Kennedy Hears Testimony on INS Detentions
WASHINGTON, Oct. 01, 2002–Witnesses testifying Tuesday before Sen. Edward Kennedy’s Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration called for the repeal of an Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) directive that has left hundreds of Haitian asylum seekers detained indefinitely in U.S. prisons.
The directive, which mandates that regional INS officials may parole no Haitian from detention without explicit approval from Washington, was issued last December. The Justice Department, which oversees the INS, said last week that the directive would avoid “a potential mass migration [from Haiti] to the United States.” The order was issued on the heels of an incident in which a refugee boat carrying 187 Haitians ran aground off the coast of Florida. The Coast Guard rescued 167 persons from the wreck, though as of last week only 16 of those rescued had been granted asylum by the United States.
As of Sept. 25 – -10 months after their rescue- – approximately 112 of the 167 originally detained were still being held at INS facilities in Miami and in Berks County, Pa.
At the hearing, Kennedy, D-Mass., called the treatment of Haitian asylum seekers by the U.S. government “absolutely despicable.” His comment followed testimony by Marie Jocelyn Ocean, a former INS detainee from Haiti, one of the 16 refugees granted asylum here. She described being rescued by the Coast Guard last December only to be confined in a Miami hotel room for over two months with four other women and a seven-year-old girl.
“No one could come to see us there, and we felt terribly isolated and alone, also because we could not communicate with most of the guards because they did not speak Creole,” Ocean said in her prepared testimony. “In all that time I was only able to breathe fresh air on four days…. Sometimes I felt as though I was suffocating, and my heart would begin to race because we were locked in that small space together for so long.”
“No one should have to undergo that kind of treatment here in the United States,” said Kennedy, who questioned both the nature of the directive, which singles out Haitians among asylum seekers, and its possible violation of international refugee standards.
“Most of the Haitians in question have demonstrated a credible fear of persecution, have family or community contacts willing to sponsor them, do not pose a flight risk and would not pose a danger to the community,” Kennedy said. “These factors would normally have resulted in grants of parole from detention, and are the same factors currently used to parole other nationals from detention.”
Supporting Kennedy’s position was testimony given by Stephen C. Johnson, policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation, and Dina Paul Parks, executive director of the National Coalition for Haitian Rights. Both Johnson and Parks described the situation in Haiti as violent and chaotic, characterized by vigilante justice and police brutality. They also said that harassment by groups supporting the governing Lavalas party was common. Ocean recalled the death of her father and brother at the hands of Lavalas members.
Kennedy expressed his disappointment that the Justice Department declined to send a representative to participate in the hearing to shed light on such a controversial policy.
“These are serious cases. These are serious problems,” Kennedy said. “We’re going to try to keep after this until we get something done. At least I am.”
Published in The Lawrence Eagle Tribune, in Massachusetts.
