Haitian Orphan, age 6, Draws No Crowds Wed, 19 Apr 2000 04:59:25 -0400 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit source - "Walter Lippmann" Cuba Si list - reposted from The Black World Today - http://www.tbwt.com Haitian Orphan's Story Draws No Crowds Adrian Walker The Boston Globe MIAMI - Sophonie Telcy is 6 years old. Her mother died shortly after bringing her to America a few months ago. Sophonie has no desire to return to the country where she was born and, until recently, raised. Which in her case is Haiti. Sophonie Telcy has no cheering sections outside the home of her guardians, no television crews, and no celebrities forming a human chain on her behalf. No one has suggested that her presence on these shores constitutes a miracle. In fact, almost no one seems to care whether she stays or goes. Telcy lives with friends of her mother in Lake Park, Fla., a suburb of West Palm Beach less than 100 miles from the Elian Gonzalez circus. She is subject to deportation at any time. As surely as Elian has become the poster child for resistance to the Castro regime in Cuba, Sophonie's few advocates believe her fight with the government is just as symbolic - of what they view as a glaring double standard in US immigration policy. "Damn right there's a race issue," says US Representative Alcee Hastings, a Fort Lauderdale Democrat. "There's disparate treatment. The INS should not be paying attention to organized political pressure." The Elian soap opera has gradually exposed every social fissure in South Florida. Among the most enduring is resentment at the handling of Haitian immigration compared to that from Cuba. Haitians are deported at a much higher rate, turned around on the seas more often, and have a more difficult time getting residency status. The legal rationale for that is complicated, but it hinges on the longstanding judgment that Cuban immigrants are fleeing political persecution, whereas Haitians are economic refugees. Historically, it owes much to the Cold War, like the Elian battle itself. The Duvalier regime that pillaged Haiti from 1958 until 1986 was a client state of the United States, and its successors - some democratic, some not - have also enjoyed Washington's support. Castro, by contrast, was always viewed as the political rogue of the Caribbean. The precedent of preferential treatement for Cuban exiles was established in the early 1960s and has been reinforced as Cuban-Americans gained political power. "I knew there had to be other children, even in my district, who were in the same situation as Elian, or worse," Hastings said Monday. "In five days, we found 26 kids who are orphans. Sophonie Telcy's situation is far worse than Elian's. She has no family in Haiti, and the government there has no policy for dealing with orphans. She could end up living on the street if she has to go back." Hastings has widely been accused of grandstanding for suggesting that the cases have anything in common. The local media have largely ignored him, which he attributes to a longstanding feud with The Miami Herald, which successfully crusaded for his removal from the federal bench in 1989. The distinction between political and economic refugees seems far too pat to many Haitians and African-Americans here, who note that Haitian refugees are also fleeing a political cesspool. While Haiti has experimented with democracy, it is currently ruled by a president, Rene Preval, who dissolved the parliament early last year and has yet to get around to setting a date for new elections. Just as many Cuban families tell devastating tales of loss under Castro, many Haitians have horror stories of the Tonton Macoutes, the blood-thirsty state police force. Every lawless country is lawless in its own way, but surely Haitians who risk everything for a life in America are not fleeing poverty alone. The cases of Elian Gonzalez and Sophonie Telcy share one thing in common: The federal government hasn't decided what to do. It's curious, though, that the other elements they have in common seem to mean so little to so many here. For all the talk about freedom and human rights from the Elian brigade, Sophonie Telcy's asylum is a cause they don't seem to have time for. Adrian Walker's e-mail address is walker@globe.com (c) 2000 The Boston Globe ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytrc-04.19.00-04:59:38-18827