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By the time the Coast Guard could react to the sudden appearance of nearly 200 West Indian migrants � most of them Haitian � at Miami�s Rickenbacker Causeway Tuesday, the boat was close enough to the shore for many refugees to jump ship in a desperate attempt to reach land.
The INS quickly moved in and detained and jailed most of the migrants, sparking an uproar over the United States� contradictory policy towards its treatment of Haitian refugees in comparison to other West Indian refugees. When Cuban or Jamaican refugees reach American soil, as long as they have family in the United States they are automatically given asylum. They are given work permits and green cards, and have a chance to become a citizen in five years.
Haitian immigrants, on the other hand, are either immediately deported or are held in prison while their cases are being heard.
�It is a clear and unequivocal example of discrimination,� said Lionel Jean-Baptiste, an Evanston Alderman and the only elected Haitian official in the greater Chicago area.
�The Haitians are imprisoned and they have to prove individual persecution before they are given any protection of the law, asylum.
�They have to prove credible fear of persecution it they return home. You have an obvious double standard that is established; one group does not have to prove persecution and one does.�
The policy singling out Haitian immigrants from Cuban, Jamaican and other West Indian immigrants was put into effect ten months ago by the Bush Administration, according to an article in the Miami Herald. The article said that some legislators on Capitol Hill have been trying to determine how the policy came into being.
Illinois� is home to nearly 15,000 Haitians � 600 of which reside in Skokie and Evanston alone � many of whom are deeply loyal to their homeland and are acutely aware of what is happening there, says Willie Pompilus, a local Haitian immigrant.
�When you come to this country, you make a big decision,� he says. �And one of the first things you ask yourself when you arrive is, �What can I do for myself? And what can I do for Haiti?��
The tiny island just 70 miles southeast of Cuba and sandwiched between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea is one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. Fred Tsao, director the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR), believes it is Haiti�s impoverished status that has determined its asylum policy in the minds of American lawmakers. He said that Haitians will be discriminated against because unlike Cubans they cannot claim political asylum.
�Part about what is unfortunate about he Haitians is that under U.S. refugee law they are being targeted as refugees not for political reasons but for economic reasons,� Tsao said.
�Because of that distinction they are not welcome, they are discouraged from coming and are sent back to their country.�
But Jean-Baptiste is upset because he says the United States is directly responsible for creating this climate in Haiti.
�The United States has a history of trying to starve [Haiti]. It has created embargos from the time the nation declared independence in 1804. They have stood in opposition to Haiti receiving any monetary loans or contributions of any kind. If you starve people like that, if you create this policy, you create a very desperate environment.�
