Immigrant Rights News: Call President Obama & DHS Sec. Napolitano: Stop Deportations & Grant TPS to Haitians

URGENT REQUEST FOR ACTION

Make Two Phone Calls Today!

Demand a Stop to Deportations and TPS for Haitians

Dear NNIRR Members, Partners, Allies & Friends

Please call

· The White House: (202) 456-1111

Also send a message at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

And,

· Janet Napolitano, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security: (202) 282-8495

Ask President Obama and DHS Secretary Napolitano to:

“Please stop the deportations to Haiti and grant Haitians Temporary Protected Status!”

President Obama can decide whether or not to halt the deportations of Haitians. Haiti’s economy and political situation has been worsened by storms. Deporting Haitians will exacerbate the conditions of both migrant and their home communities and does nothing to solve or address the problems.

By granting TPS, Temporary Protected Status, Haitians will get a respite. Then the U.S. can cooperate to help Haiti and Haitians address the underlying causes and solutions that have displaced thousands of Haitians..

Please make the calls as soon as possible. Ask your co-workers, colleagues, neighbors, friends and family to make calls too.

For justice & human rights,

National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights

http://www.nnirr.org

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BACKGROUND

Haitian Deportees Fate Now In The Hands Of Team Obama

Caribbean deportees being sent back from the U.S.

http://www.caribbeanworldnews.com/middle_top_news_detail.php?mid=2220#

CaribWorldNews, WASHINGTON, D.C., Weds. Mar. 11, 2009: Will they be deported or will they win a reprieve? That answer and the future of over 30,000 Haitians now lie in the hands of President Obama’s political staff, CWNN has learnt.

An email obtained by CWNN Tuesday indicates that while Department of Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, seems open to the idea of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians, she is adamant that the issue will have to go through a review with President Obama’s political staff.

However, she reportedly insisted that the issue now has been elevated to the highest levels of the Obama administration. She also apparently was resolute that a real review of immigration policies towards Haitians would be taking place quickly and a proper announcement will be made soon, whether TPS is granted or not.

In the meantime, non-criminal deportations of Haitians would continue to be suspended, according to the email correspondence obtained. This is a huge move away from the last eight years of fighting with the administration to simply know when deportations were going to resume, the email sent from Congressman Meek`s office said.

Napolitano also reportedly indicated that she wants to work with Congress towards a sensible solution on the issue. The protected status would allow undocumented Haitians already in the country to stay and work legally.

Her disclosure came following a meeting with several South Florida congressmembers Tuesday, as was reported by CWNN yesterday. Leading the delegation was Florida Congressman, Kendrick Meek, who made the case for not only TPS but a formal indefinite halt on deportations pending a full and thorough review of the immigration policies towards Haitians.

At the meeting, Congressman Alcee L. Hastings, (D-Miramar), who was also in attendance, hand-delivered a letter to Secretary Napolitano requesting TPS be granted for Haitian nationals currently residing in the United States.

The letter was authored by Hastings and signed by sixteen bipartisan Members of Congress to include, Representatives Kendrick B. Meek, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Robert Wexler, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Maxine Waters, Barney Frank, Corrine Brown, Donna Edwards, Michael E. McMahon, Edolphus Towns, William D. Delahunt, Bob Filner, Joseph Crowley, Raul M. Grijalva, Jose E. Serrano, and Barbara Lee.

Missing from the signatories was Caribbean Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, whose district is also home to a large number of Haitians. Clarke told CWNN last night that she only just heard of the letter and today found out that it was sent to an email of a staffer who is no longer with her office.

But she said she agrees completely with the position of her colleagues and insists TPS should be granted given the back-to-back storms that has devastated Haiti.

‘It stands to reason that we should appeal to the Obama administration now that they are settled for continued support of TPS and I am one hundred percent on board,` said Congresswoman Clarke. There was such disruption in the country when I visited after the floods last year. It would be inhumane to continue on a path of deportation of Haitians in the U.S.` – By CWNN Staffwriter

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New York Times editorial

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/opinion/10tue4.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

Haiti’s Despair, Continued

The Department of Homeland Security has decided to continue an ill-advised Bush administration policy of deporting illegal [sic] Haitian immigrants.

Haiti, already desperately poor, was devastated by storms last year. It is hard to see how an influx of up to 30,000 homeless, jobless people — the number of Haitians facing deportation from the United States — would do anything but further destabilize the country as it struggles to recover from what has been called its worst natural disaster in a century.

American advocates for Haitians have joined the Haitian government in pleading for an end to the deportations, arguing that all interests are better served by giving the detainees temporary protected status. When a political crisis or natural disaster makes repatriation a bad idea, it is far wiser to allow people to stay put rather than be forced home where they will place further strains on local supplies of food, clean water and housing — all of which are perilously scarce in Haiti. The Haitian diaspora can do a lot more for its stricken homeland by sending home what is really needed: money.

Ending deportations of Haitians would also be consistent. Tens o f thousands of Nicaraguans, Hondurans, Salvadorans and others whose countries have been hit by war, earthquakes and hurricanes have routinely bee n granted protected status in 18-month increments.

The strongest argument against doing so is the fear that boatloads of Haitians will take to sea in a deadly gamble to win sanctuary for themselves. That is a legitimate concern. But the best way to address it is by helping to lessen Haiti’s misery with aid, trade and investment. Haitians living in this country can help — but not if they are deported home to a country that is in no condition to accept them.

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Arnoldo Garcia

National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights

Red Nacional Pro Derechos Inmigrantes y Refugiados

310 8th Street Suite 303

Oakland, CA 94607

Tel (510) 465-1984 ext. 305

Fax (510) 465-1885

www.migrantdiaries.blogspot.com

www.nnirr.blogspot.com

www.nnirr.org