should be sent home to help rebuild it anyway

  6. #6

    Join Date
    Jan 1970
    Posts
    378
    it's been over years and central americans are still getting TPS (temporary protected status) that allows them to live and work here legally.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •