Posted on Tuesday, 02.24.09

A South Floridian is tapped to help shape immigration policy in D.C.
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER
cmarbin@miamiherald.com

Florida immigrant advocates looking for possible clues to the direction President Barack Obama will take his new administration may need to look no further than the appointment this week of a woman whose name is familiar to virtually all immigration advocates and attorneys in Miami: Esther Olavarria.

The lawyer and policy wonk held jobs with the Florida Immigration Advocacy Center, the Haitian Refugee Center, and Legal Services of Greater Miami before moving to a bigger stage in Washington, D.C.

Both supporters and opponents of more open borders in the United States say Olavarria's appointment as deputy assistant secretary for policy within the Department of Homeland Security likely augurs greater opportunities for migrants in the U.S., a theme that is consistent with Obama's stump message when he was on the campaign trail.

''The fact that they chose her signals to me that the Obama administration is very serious about looking at the immigration system, and then finally coming up with a viable solution for redress,'' said Marleine Bastien, executive director of Haitian Women of Miami.

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank in Washington that supports tighter immigration controls, said Olavarria's appointment can be seen as a sign Obama will work toward some sort of amnesty for undocumented migrants -- often viewed as the third rail of immigration policy.

''He clearly has to give the pro-amnesty side something,'' Krikorian said. ``He believes in it himself, but he knows it's politically very dangerous.''

The daughter of Cuban nationals, Olavarria and her four siblings left Cuba when she was 5. Olavarria was raised in West Miami, and her mother, who raised the children alone after losing her husband, ran a small business on N.W. 27th Avenue, said Juan Gomez, a Miami attorney and friend of Olavarria's who worked with her in the 1990s.

Olavarria graduated cum laude in 1983 from the University of Florida, and earned a law degree at UF three years later. She told the New York Times in 1994 that she largely molded her identity as a Cuban American debating with classmates in Gainesville. She also took a trip to Cuba, which helped her realize she was more American than Cuban.

''I probably will never feel completely American,'' Olavarria told the newspaper. ``But I think visiting Cuba really crystallized for me the fact that I didn't belong there anymore. I would be a stranger.''

Formed in the crucible of Miami exile culture and politics, Olavarria developed a keen identification with the less fortunate that she later honed as a staff attorney for the Haitian Refugee Center, an epicenter for organizing around Haitian diaspora causes in the 1980s, Gomez said.

''She has a real sense of fairness for the underdog because of the situation of the Haitians,'' Gomez said.

That sense of fairness, said Marcia Cypen, the longtime head of Legal Services of Greater Miami, may lead Olavarria to spearhead the cause of Haitian migrants, who continue to be deported or repatriated to their homeland while Cuban migrants are permitted to stay so long as they reach dry land.

''She is a champion for immigrant's rights,'' said Cypen, who headed the legal services group in the 1990s when Olavarria worked there. ``She has devoted her life and career to representing immigrants and trying to help them be treated fairly.''

Bastien worked with Olavarria when the two represented Haitians seeking aid at the Haitian Refugee Center. She recalls Olavarria as a kind of Energizer bunny who didn't seem to have an off switch.

The two women would work for 14 hours interviewing Haitians at the Guantánamo camp who were seeking refuge in the U.S., and then go out to dinner. ''You would think she would be eating dinner,'' Bastien said. ``But she was also working. She never stops. She just keeps going and going and going.''

Olavarria worked in the late 1990s at the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, where she kept a large caseload of indigent court cases, supervised other lawyers, and did training. Cheryl Little, the group's founder and head, said Olavarria can be expected ''to fight tooth and nail'' for a reform package that will lead to more normal lives for immigrants.

''You have someone who knows her way around complex immigration laws, has tremendous experience in terms of trying to get fair bills passed in Congress, and who is aware of the challenges that immigrants face on a daily basis,'' Little said.

After leaving Miami, Olavarria worked from 1998 to 2007 as general counsel to Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, and observers on both sides of the aisle credit her with essentially drafting the 2007 immigration reform bill sponsored by Kennedy and Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

''She wrote the bill,'' said Krikorian, whose group does favors greater restrictions on immigration. ``She was Kennedy's main immigration person. She was really driving the bus.''

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