Update on Haitian Refugee Fairness Act

The following is an update on what has been happening since our last memorandum on the Haitian Refugee Fairness Act.

Out of the seven members that serve on the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration, four support the Haitian Refugee Fairness Act: Senators Spencer Abraham (R-Michigan.), Chairman of the Immigration Subcommittee the original sponsor of S. 1504; Dianne Feinstein (D-California), Edward M. Kennedy (D-Massachusetts), and Richard J. Durbin (Illinois).

The bill will pass the Senate "mark-up" and move to the next step of being considered by the full judiciary committee April 23rd. A lobbying campaign is also underway to win more support in the House of Representatives, where resistance to the bill remains strong, especially among the Republican leadership. We got a big boost when New York Senator Alfonse D'Amato agreed to co-sponsor the Haitian Refugee Fairness Act, S. 1504.

S.1504 will give "green Cards" to Haitians who were paroled into the United States prior to December 31, 1995 or filed asylum applications prior to December 31, 1995. This is the same group of people who are now eligible for Deferred Enforced Departure, (DED) and Employment Authorization Document, (EAD).

Nicaraguans and Cubans received "green card" when congress passed last year the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act. They were awarded permanent residency regardless of their prior status in the United States, without making a distinction between asylum-seekers and other Nicaraguans.

Despite a lack of support from the leadership in the House, Haitian immigrants and refugees are gaining powerful Republican allies, most notably in Florida. Gubernatorial candidate Jeb Bush of Miami, a Republican and son of the former President, has endorsed immigration relief for Haitians. After meeting with Al Cardenas, Vice-Chair of the state Republican Party, Arthur Teele, City Commissioner of Miami, and Ana Navarro, a leader in South Florida's Nicaraguan community, former GOP Vice Presidential candidate Jack Kemp wrote a letter to Speaker Newt Gingrich urging the passage of legislation.

Kemp stated that "Haitians are in the same bind as the Central Americans whom Congress helped last year: they face a threat of deportation after years in this country. The number of Haitians is far smaller than the number of Central Americans and their individual cases are equally, if not more compelling."

The American Federation of Labor/Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), Trade unions in southern Florida are also backing the campaign to provide amnesty to Haitian immigrants and refugees. The union's executive board and the delegates' body of the South Florida Central Labor Council unanimously decided to support a bill that would provide "Green Cards" to all Haitians who were in the United States before December 31, 1995. They support H.R. 3033, the bill introduced in the House of Representatives by Congresswoman Meek.

Strong support has also come from newspaper editorial boards, including the New York Times, Miami Herald, St. Petersburg Times of Florida, Buffalo News, and The Star-Ledger, of Newark, NJ, and the Miami Times

Problems in the House

The fight on the House side is especially tough because the Chairman of the Immigration Subcommittee, Texas Representative Lamar Smith, has stated he does not support relief for Haitian immigrants and says he believes that Haitians have received better treatment than any other group under U.S. immigration laws. Not surprisingly, refugee advocates strongly disagree with Smith. During her testimony at a congressional hearing last December, attorney Cheryl Little of Miami said, "despite the bloody outcome to the aborted election in Haiti in 1987 not a single Haitian was granted asylum that year by the INS. Between 1986 and 1991, only 28 Haitians were granted asylum."

NCHR and other community organizations have launched an extensive advocacy campaign to win the support of lawmakers who may be able to persuade Smith to change his position. On Monday March 9, 1998 Executive Director Jocelyn McCalla, NCHR Program Associate Sandrine Desamours, Monsignor Rollin Darbouze of Holy Cross Church of Brooklyn NY, Rev. Dr. Philius Nicolas of the Evangelical Crusade of Fishers of Men of Brooklyn NY, and Dr. Edouard Hazel, Chairman on the NY chapter of Haitian Physicians Abroad, traveled to Washington D.C. to push for the legislation and met with several members of the New York and New Jersey congressional delegations.

NCHR, and many organizations and individuals from New York, and the Eastern Seaboard, organized a March 23 rally in Washington D.C. that called on lawmakers to provide fairness to Haitian refugees and parity with Nicaraguans and Cubans. Organization for the rally drew Haitians from Florida, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Chicago, Illinois.

The Next Step

What is needed now more than ever is pressure on Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and other prominent Republicans. NCHR is calling on all to make the case that Haitians have the right to be treated fairly.

You can help by calling or writing your representative and by contacting the Speaker.

Tell them:

Haitians deserve equal treatment. Like Nicaraguans, Haitians fled political strife, persecution and, in many cases having arrived with little but the clothes on their backs, 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 --namely, "Green Cards"-- that Nicaraguans received Congress enacted Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Reform Act (NACARA) last year.

Granting "Green-Cards" would right a wrong. Haitians from Guantánamo Bay should have been granted refugee status by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, but, instead were given parole status, although they were found to have credible fear of persecution. Giving Haitians "Green Cards" would have the additional benefit of relieving INS of the burden of processing their asylum claims.

Many Haitian refugees now have children who are U.S. citizens. Forcing the parents to leave the U.S. will compel these individuals to make an agonizing choice: return to Haiti and leave their children behind; or uproot U.S. citizen children and return to an unstable homeland, a country that these children have never seen, and whose language they do not speak.

Haiti, struggling to emerge strong from its past political and economic struggles, simply cannot afford to absorb returning refugees.

For further information on NCHR's advocacy campaign, please contact Sandrine Desamours at 212-337-0005 ext. 16.