Immigration News Briefs 5/99 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Immigration News Briefs A monthly supplement to Weekly News Update on the Americas Vol. 2, No. 5 - May 1999 (publication date 5/29/99) 1. Miami Protesters Win Freedom for Five 2. Lone Hunger Striker Wins Transfer 3. INS Deports US Citizen, Admits Error 4. Nine-Year Detainee Free At Last 5. Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Eastern Europeans Get Partial Amnesty 6. US Welcomes Some Kosovo Refugees, Imprisons Others Immigration News Briefs is a monthly supplement to Weekly News Update on the Americas, published by the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York. A one-year subscription (52 issues) to Weekly News Update on the Americas is $25. To subscribe to the Update and Immigration News Briefs, send a check or money order for US $25 payable to Nicaragua Solidarity Network, 339 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012. Please specify if you want the electronic or print version. 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MIAMI PROTESTERS WIN FREEDOM FOR FIVE A 47-day hunger strike by Miami parents of detained immigrants ended May 3 with an agreement between the strikers and Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) Commissioner Doris Meissner, brokered by the Catholic Archdiocese of Miami. Five of the six detainees whose parents began the hunger strike on Mar. 18 were released from INS detention on May 12 after INS officials reviewed their cases and decided they met the necessary criteria, including proof of rehabilitation. Four of the six original strikers continued the fast to the end [see INB 4/99]. The Cuban-born detainees are among thousands held under immigration provisions which mandate the detention and deportation of noncitizens who have served sentences for deportable crimes. INS district directors have wide authority to release long-term detainees judged not to be a threat to public safety, but in the past the INS has said that no one who had committed a serious crime would be freed. Four of the six detainees are being freed outright, on the condition that they periodically report to the INS and submit proof of gainful employment. Manuel Angel Chiong, the son of hunger striker Mireya Cortes, was transferred to the INS Krome Detention Center in Miami from a Louisiana jail used by the INS, and will be sent to a halfway house or another type of supervised facility in South Florida. Strike organizer Marta Berros was treated for shock by paramedics at the INS offices after being told that her son, Dagoberto Monrabal, would not be released. Monrabal, who blamed his criminal record on a past drug addiction, had asked to be released to a rehabilitation program. Agency officials in Miami said they will move quickly to consider for possible release nearly 200 other long-term detainees being held at Krome. On Apr. 30, Meissner ordered all INS offices to review the cases of detainees who have a final order of deportation and have been held for more than 90 days because they cannot be deported to their home country. If the INS decides that the person cannot be released, the case must be reviewed again every six months. [Miami Herald 5/13/99, 5/14/99, 5/25/99; El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 5/1/99, 5/7/99] *2. LONE HUNGER STRIKER WINS TRANSFER Jose Vargas, a Cuban national being detained by the INS at a jail in Manatee County, Florida, ended a 50-day solo hunger strike during the week of May 10 after INS officials agreed to transfer him to the Krome detention center, where his children can visit regularly. Vargas had refused liquids during the last week of his fast; as of May 25 he was being held in a jail infirmary in Bradenton, Florida, pending transfer. Vargas and his parents are asking the INS to release him on humanitarian grounds so that he can support and care for his four children, who are living in Miami with his elderly parents; the children are on public assistance and the landlord is threatening to evict them, saying there are too many people in the house. Vargas arrived in the US with his parents when he was five years old; he finished serving a one-year prison sentence for gun possession more than two years ago. He "has totally rehabilitated," and should be released since he does not pose a threat to public safety, said attorney Elena Diaz de Villegas, who is representing Vargas free of charge. [MH 5/19/99, 5/25/99] *3. INS DEPORTS US CITIZEN, ADMITS ERROR On May 7 the INS returned US citizen Thomas Sylvain to Miami and admitted that it made a mistake in deporting him to Haiti. Sylvain was immediately rushed to a hospital, where as of May 27 he remained in critical condition, hooked up to a respirator. Sylvain is gravely ill with AIDS; his condition worsened significantly during the three months he spent in Haiti. The INS internal audit office began an investigation on May 12 into the error, after having previously said there would be no such probe. Sylvain was born in 1978 in the Bronx (New York City), son of a Irish-American mother and a Haitian immigrant. He was detained for three months at Krome in Miami and deported in late January because he had a prior criminal conviction and the INS believed he was an immigrant. He was never represented by an attorney while in INS custody. In a statement issued after his return to Miami, the INS said Sylvain had been provided with "all legal due process given to anyone, including illegal criminal aliens, with whom the burden of proof of citizenship lies." But lawyers and advocates argue that the burden of proof did not lie with Sylvain. "Once you tell INS you're a citizen, they're duty bound to prove you're not before they deport you," explained Cheryl Little, lead attorney at the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center (FIAC) in Miami. Kelley Spellman, spokesperson for the INS Miami office, said on May 11 that Sylvain had claimed to be a Haitian citizen while at Miami-Dade County Jail and Krome, and in sworn statements to an immigration judge. "Based on his statements, the immigration judge established his alienage," Spellman said. Sylvain says he asserted on several occasions before his deportation that he was a US citizen. In January and December, he gave statements to Little and to fellow Krome detainee Lulseged Dhine in which he asserted his US citizenship. Both passed his statements to supervisors at Krome. Spellman said INS is not aware of Sylvain's statements to Dhine or Little. Sylvain's family tried to convince the INS that Sylvain was a US citizen by showing his birth certificate and an expired US passport, but the INS said the documentation "arrived in the hands of the INS much later than was necessary to avoid deportation." [MH 5/12/99, 5/27/99; ENH 5/8/99] *4. NINE-YEAR DETAINEE FREE AT LAST On May 21, after nine years of detention, Lulseged Dhine was released on parole from Krome pending a review of his case. He was flown to Arizona and released into the custody of a couple he had met while in detention there. Dhine can now apply for employment authorization; he must keep INS informed of his whereabouts while he awaits a hearing on his application for relief under the United Nations Convention Against Torture, of which the US is a signatory. Dhine, an Ethiopian Jew, says he would be tortured if returned to Ethiopia. His claim was backed by members of Congress and Jewish and Catholic leaders, who met outside Krome's gates in early March to call for his release, saying that deporting a Jew to Ethiopia would be tantamount to a death sentence. The decision to free Dhine "fit under law and regulations that provide for the release of individuals on a case-by-case basis for humanitarian reasons," said INS spokesman Michael Gilhooly. "We have determined that Mr. Dhine poses neither a risk to the public or a risk of flight at this time," Gilhooly said. Dhine was legally admitted to the US in 1978 as a refugee, at age 14. In the 1980s he had seven misdemeanor convictions, four of them for possession of small quantities of marijuana. In 1990, after serving a jail term, he was taken into INS custody under new tough laws against drug crimes by noncitizens. During his lengthy stay in INS custody, Dhine became an effective advocate for his fellow detainees and even for detention center guards. Fluent in nine languages, Dhine translated for detainees and helped establish libraries and newsletters in detention centers. Dhine said he plans to work with a Jewish community agency in South Florida once he adjusts to being out of detention. "There are people in the centers, people with AIDS, with cancer, an 84-year-old man who needs to be let free," Dhine said. "Once I get my strength back, I have to focus on changing the draconian laws that put these people in there." [MH 5/22/99, 5/23/99] *5. SALVADORANS, GUATEMALANS, EASTERN EUROPEANS GET PARTIAL AMNESTY At a May 20 press conference, INS Commissioner Doris Meissner announced new rules that will ease requirements for Salvadoran, Guatemalan and Eastern European refugees to gain legal permanent residency in the US. The new regulations issued by the INS implement a section of the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act (NACARA) passed in November 1997. That law granted amnesty to about 155,000 Nicaraguans and Cubans, but granted only partial relief to about 300,000 Salvadorans, Guatemalans and Eastern Europeans. Under the new rule, which takes effect June 21, the immigrants in question will not need to appear before an immigration judge to prove they have lived in this country continuously for the last seven years and would be victims of "extreme hardship" if they returned home. Instead, they will be presumed to be eligible for legal residency unless the INS can find grounds to challenge their application. Meissner said the new rule applies to about 190,000 Salvadorans, 50,000 Guatemalans and some 10,000 people from former Soviet bloc nations. [Washington Post 5/20/99; Wall Street Journal 5/21/99; New York Times 5/21/99] *6. US WELCOMES SOME KOSOVO REFUGEES, IMPRISONS OTHERS The INS is reviewing its policy with regard to some 20 to 25 ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo who used assumed names or false documents when they came to the US on official relief flights, escaping the violence in Yugoslavia, INS spokesperson Amy Otten said on May 15. A teenage girl and three other refugees who arrived at Fort Dix in New Jersey on May 10 were caught during an INS screening process and were sent to prisons in the eastern Pennsylvania counties of Berks, Carbon, and York. Later screenings turned up dozens more in the same situation, but the others were kept at Fort Dix, Otten said. The four sent to Pennsylvania were to return to Fort Dix on May 15. Officials originally said the group would be held in jails pending an immigration hearing. "We're still reviewing our procedures. At the time, [detaining the refugees] appeared to be the way we should handle it," said Otten. "But this is an unusual processing for us. How can we still stay within the laws and maintain appropriate security and follow the intent of allowing the refugees to come in?" The US has agreed to accept up to 20,000 of the refugees. They will be housed temporarily at Fort Dix or placed with sponsors or relatives. [Bergen Record (NJ) 5/16/99 from AP] Meanwhile, nine other Kosovo Albanian refugees who arrived in the US before the airlifts remain detained at the INS Detention Center in Elizabeth, New Jersey, while they appeal their deportation orders. The last time Arton Sadiku's brother saw him, he says, the 19-year-old was "shackled like an animal and crying." Attorneys for the detainees are asking that their clients be released on parole to stay with relatives. The detainees have been spending their days watching television news coverage of the refugees being welcomed at Fort Dix. "It's a weird system," said Jim Haggerty, national director of detention for the Catholic Legal Immigration Network. "One branch of our government is welcoming refugees, another is trying to get rid of others." [BR 5/14/99] END ======================================================================= Weekly News Update on the Americas * Nicaragua Solidarity Network of NY 339 Lafayette St, New York, NY 10012 * 212-674-9499 fax: 212-674-9139 http://home.earthlink.net/~dbwilson/wnuhome.html * wnu@igc.apc.org ======================================================================= ================================================================= 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-06.02.99-03:18:05-12316