Thread: Lawyers ask immigration judges to halt deportations to Haiti

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Lawyers ask immigration judges to halt deportations to Haiti


By JENNIFER KAY
Associated Press Writer

January 19, 2006

Karline St. Louis fears her 4-year-old son may grow up without his father.

She and her son Rayvin are both U.S. citizens living in South Florida, but her husband Kevin is being held in an Arizona immigration prison, facing immediate deportation to his native Haiti.

Kevin St. Louis was among the hundreds of Haitian immigrants nationwide whose attorneys Thursday requested immigration judges halt deportation proceedings against their clients to avoid returning them to a country wracked by political turmoil, violence and devastating natural disasters.

St. Louis, who fled Haiti by boat more 12 years ago looking for work, is fighting to stay in the United States. If deported, immigration laws would bar him from re-entering the United States for ten years.

"He's scared they might kill him. From here when you go to Haiti, they think you have money. And if he does get kidnapped, I don't have that kind of money to pay to release him," Karline St. Louis said.

The deportations put individuals at risk for rape, starvation and murder, among other human rights abuses that Haiti's interim government is unable to stop. Deportations tear apart families and could worsen Haiti's strife by cutting off the money supply immigrants send to help their relatives survive, the attorney's said.

"What we are asking the government to do is to temporarily stop the deportations to give Haiti some time recoup, to settle the internal conflicts," said Ariol Eugene, a Miami attorney who said he would be filing the motion on behalf of 50 clients through next week.

Simultaneous motions were filed in Miami, Boston, Philadelphia, New York and Washington.

"Current circumstances - including devastating natural disasters with ongoing repercussions, brutal civil strife, documented bloody political conflict, indisputable countrywide insecurity and proven inability of the Haitian state (even with the help of United Nations international troops) to protect its own people - warrant the extraordinary relief requested," the motion states.

Haiti's presidential elections, set for Feb. 7, have been postponed several times because of organizational problems and violence. Since Tuesday, gunmen have shot and killed six people, including two Jordanian U.N. peacekeepers, and wounded a third peacekeeper in the country's capital, Port-au-Prince.

Medecins Sans Frontieres, the French humanitarian group, said Thursday it had treated 2,500 people for gunshot or stab wounds at one trauma center in Haiti in the last year. Besides the political instability in Haiti, more than 10,000 people have been killed in recent years from hurricanes and floods that triggered massive landslides.

The motion also criticized the Department of Homeland Security's decision not to grant Haitians the "Temporary Protected Status" that allows immigrants fleeing civil strife or natural disasters to remain in the United States.

Temporary protected status has been granted to immigrants from Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and a handful other Central American and African countries.

"All these countries have a temporary halt to deportations because it is immoral to deport anyone to such conditions. Why aren't Haitians good enough for such basic protections?" said Steve Forester, an attorney and senior policy advocate for Haitian Women of Miami.

The U.S. government is closely monitoring the situation in Haiti, said Dan Kane, a Washington-based spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Kane said the Department of Homeland Security may designate a country for temporary protected status if the safety of returning citizens is threatened by ongoing armed conflict, an environmental disaster that substantially disrupts living conditions or "extraordinary or temporary conditions" that may that prevent the safe return to that country.

"We don't feel at this time that Haiti fulfills the very narrow criteria provided by Congress," Kane said.

The 2000 Census estimated about 531,000 Haitians live in the United States.

Thomas Griffin, a Philadelphia attorney who filed the motion on behalf of three clients Thursday, said between 200 and 300 attorneys nationwide have inquired this week about filing the motion for their clients.

More than a dozen national religious and immigrant organizations supported the motion.

"I believe that racism is at the root of this because if there is any country that qualifies for TPS, it is Haiti. We've met all the criteria and beyond. We've suffered natural disasters, we suffered political disasters and now we have a country at the brink of civil war," said Marleine Bastien, executive director of Haitian Women of Miami, an immigration advocacy and social services agency.

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Just what we need. Another third world crapistan dumping their poverty, crime and disease right on our door steps. Can someone answer me this question? Name one other country that allows all of these third world refugees to flood into our country for whatever BS reason they can think of? Or better yet, how many American refugees did Haiti and Latin America take in after Katrina? Not that they'd ever go there, but still. Bringing in the third world's huddled masses for whatever reason has benefitted us how?

I'm sick of this. All of these OBL and religious groups need to shut the hell up. I'm tired of America being used as a dumping ground for every third world countries problems all in the name of compassion and tolerance. Well my tolerance and compassion have long since run out. Our country is not your dumping grounds. It is not our responsibility to take care of your people. Your problems are not our problems. It's time America stops using it's heart and starts using it's head. I think we need stop being compassionate and start being cold hearted. It's time to end all immigration from third world countries. They are destroying America. They bring nothing to the table except crime, poverty and disease. Stop accepting immigration from these third worlders until they can prove to us that they can live in a civilized society and can be something other than a leetch off of our overbloated government. If they want to live like animals then they can stay in their own countries.

We currently have 300 million people in this country. We have too much sprawl, too much debt, too much unemployment, too much crime/poverty and disease. The last thing we need is to bring in more foreigners from the third world or allow the illegal ones to stay.

I'm sick of this oh if he/she gets sent back they will be presecuted or killed guilt trip crap. So what? That's not our problem. I'm sorry your life sucks and your country sucks, but don't go bringing your problems here.

How many more of the third world huddled masses to do we have to take in before the OBL and their supporters are finally satisfied? Obviously 10-20 million isn't enough. Is it 50 million? 100 million? 500 million? 1 billion? When is enough, enough? Not only is it high time to start deporting these illegals en masse, but it's high time to send their supporters with them.

maybe they ought to send the lawyers to Haiti with their Haitian friends. This is a crock if ever I heard one.

What is this lady and her kid doing in FL if the husband is in AZ? Could he be there to pick up illegals coming across the border? Drugs? I hate to be suspicious of them all but I sure am.

I hate to be suspicious of them all but I sure am.

I know I am.