The Bush Administration made a mockery of humanitarianism. The U.S. is now seen as a country that tortures and expels people. Obama has made his statement about torture. Will he make an effort to control the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)? In the past few years, ICE has turned into something like the wild bunch gang... entering houses without warrants, deporting nursing mothers, not letting detainees contact family after they are arrested.
see dreamacttexas post "Sacrifice and Immigration," September 9, 2007
Haitians Look for Shift in Immigration Policy
By GINGER THOMPSON
Published: February 27, 2009
MIAMI — Vialine Jean Paul has noticed a change when she drops her 7-year-old daughter off at school each morning in recent weeks. Her daughter, Angela, is not sure that her mother will be back to pick her up.
“She tells me, ‘Mommy, good luck,’ ” Mrs. Jean Paul said, choking back tears. “She asks me, ‘Mommy, if you go to Haiti, what will happen to me?’ ”
Though Angela does not know it, the hopes of tens of thousands of Haitian immigrants and their relatives have become fixed on her mother’s fate. Mrs. Jean Paul is one of more than 30,000 Haitian citizens who have been ordered deported from the United States. Her case could be an early test of whether the Obama administration will break with the strict immigration enforcement policies of the Bush administration.
After an estimated 1,000 people were killed in mudslides in Haiti last year, the government asked the United States to grant temporary protected status to Haitian immigrants — relief that was extended when Honduras and El Salvador were hit by similar disasters. The designation is intended for countries in such dire trouble that receiving deportees would undermine their stability.
Deportations of Haitians were temporarily suspended last September, while the Bush administration considered the request. In December, the request was denied and the deportations resumed.
Lawyers say hundreds of people were detained, pushing detention centers across Florida beyond capacity. Hundreds of other immigrants were forced to wear electronic monitoring devices. more
No comments:
Post a Comment