06.26.2003

MEDIA RELEASE

Deutsch urges Ashcroft to reverse Haitian refugee ruling

U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch, along with U.S. Reps. Alcee Hastings and Kendrick Meek, today urged Attorney General John Ashcroft to reverse his recent ruling that allows the indefinite detention of Haitian refugees as national security threats, even if they are children or cleared by immigration judges. Deutsch denounced the ruling as "un-American, unfair, and collective punishment."

"We are profoundly distressed about your instruction on April 17th, 2003 to disallow release under bond to Haitian asylum seekers," the Congressmen said in a joint letter. "The Department’s handling of this matter has only lent credence to suggestions that this Administration is intent on using the war on terrorism to advance its own agenda."

Ashcroft’s ruling effectively classifies all Haitian refugees as threats to national security--including those found by immigration judges to pose no threat of flight or danger to the community--and authorizes their indefinite detention without hearings or review.

"We deplore that this ruling places in one person, the Attorney General, the absolute power to lock up indefinitely, without hearing, whole classes of immigrants if he alone deems them a threat to national security," the letter states. The Congressmen noted that such decisions "...should be decided by judges in bail hearings focusing on each individual immigrant...."

The letter cites the case of Ernesto Joseph, a Haitian teenager who was finally paroled into the community after almost eight months of incarceration at the Krome Detention Center. Although he posed no national security threat, the fact he was a Haitian was enough to refuse release on bond.

"Ernesto Joseph is but one case of the suffering resulting from your Department’s unfair, unjust, and irresponsible policies," the Congressmen wrote.

The Congressmen also questioned whether the ruling would be applied to immigrants from other countries or those arriving across other U.S. borders. "Is this ruling applicable across the board to countries with "suspected" terrorist activity, or is this another example of the Justice Department’s differential treatment of the Haitian community?" they wrote.

Source: Deutsch for Senate

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