Vol. 73/No. 11      March 23, 2009

The Broward Transitional Center is a prison housing hundreds of Haitians awaiting deportation. The protest erupted with a cheer when Maria Rodriguez of the Florida Immigrant Coalition told the crowd that the prisoners could hear the rally. She led the crowd in a chant of “You are not alone.”

Four tropical storms pummeled Haiti last summer. Hundreds died and hundreds of thousands lost their homes as the storms washed away roads, bridges, and crops.

At the request of the Haitian government, Washington agreed to temporarily suspend deportation of undocumented Haitians living in the United States. In December the U.S. government resumed deportations and continued to deny Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Haitians. The status would allow Haitians to continue to work and live in the United States. In response, the Haitian government is blocking the U.S. government from deporting Haitians back to the Caribbean country.

In mid-February, an immigration judge ordered that 30,299 Haitians be given their final deportation orders. Nearly all of those ordered deported were for noncriminal violations. Some 600 Haitians are being held in immigration jails, according to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. Another 243 have been released under a form of house arrest and fitted with electronic monitoring ankle bracelets.

Barbara González, a spokeswomen for ICE, said that those who don’t return voluntarily would be considered fugitives. She said the government has “fugitive alien teams” across the country whose sole purpose is to capture people evading deportation orders.

Wyclef Jean, a famous Haitian musician, told the protest rally that granting TPS status was very important. “This is not a Haitian cause but a human cause. The 30,000 should get their just due. We should press President Obama to stop the deportation and give TPS to Haitians.”
 
 
Related articles:
Chicago workers plan for May Day march
Organize unions, fight for legalization!
Suit charges torture in death of Chinese immigrant
Socialist candidate defends immigrant rights  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home