Senate to Vote on Bill to Give Haitians "Green Cards"

CALL YOUR SENATORS NOW FOR SUPPORT!

UPDATE

The Senate Judiciary Committee will VOTE April 23, 1998 on the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act of 1997, S. 1504. It is important that we get as many co-sponsors to the bill, BEFORE a vote by the whole committee.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Although we held a rally in Washington D.C. there is still a lot of work ahead.

Please contact NOW, your Senators and urge them to co-sponsor S.1504. All representatives are home until April 20th. We are especially targeting senators in the following states: Alabama, Iowa, Maine, Missouri, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Wisconsin.

WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO because if WE don't NO ONE WILL!

1. CALL and SEND LETTERS to your senators.

Tell/write them the following:

The Haitian case is more compelling than that of the Central Americans who Congress helped last year. They are here legally, with the permission of the United States, who granted them parole status when they cleared the first hurdle at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

a. HAITIANS DESERVE EQUAL TREATMENT: Haitians like Nicaraguans fled political strife, persecution, they have built lives, homes, businesses and obeyed our laws. Both Haiti and Nicaragua are struggling through the democratic process, though they have few resources and weak economies. Haitians should have been granted the benefits (green cards) that Nicaraguans got when Congress enacted NACARA last year.

b. REDRESSING A WRONG: Granting "green-cards" would right a wrong. Haitians should have been granted refugee status, but, a double standard gave them parole instead, although they were found to have credible fear. Giving Haitians "green cards" would have the additional benefit of relieving INS of the burden of processing their asylum claims.

c. KEEP FAMILIES TOGETHER: These Haitian refugees now have U.S. citizen children who have never lived in Haiti. Forcing the parents to leave the country will compel these individuals to make an agonizing choice: return to their country of origin and leave their children behind; or uproot U.S. citizen children and return to an unstable homeland these kids have never seen, and whose language they do not speak.

d. HAITI NEEDS TIME AND SPACE TO BUILD A STRONG POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC SYSTEM: In order for Haiti's economy to emerge strong from its past political and economic struggles, Haiti needs time and space. Haiti does not have the resources to absorb returning refugees.

BACKGROUND

In 1997 Congress passed the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act (NACARA), giving Nicaraguans, Cubans and certain other nationals relief from new immigration laws. However, Haitians were left out.

On December 23, 1997 President Clinton gave Haitians who filed for asylum or were paroled into the U.S. prior to December 31, 1995, a temporary one-year relief, Deferred Enforced Departure, giving Congress time to pass a permanent solution.

For more information please call Sandrine Desamours at 212-337-0005 ext.16