Excerpt of Interview with Sapphire, author of "Push"/"Precious"
"Sexism is a worldwide phenomenon and the patriarchy is a phenomenon that exists among all peoples of the world. Black men are not exempt from it. They are not worse than other men and they are not better.
Women own two percent of this world’s property, call the UN and check up on it. That’s called sexism. That’s called producing the bodies that fuel this world, doing most of the labor, the cooking the cleaning, the working of the fields and you own two percent of the property.
As we speak right now, a female baby in China is being murdered. In India, when the husband dies, the wife must be murdered also. There are women in Africa being cliterendectomized. In Sweden and Denmark there are child porn films being made. This is what sexism is.
I remember when my own parents divorced. My father had everything, the house, the car, everything. My father died with six figures, my mother died on welfare. This is one family. That’s real. That’s what sexism is.
It isn’t necessarily about getting beaten up and raped and all that. It’s the same thing as racism. We can be all dressed up and everything but the net worth of African Americans is only one quarter that of whites in this country. We are just talking about some material conditions that exist and from those conditions arise mental and social conditions such as female slavery, prostitution, the murder, the abuse of children and rape of women. This has nothing to do with “black people.”
When you finish Push, Precious talks about the good things too: her life, learning, her child, her friends, Langston Hughes. In the beginning, she’s full of anger. But she’s really full of love. She loves everyone. They don’t love her. She’s loves the black men that don’t want to be her boyfriend because she’s fat and black. She loves Madonna. She loves Alice Walker, Langston Hughes. It’s not a book about hate and vindictiveness. It’s a book about redemption and love. It’s about how one abused child comes forward to become a strong woman.
The hardest material happens in the first chapter. What would be the point of writing a novel if there was no change or growth in the end? The book is not about pain, it’s about push. You can either lie down and do nothing or you can stand up and be strong.
Precious could have gone out and hurt other people or become a crack addict. Why doesn’t someone like her go out and do something like what happened in Littleton, Colorado? Why does she try to go to school, try to get money for diapers for her baby? Why does she try when so many who have suffered less than her take the darker path?
In the beginning of the book, she gives birth to a child. What is dark about that? What could be brighter than that? It would have been dark if she had done like that girl at the prom who strangled her baby. The criticism of Push sometimes baffles me.
And don’t you think it [sexual abuse] disturbs the people it’s happening to? This is happened to 40 percent of American women. Don’t you think it disturbs them? It’s not my fault. Forty percent of women say that they have been sexually abused under the age of 15, whether it’s by parents or the bus driver. This is something that happens to women in western culture. Right now, you can get on the net and surf for the child porn of your choice.
If it really disturbs you, there are ways that we can work to stop the abuse of women and children. And I’m not going to stop writing about it until it stops happening.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Saturday, May 2, 2009
NO MORE RAIDS! NO MORE DEPORATIONS! No Human Being Is Illegal!
Community,
Please take a look at this fact sheet of human rights violations against our immigrants occurring in our Commonwealth.
THIS SUMMARY BORROWS FROM AN ACLU-MASSACHUSETTS REPORT ON ICE
DETENTIONS: http://www.aclum.org/ice/
FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO HELP STOP THE RAIDS, DETENTIONS AND DEPORTATIONS, CONTACT:
MA Raid & Deportation Resistance Network: ma.stop.raids.detentions@gmail.com or 617-448-0993
The MA Raid & Deportation Resistance Network is a coalition of concerned community members, activists and organizers dedicated to bringing an end to the inhuman treatment of immigrants and communities of color in our Commonwealth
ICE DETENTIONS IN MASSACHUSETTS
800! Every day in Massachusetts, approximately 800 immigrants and asylum-seekers are in detention in
county jails around the state waiting to be deported or fighting a legal battle to stay in the country. None of
those persons are serving sentences for having committed a crime. They have not been judged by a jury of their peers.
350,000! This is part of a national deportation plan formulated by the Immigration & Customs Enforcement authorities. In 2008, this resulted in a record number of deportations — 349,041 people for forcibly removed from the United States.ICE created a network of approximately 400 jails and detention facilities around the country where it now holds over 30,000 persons on any given day. In Massachusetts, the ALCU interviewed 40 detainees who were detained for an average length of 11 months with one having been incarcerated for 5 years!
IMPRISONED! The deportations have reinforced already-existing prison machinery: in Massachusetts. These facilities, which already are overcrowded at up to two and a half times their capacity, receive funding from the federal government at a rate of between $80 and $90 a day plus guard hours, but little or no guidance or oversight to protect detainees' and their rights.
MOVED! ICE raids and detentions result in shell game involving people and an abuse of their due process rights: ICE has almost unlimited power to detain them in any facility in the country and to move them from one facility to another without justification or advance notice. ICE takes full advantage of this power, transferring detainees on a daily basis all over the country. In 2007, ICE spent more than $10 million to transfer nearly 19,400 detained persons. In New England, ICE arrests twice as many people as the region holds; this means that half of those arrested are taken quickly to detention centers in places as far away as Texas and Louisiana.
LOST! Despite its multi-million dollar budget for daily transfers, ICE has no real-time tracking system to monitor the location of its detainees. In the New England region, relatives or lawyers of detained persons call the ICE-New England headquarters for information on the location of their loved one or client and can wait for days for an answer because ICE computers do not have an up-to-date location.
THREATENED! Detainees report that ICE agents used threats, coercion and physical force... Some reported threats of forced sedation, others of forced removal from their cells and transfer to vans and planes.
OVERCROWDING! In some facilities, detained immigrants sleep side by side with inmates in cells meant to hold one person that currently hold two or three.
PUNITIVE! The detainees reported being held in the same unit or the same cell with violent criminals; having to submit to strip searches and cell searches; unhealthy food and dirty water; a lack of access to bathrooms; difficulties in receiving visits from lawyers and family members; a phone system that makes it excessively expensive to call loved ones; no access to a legal library; no access to an outside recreation area; no access to educational services and no access to newspapers or reading materials.
MEDICAL CARE DENIED! The ACLU (MA) documents two cases in
which care was delayed or denied based on the belief that the ill persons would soon be
deported or released, and a third case in which care for a broken finger was refused because the fracture had occurred days prior to the person's arrest, forcing him to stay in detention for months with a finger that became increasingly deformed and painful. There is no standardized process by which a detained person can ask for release based
on a medical condition.
Please take a look at this fact sheet of human rights violations against our immigrants occurring in our Commonwealth.
THIS SUMMARY BORROWS FROM AN ACLU-MASSACHUSETTS REPORT ON ICE
DETENTIONS: http://www.aclum.org/ice/
FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO HELP STOP THE RAIDS, DETENTIONS AND DEPORTATIONS, CONTACT:
MA Raid & Deportation Resistance Network: ma.stop.raids.detentions@gmail.com or 617-448-0993
The MA Raid & Deportation Resistance Network is a coalition of concerned community members, activists and organizers dedicated to bringing an end to the inhuman treatment of immigrants and communities of color in our Commonwealth
ICE DETENTIONS IN MASSACHUSETTS
800! Every day in Massachusetts, approximately 800 immigrants and asylum-seekers are in detention in
county jails around the state waiting to be deported or fighting a legal battle to stay in the country. None of
those persons are serving sentences for having committed a crime. They have not been judged by a jury of their peers.
350,000! This is part of a national deportation plan formulated by the Immigration & Customs Enforcement authorities. In 2008, this resulted in a record number of deportations — 349,041 people for forcibly removed from the United States.ICE created a network of approximately 400 jails and detention facilities around the country where it now holds over 30,000 persons on any given day. In Massachusetts, the ALCU interviewed 40 detainees who were detained for an average length of 11 months with one having been incarcerated for 5 years!
IMPRISONED! The deportations have reinforced already-existing prison machinery: in Massachusetts. These facilities, which already are overcrowded at up to two and a half times their capacity, receive funding from the federal government at a rate of between $80 and $90 a day plus guard hours, but little or no guidance or oversight to protect detainees' and their rights.
MOVED! ICE raids and detentions result in shell game involving people and an abuse of their due process rights: ICE has almost unlimited power to detain them in any facility in the country and to move them from one facility to another without justification or advance notice. ICE takes full advantage of this power, transferring detainees on a daily basis all over the country. In 2007, ICE spent more than $10 million to transfer nearly 19,400 detained persons. In New England, ICE arrests twice as many people as the region holds; this means that half of those arrested are taken quickly to detention centers in places as far away as Texas and Louisiana.
LOST! Despite its multi-million dollar budget for daily transfers, ICE has no real-time tracking system to monitor the location of its detainees. In the New England region, relatives or lawyers of detained persons call the ICE-New England headquarters for information on the location of their loved one or client and can wait for days for an answer because ICE computers do not have an up-to-date location.
THREATENED! Detainees report that ICE agents used threats, coercion and physical force... Some reported threats of forced sedation, others of forced removal from their cells and transfer to vans and planes.
OVERCROWDING! In some facilities, detained immigrants sleep side by side with inmates in cells meant to hold one person that currently hold two or three.
PUNITIVE! The detainees reported being held in the same unit or the same cell with violent criminals; having to submit to strip searches and cell searches; unhealthy food and dirty water; a lack of access to bathrooms; difficulties in receiving visits from lawyers and family members; a phone system that makes it excessively expensive to call loved ones; no access to a legal library; no access to an outside recreation area; no access to educational services and no access to newspapers or reading materials.
MEDICAL CARE DENIED! The ACLU (MA) documents two cases in
which care was delayed or denied based on the belief that the ill persons would soon be
deported or released, and a third case in which care for a broken finger was refused because the fracture had occurred days prior to the person's arrest, forcing him to stay in detention for months with a finger that became increasingly deformed and painful. There is no standardized process by which a detained person can ask for release based
on a medical condition.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
LABOUR-MALAYSIA: Hit Foreign Workers First Govt Tells Employers
By Anil Netto
PENANG, Mar 23 (IPS) - An official guideline for employers to retrench their foreign workers ahead of local employees has alarmed civil society society groups who fear that indebted migrant workers could be sent home with inadequate compensation.
Worries about retrenchment and unemployment have been mounting as Malaysia sinks into a recession, its export-oriented economy taking a hit from a slump in global consumer demand.
In the last quarter of 2008, the economy grew by just 0.1 per cent and many fear the economy will shrink this year despite a huge 60 billion ringgit (16 billion US dollars) government stimulus package.
In January, exports dropped by 28 percent and the number of workers employed by the manufacturing sector fell by nine per cent against the previous year.
Thousands have been retrenched in the last few months. Labour Department statistics for the month of January alone show 4,325 workers retrenched of which 2,153 were local and 2,172 foreign. These of course are only reported figures.
The steady rate of retrenchments has worried the government, which has announced a principle of foreign workers first out (FWFO), meaning that employers should lay off foreign workers before they retrench locals.
Even the country's trade union movement is worried about the influx of migrant workers at a time when retrenchments are rising.
The issue came under the spotlight when the Bangladeshi labour counsellor said that 70,000 workers from that South Asian country with approved visas would be arriving soon to take up jobs in the plantation, construction and services sectors.
A senior official of the Malaysian Trades Union Congress pointed out that thousands of Bangladeshi workers were experiencing employment uncertainty. He said it would be better to revoke their visas while they were still in their country, instead of landing here and becoming unemployed or under-employed.
But activists point out that many of the foreign workers in Malaysia have paid small fortunes to agents in their home countries to work in Malaysia. Most of the foreign workers in the country are from Indonesia, Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Vietnam, Nepal and the Philippines.
They are lured here by foreign recruitment agents or representative of the more than 250 registered outsourcing countries operating in Malaysia.
If visas are cancelled, foreign workers are unlikely to obtain refunds from the agents. Bangladeshi and Indian workers, for instance, have to raise or borrow around 8,000 to 10,000 ringgit (2192 – 2740 dollars) to pay for agents fees and other charges.
Employment agreements are usually for a period of three years while work permits have to be renewed annually.
But the government has reportedly slashed its work permit approvals by over 70 percent this year. It has also approved a proposal to double the foreign workers' levy imposed on employers to discourage the hiring of foreign workers.
Activists worry that employers could pass down these higher charges for their foreign workers to absorb. In the case of restaurant owners, this could reportedly amount to 3,600 ringgit (988 dollars) per worker. Employers could also be tempted to hire undocumented workers due to the higher levies.
Foreign workers usually have to work one or two years before they can recover what they incurred - or repay the loans they took - in their home countries. If they are sent back earlier, they could well find themselves in debt upon their return home.
Indonesia has expressed fears that some 100,000 of the two million Indonesian workers in Malaysia could be retrenched as companies here shed workers.
"This has not yet happened, so don’t exaggerate it," outgoing Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi was quoted as saying in the Indonesian media during a two-day visit to Indonesia this week. "And if it ever happens, it will not only happen to migrant workers but also to Malaysians."
In a joint statement, fifty civil society groups from South and South-east Asia endorsed a statement, pointing out it would be a great injustice if Malaysian employers were allowed to prematurely terminate their foreign workers' employment agreements and send them back home.
Early termination of their employment agreements means they would usually end up in a worse condition than when they first entered into the agreement.
“This is a great injustice, and it is inhumane,” said the statement. “If there is going to be early termination of employment agreements which are for a minimum fixed period of employment, then the worker must be paid adequate compensation, at the very least basic wages for the remaining duration of their employment agreement.”
Paying migrant workers the usual termination benefits that Malaysian workers are entitled to - calculated based on the number of years in service - would not be fair either in view of the huge costs the foreign workers incurred in arriving in Malaysia.
Before they send back anybody, the employers should pay what they owe the workers, says Ruth Paul, the coordinator of the Foreign Workers Service Centre on mainland Penang.
“These workers don't have (statutory) retrenchment benefits; so if, say, they have a year remaining on their contract, the employers could pay their outstanding wages (for the remaining period) plus the cost of flight tickets,” Paul said.
She mentioned a couple of cases in the city of Ipoh recently, where migrant workers were sent back home without their wages because the company was shutting down.
Paul also fears that some employers might just shut down their factories without adequately compensating their migrant workers, leaving them in a lurch.
In the past, she had encountered cases where the employers, who had held on to their workers' passports, suddenly disappeared and could not be contacted. “The only thing I tell them is to make a police report and contact their embassy.”
Human rights lawyer and blogger Charles Hector suggests that a new policy could be adopted: if a migrant worker has been retrenched, and if he or she has worked less than three years in Malaysia, a new amended work permit could be given to allow the worker to be employed in another sector that needs workers.
“They may be non-citizens, but they are workers and human beings, and they need to be treated as such,” he wrote in his blog. “The government needs to develop just policies and principles."
PENANG, Mar 23 (IPS) - An official guideline for employers to retrench their foreign workers ahead of local employees has alarmed civil society society groups who fear that indebted migrant workers could be sent home with inadequate compensation.
Worries about retrenchment and unemployment have been mounting as Malaysia sinks into a recession, its export-oriented economy taking a hit from a slump in global consumer demand.
In the last quarter of 2008, the economy grew by just 0.1 per cent and many fear the economy will shrink this year despite a huge 60 billion ringgit (16 billion US dollars) government stimulus package.
In January, exports dropped by 28 percent and the number of workers employed by the manufacturing sector fell by nine per cent against the previous year.
Thousands have been retrenched in the last few months. Labour Department statistics for the month of January alone show 4,325 workers retrenched of which 2,153 were local and 2,172 foreign. These of course are only reported figures.
The steady rate of retrenchments has worried the government, which has announced a principle of foreign workers first out (FWFO), meaning that employers should lay off foreign workers before they retrench locals.
Even the country's trade union movement is worried about the influx of migrant workers at a time when retrenchments are rising.
The issue came under the spotlight when the Bangladeshi labour counsellor said that 70,000 workers from that South Asian country with approved visas would be arriving soon to take up jobs in the plantation, construction and services sectors.
A senior official of the Malaysian Trades Union Congress pointed out that thousands of Bangladeshi workers were experiencing employment uncertainty. He said it would be better to revoke their visas while they were still in their country, instead of landing here and becoming unemployed or under-employed.
But activists point out that many of the foreign workers in Malaysia have paid small fortunes to agents in their home countries to work in Malaysia. Most of the foreign workers in the country are from Indonesia, Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Vietnam, Nepal and the Philippines.
They are lured here by foreign recruitment agents or representative of the more than 250 registered outsourcing countries operating in Malaysia.
If visas are cancelled, foreign workers are unlikely to obtain refunds from the agents. Bangladeshi and Indian workers, for instance, have to raise or borrow around 8,000 to 10,000 ringgit (2192 – 2740 dollars) to pay for agents fees and other charges.
Employment agreements are usually for a period of three years while work permits have to be renewed annually.
But the government has reportedly slashed its work permit approvals by over 70 percent this year. It has also approved a proposal to double the foreign workers' levy imposed on employers to discourage the hiring of foreign workers.
Activists worry that employers could pass down these higher charges for their foreign workers to absorb. In the case of restaurant owners, this could reportedly amount to 3,600 ringgit (988 dollars) per worker. Employers could also be tempted to hire undocumented workers due to the higher levies.
Foreign workers usually have to work one or two years before they can recover what they incurred - or repay the loans they took - in their home countries. If they are sent back earlier, they could well find themselves in debt upon their return home.
Indonesia has expressed fears that some 100,000 of the two million Indonesian workers in Malaysia could be retrenched as companies here shed workers.
"This has not yet happened, so don’t exaggerate it," outgoing Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi was quoted as saying in the Indonesian media during a two-day visit to Indonesia this week. "And if it ever happens, it will not only happen to migrant workers but also to Malaysians."
In a joint statement, fifty civil society groups from South and South-east Asia endorsed a statement, pointing out it would be a great injustice if Malaysian employers were allowed to prematurely terminate their foreign workers' employment agreements and send them back home.
Early termination of their employment agreements means they would usually end up in a worse condition than when they first entered into the agreement.
“This is a great injustice, and it is inhumane,” said the statement. “If there is going to be early termination of employment agreements which are for a minimum fixed period of employment, then the worker must be paid adequate compensation, at the very least basic wages for the remaining duration of their employment agreement.”
Paying migrant workers the usual termination benefits that Malaysian workers are entitled to - calculated based on the number of years in service - would not be fair either in view of the huge costs the foreign workers incurred in arriving in Malaysia.
Before they send back anybody, the employers should pay what they owe the workers, says Ruth Paul, the coordinator of the Foreign Workers Service Centre on mainland Penang.
“These workers don't have (statutory) retrenchment benefits; so if, say, they have a year remaining on their contract, the employers could pay their outstanding wages (for the remaining period) plus the cost of flight tickets,” Paul said.
She mentioned a couple of cases in the city of Ipoh recently, where migrant workers were sent back home without their wages because the company was shutting down.
Paul also fears that some employers might just shut down their factories without adequately compensating their migrant workers, leaving them in a lurch.
In the past, she had encountered cases where the employers, who had held on to their workers' passports, suddenly disappeared and could not be contacted. “The only thing I tell them is to make a police report and contact their embassy.”
Human rights lawyer and blogger Charles Hector suggests that a new policy could be adopted: if a migrant worker has been retrenched, and if he or she has worked less than three years in Malaysia, a new amended work permit could be given to allow the worker to be employed in another sector that needs workers.
“They may be non-citizens, but they are workers and human beings, and they need to be treated as such,” he wrote in his blog. “The government needs to develop just policies and principles."
Monday, March 2, 2009
Haitians facing deportation look to Obama for help
http://www.southernstudies.org/2009/02/will-obama-help-haitian-immigrants.html
The United States is set to deport more than 30,000 Haitians to their impoverished homeland, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials announced this week. A protest in response to the decision has been planned for Saturday, Feb. 21 in Broward County, Florida. Haitian activists and immigrants are calling for a halt to the arrests and a suspension of the deportations.
Deportation orders have been processed for 30,299 Haitians and they are starting to be implemented. Hundreds of Haitians have been put in camps awaiting the return home, while others have been put under a form of house arrest and are being monitored with electronic ankle bracelets, the AFP reported.
As the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, Haiti's troubles significantly increased with the passage of four deadly back-to-back storms last fall -- Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike -- that killed more than 800 persons and worsened the nation's food crisis. The storms devastated the small, impoverished island nation, washing away roads, bridges and crops. Thousands lost their homes. By some estimates, 80 percent of the country's population had been displaced by wide-ranging flood damage. A joint World Bank, United Nations and European Commission assessment released last November determined that total losses from the storms -- "the largest disaster for Haiti in more than 100 years" – could equal 15 percent of Haiti's gross national product.
Haitian President René Préval has urged the United States to grant Haitians nationals in the United States temporary protection status as victims of natural disasters, insisting Haiti is still struggling to recover from last year's devastating hurricanes and cannot handle the return of its citizens. Haitian officials even said they will not issue the travel documents needed to process the deportees. But ICE argues that Haiti's resistance will force people to languish longer in crowded detention centers.
The U.S. government did halt deportations to Haiti for three months last year, starting in September. After resuming flights in December, the administration of then President George W. Bush denied Haiti's request for "temporary protected status." Temporary protected status, or TPS, is a special state granted to immigrants of certain nationalities who are unable to return to their countries because of armed conflict, environmental disasters, or other extraordinary and temporary conditions, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The designation would have allowed Haitians living in the United States illegally to stay and work temporarily as their home country recovered from the devastating storm season.
Several Florida lawmakers criticized the Department of Homeland Security's decision to resume deportations last December. Haitian grassroots activists and immigration advocates have since renewed the call for TPS for Haitian nationals in the United States. Haitian advocates are upset that the new Obama White House seems to be maintaining the same policy of the past administrations -- one that advocates say represents a double-standard in dealing with Haitian immigrants.
Protected status has been granted and extended by the DHS to people from a handful of African and Central American countries because of natural disasters. For instance, Hondurans are still getting TPS from a natural disaster that occurred in 1999. In addition to Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Sudan have temporary protected status through 2010. Yet, Haiti has never been granted such a status. Over the years, the United States has become notorious for turning away Haitian "boat people" coming into South Florida seeking refuge and asylum from political upheaval and disaster.
The impact of U.S. and multinational policies continue to haunt the country. Over the years, due to harsh policies and pressure from the United States, World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, Haiti was forced to undergo strict structural adjustment policies that had a devastating impact on its local economy. Critics argue that international lending organizations helped worsen hunger in Haiti by pursuing free market policies that undermined domestic rice production and turned the country into a market for U.S. rice. This food crisis was further compounded by crippling sanctions, political destabilization, and environmental destruction.
Now Haitian advocates are wondering if the Obama era will bring in fair immigration reform or just more of the same.
The United States is set to deport more than 30,000 Haitians to their impoverished homeland, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials announced this week. A protest in response to the decision has been planned for Saturday, Feb. 21 in Broward County, Florida. Haitian activists and immigrants are calling for a halt to the arrests and a suspension of the deportations.
Deportation orders have been processed for 30,299 Haitians and they are starting to be implemented. Hundreds of Haitians have been put in camps awaiting the return home, while others have been put under a form of house arrest and are being monitored with electronic ankle bracelets, the AFP reported.
As the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, Haiti's troubles significantly increased with the passage of four deadly back-to-back storms last fall -- Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike -- that killed more than 800 persons and worsened the nation's food crisis. The storms devastated the small, impoverished island nation, washing away roads, bridges and crops. Thousands lost their homes. By some estimates, 80 percent of the country's population had been displaced by wide-ranging flood damage. A joint World Bank, United Nations and European Commission assessment released last November determined that total losses from the storms -- "the largest disaster for Haiti in more than 100 years" – could equal 15 percent of Haiti's gross national product.
Haitian President René Préval has urged the United States to grant Haitians nationals in the United States temporary protection status as victims of natural disasters, insisting Haiti is still struggling to recover from last year's devastating hurricanes and cannot handle the return of its citizens. Haitian officials even said they will not issue the travel documents needed to process the deportees. But ICE argues that Haiti's resistance will force people to languish longer in crowded detention centers.
The U.S. government did halt deportations to Haiti for three months last year, starting in September. After resuming flights in December, the administration of then President George W. Bush denied Haiti's request for "temporary protected status." Temporary protected status, or TPS, is a special state granted to immigrants of certain nationalities who are unable to return to their countries because of armed conflict, environmental disasters, or other extraordinary and temporary conditions, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The designation would have allowed Haitians living in the United States illegally to stay and work temporarily as their home country recovered from the devastating storm season.
Several Florida lawmakers criticized the Department of Homeland Security's decision to resume deportations last December. Haitian grassroots activists and immigration advocates have since renewed the call for TPS for Haitian nationals in the United States. Haitian advocates are upset that the new Obama White House seems to be maintaining the same policy of the past administrations -- one that advocates say represents a double-standard in dealing with Haitian immigrants.
Protected status has been granted and extended by the DHS to people from a handful of African and Central American countries because of natural disasters. For instance, Hondurans are still getting TPS from a natural disaster that occurred in 1999. In addition to Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Sudan have temporary protected status through 2010. Yet, Haiti has never been granted such a status. Over the years, the United States has become notorious for turning away Haitian "boat people" coming into South Florida seeking refuge and asylum from political upheaval and disaster.
The impact of U.S. and multinational policies continue to haunt the country. Over the years, due to harsh policies and pressure from the United States, World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, Haiti was forced to undergo strict structural adjustment policies that had a devastating impact on its local economy. Critics argue that international lending organizations helped worsen hunger in Haiti by pursuing free market policies that undermined domestic rice production and turned the country into a market for U.S. rice. This food crisis was further compounded by crippling sanctions, political destabilization, and environmental destruction.
Now Haitian advocates are wondering if the Obama era will bring in fair immigration reform or just more of the same.
Haitians shocked at mass deportation order
By Suzan Clarke
The Journal News, Feb. 21, 2009
Haitian-Americans here and across the nation are outraged over a federal judge's decision to deport more than 30,000 undocumented Haitians, and have vowed to fight the order.
Joseph Desmaret, a Haitian-American and elected official in Spring Valley, which is home to a large number of Haitians, said immigration violations are no reason to target Haitians.
He said he had no problem with the deportation of violent criminals but noted that the majority of those under the order had not violated criminal law.
"I don't think it's fair for a country like Haiti, that is in the backyard of the United States, to (be treated) like this," he said, adding that Haiti was unable to accept the deportees because the country was devastated by several hurricanes last year.
Millions of undocumented immigrants from other countries who live in America were not targeted by deportation efforts, he said, adding that the United States' policy toward certain nations was inherently unfair.
"There are many other immigrants, like ... Cubans, they are welcomed to the United States. They have almost the same problems like the Haitians. They accept them, they help them out, and why not us?" he said.
This week, the federal government announced that 30,299 Haitians had been placed under final deportation orders by a federal judge. The news has been met with outrage, and protests have been staged in Miami.
The Haitian government is reportedly in talks with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in an attempt to find a solution.
Haiti's consul general in the New York area, Felix Augustin, yesterday said the Haitian government was hopeful that the talks would produce results. Even so, Haitians in Haiti as well as in the U.S. are worried.
"We had four hurricanes in the span of less than a month" last year, "and Haiti is recovering from all those disasters," Augustin said. "We don't have the safety net, the social safety net, to accept such a large number of people."
The United States deported 1,024 Haitians between January and Dec. 17 of last year, said Barbara Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
As for the final orders of removal, they affect people whose cases may have been pending over time, and were not all ordered in one swoop, she said.
Of the 30,299, fewer than 600 were in ICE custody. The remaining prospective deportees were expected to comply with the deportation order and leave voluntarily.
Those who failed to comply would be considered fugitives. Gonzalez said the government had "fugitive alien teams" across the country whose sole purpose was to capture people who evaded deportation orders.
Gonzalez denied that Haitians were being treated more harshly than nationals of other countries.
"We enforce the law consistently across the board, regardless of a person's nationality," she said. "Our law enforcement officers have a duty and an obligation to enforce our nation's laws, and that's what they do every single day."
Haiti's government has said it cannot accept the returning citizens now, and has renewed a call for the U.S. to temporarily suspend deportations until the country is in better shape. Haitian authorities are reportedly declining to issue travel documents to the intended deportees.
The U.S. cannot return people to their country if they do not possess travel documents. In such cases, Gonzalez said, an immigrant in U.S. custody without travel documents would probably spend a longer time in detention.
Gonzalez could not immediately say how many of those Haitians under final deportation order were in New York state.
Desmaret, of Spring Valley, said Haitians across the diaspora were abuzz about the planned removals. He himself, along with Spring Valley Deputy Mayor Noramie Jasmin, who also is Haitian, have reached out Rep. Eliot Engel, D-Bronx, for help.
"We're determined to take steps to stop this. ... And if we have to march in Washington, we'll mobilize our resources, we'll go to Washington and march in Washington for justice for those people," Desmaret said.
Engel, speaking by telephone yesterday from Jamaica, agreed that the deportations to Haiti at this time were "ridiculous."
Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere, is suffering even more because of the troubled world economy.
"If you deport somebody back to a country like Haiti, chances are overwhelming that that person will not be able to find employment, not be able to sustain himself or herself. ... I think that sometimes we need to have a little bit of a heart," he said.
Haiti's ambassador to the United States, Raymond Joseph, has been in talks with the Department of Homeland Security regarding the possibility of granting those Haitians special temporary protected status, according to Augustin.
TPS is a temporary immigration status granted by the United States to eligible nationals of certain countries who are unable to safely return to their home countries because of armed conflict, environmental disaster, or other extraordinary and temporary conditions.
Engel has sponsored legislation to extend TPS to Haitians. When he returns to the U.S., he said, he will meet with federal officials on the matter.
"I would just say that the temporary protected status has been granted to nationals of many countries ... because of earthquakes, hurricanes," he said. "I see no reason why Haitians should be treated any differently. I resent it."
El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Sudan and Sierra Leone are among the countries that have had TPS extended to their nationals.
The Journal News, Feb. 21, 2009
Haitian-Americans here and across the nation are outraged over a federal judge's decision to deport more than 30,000 undocumented Haitians, and have vowed to fight the order.
Joseph Desmaret, a Haitian-American and elected official in Spring Valley, which is home to a large number of Haitians, said immigration violations are no reason to target Haitians.
He said he had no problem with the deportation of violent criminals but noted that the majority of those under the order had not violated criminal law.
"I don't think it's fair for a country like Haiti, that is in the backyard of the United States, to (be treated) like this," he said, adding that Haiti was unable to accept the deportees because the country was devastated by several hurricanes last year.
Millions of undocumented immigrants from other countries who live in America were not targeted by deportation efforts, he said, adding that the United States' policy toward certain nations was inherently unfair.
"There are many other immigrants, like ... Cubans, they are welcomed to the United States. They have almost the same problems like the Haitians. They accept them, they help them out, and why not us?" he said.
This week, the federal government announced that 30,299 Haitians had been placed under final deportation orders by a federal judge. The news has been met with outrage, and protests have been staged in Miami.
The Haitian government is reportedly in talks with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in an attempt to find a solution.
Haiti's consul general in the New York area, Felix Augustin, yesterday said the Haitian government was hopeful that the talks would produce results. Even so, Haitians in Haiti as well as in the U.S. are worried.
"We had four hurricanes in the span of less than a month" last year, "and Haiti is recovering from all those disasters," Augustin said. "We don't have the safety net, the social safety net, to accept such a large number of people."
The United States deported 1,024 Haitians between January and Dec. 17 of last year, said Barbara Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
As for the final orders of removal, they affect people whose cases may have been pending over time, and were not all ordered in one swoop, she said.
Of the 30,299, fewer than 600 were in ICE custody. The remaining prospective deportees were expected to comply with the deportation order and leave voluntarily.
Those who failed to comply would be considered fugitives. Gonzalez said the government had "fugitive alien teams" across the country whose sole purpose was to capture people who evaded deportation orders.
Gonzalez denied that Haitians were being treated more harshly than nationals of other countries.
"We enforce the law consistently across the board, regardless of a person's nationality," she said. "Our law enforcement officers have a duty and an obligation to enforce our nation's laws, and that's what they do every single day."
Haiti's government has said it cannot accept the returning citizens now, and has renewed a call for the U.S. to temporarily suspend deportations until the country is in better shape. Haitian authorities are reportedly declining to issue travel documents to the intended deportees.
The U.S. cannot return people to their country if they do not possess travel documents. In such cases, Gonzalez said, an immigrant in U.S. custody without travel documents would probably spend a longer time in detention.
Gonzalez could not immediately say how many of those Haitians under final deportation order were in New York state.
Desmaret, of Spring Valley, said Haitians across the diaspora were abuzz about the planned removals. He himself, along with Spring Valley Deputy Mayor Noramie Jasmin, who also is Haitian, have reached out Rep. Eliot Engel, D-Bronx, for help.
"We're determined to take steps to stop this. ... And if we have to march in Washington, we'll mobilize our resources, we'll go to Washington and march in Washington for justice for those people," Desmaret said.
Engel, speaking by telephone yesterday from Jamaica, agreed that the deportations to Haiti at this time were "ridiculous."
Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere, is suffering even more because of the troubled world economy.
"If you deport somebody back to a country like Haiti, chances are overwhelming that that person will not be able to find employment, not be able to sustain himself or herself. ... I think that sometimes we need to have a little bit of a heart," he said.
Haiti's ambassador to the United States, Raymond Joseph, has been in talks with the Department of Homeland Security regarding the possibility of granting those Haitians special temporary protected status, according to Augustin.
TPS is a temporary immigration status granted by the United States to eligible nationals of certain countries who are unable to safely return to their home countries because of armed conflict, environmental disaster, or other extraordinary and temporary conditions.
Engel has sponsored legislation to extend TPS to Haitians. When he returns to the U.S., he said, he will meet with federal officials on the matter.
"I would just say that the temporary protected status has been granted to nationals of many countries ... because of earthquakes, hurricanes," he said. "I see no reason why Haitians should be treated any differently. I resent it."
El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Sudan and Sierra Leone are among the countries that have had TPS extended to their nationals.
Haiti, Venezuela pose early tests for Obama administration
By David Adams, Times Latin America Correspondent | February 21, 2009
The Obama administration is getting an early reality check on some of the sticky issues facing U.S. foreign policy in this hemisphere.
Take just two recent examples: Haiti and Venezuela.
Immigration advocates, some of whom worked for the Obama campaign, are dismayed by growing reports of Haitians being deported to the hurricane-wrecked island, despite ongoing legal appeals.
Meanwhile, Venezuelan opposition activists are equally appalled by the State Department's endorsement of Sunday's controversial referendum in which President Hugo Chávez won the right to unlimited re-election.
While Venezuela and Haiti are not considered priorities in U.S. foreign policy - at least not compared with Iraq, Afghanistan or Iran - they are likely to pose significant challenges for the State Department during the next four years. History has proven that American presidents ignore them at their peril.
In Haiti a new political crisis is looming over presidential elections due in 2010 that are likely to be hotly contested. The country is in even more severe economic distress than usual after four hurricanes last year killed 800 people, flooded the country's second-largest city, and destroyed roads, bridges and crops.
Meanwhile, Chávez has over the last decade turned Venezuela into an ideological crucible of anti-U.S. sentiment in Latin America. Venezuela still supplies more than 10 percent of U.S. daily petroleum needs, and is leading efforts at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to push prices higher.
The Bush administration halted deportations to Haiti between September and mid December. But they have since resumed, including four people on Jan. 23, only three days after Obama's inauguration. Thousands more are in detention and face similar fates.
Immigration advocates are appealing for another moratorium, arguing that the devastation from hurricane season has left the country in no condition to handle large numbers of returnees.
"All we are asking for is reinstating the halt to deportation orders," said Steve Forester, with the group Haitian Women of Miami.
As a humanitarian gesture, others say the United States should grant Haitians who are in this country illegally what is known as Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, effectively freezing action on their cases. Haiti's cash-strapped economy depends heavily on remittances from families abroad, which would be hurt if deportations continue, they say.
Some of those being deported are noncriminal Haitians who have often been
living here for more than a decade, and have young, U.S.-born children, as well as U.S. spouses, he said.
Forester cited the example of Louiness Petit-Frere, a Haitian man who was deported Jan. 23 after almost 10 years in this country. Petit-Frere is married to a U.S. citizen, his brother is an injured Iraq war veteran, and his mother is a permanent resident.
"He is calling his mother every day saying he has nothing to eat," said his attorney Candace Jean. "But he came (to Miami) on a boat and the law says you have to go back to your country for 10 years. It makes no sense."
Obama officials had another surprise this week after Chávez won Sunday's referendum allowing him to stand ad infinitum. State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid described the vote as "entirely consistent with the democratic process," despite overwhelming evidence of misuse of state resources.
From that assessment it might appear that the Obama administration "has opted to turn its back on democracy in Venezuela," said Pedro Burelli, a Chávez critic and former board member of Venezuela's state oil company.
Privately, some officials are saying that the spokesman misread his guidance notes. But no one has officially come forward to correct him.
"The fact is that the Obama administration hasn't yet focused on the Venezuela challenge and hasn't decided how it is going to deal with Chávez," said Michael Shifter, at the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue. "The result is some carelessness and contradictory signals."
Ditto Haiti.
The Obama administration is getting an early reality check on some of the sticky issues facing U.S. foreign policy in this hemisphere.
Take just two recent examples: Haiti and Venezuela.
Immigration advocates, some of whom worked for the Obama campaign, are dismayed by growing reports of Haitians being deported to the hurricane-wrecked island, despite ongoing legal appeals.
Meanwhile, Venezuelan opposition activists are equally appalled by the State Department's endorsement of Sunday's controversial referendum in which President Hugo Chávez won the right to unlimited re-election.
While Venezuela and Haiti are not considered priorities in U.S. foreign policy - at least not compared with Iraq, Afghanistan or Iran - they are likely to pose significant challenges for the State Department during the next four years. History has proven that American presidents ignore them at their peril.
In Haiti a new political crisis is looming over presidential elections due in 2010 that are likely to be hotly contested. The country is in even more severe economic distress than usual after four hurricanes last year killed 800 people, flooded the country's second-largest city, and destroyed roads, bridges and crops.
Meanwhile, Chávez has over the last decade turned Venezuela into an ideological crucible of anti-U.S. sentiment in Latin America. Venezuela still supplies more than 10 percent of U.S. daily petroleum needs, and is leading efforts at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to push prices higher.
The Bush administration halted deportations to Haiti between September and mid December. But they have since resumed, including four people on Jan. 23, only three days after Obama's inauguration. Thousands more are in detention and face similar fates.
Immigration advocates are appealing for another moratorium, arguing that the devastation from hurricane season has left the country in no condition to handle large numbers of returnees.
"All we are asking for is reinstating the halt to deportation orders," said Steve Forester, with the group Haitian Women of Miami.
As a humanitarian gesture, others say the United States should grant Haitians who are in this country illegally what is known as Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, effectively freezing action on their cases. Haiti's cash-strapped economy depends heavily on remittances from families abroad, which would be hurt if deportations continue, they say.
Some of those being deported are noncriminal Haitians who have often been
living here for more than a decade, and have young, U.S.-born children, as well as U.S. spouses, he said.
Forester cited the example of Louiness Petit-Frere, a Haitian man who was deported Jan. 23 after almost 10 years in this country. Petit-Frere is married to a U.S. citizen, his brother is an injured Iraq war veteran, and his mother is a permanent resident.
"He is calling his mother every day saying he has nothing to eat," said his attorney Candace Jean. "But he came (to Miami) on a boat and the law says you have to go back to your country for 10 years. It makes no sense."
Obama officials had another surprise this week after Chávez won Sunday's referendum allowing him to stand ad infinitum. State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid described the vote as "entirely consistent with the democratic process," despite overwhelming evidence of misuse of state resources.
From that assessment it might appear that the Obama administration "has opted to turn its back on democracy in Venezuela," said Pedro Burelli, a Chávez critic and former board member of Venezuela's state oil company.
Privately, some officials are saying that the spokesman misread his guidance notes. But no one has officially come forward to correct him.
"The fact is that the Obama administration hasn't yet focused on the Venezuela challenge and hasn't decided how it is going to deal with Chávez," said Michael Shifter, at the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue. "The result is some carelessness and contradictory signals."
Ditto Haiti.
Call to Action
Communities must fight back against FIRST WORKSITE raids of the Obama Administration in Washington state 2.24.09
Tell the Obama Administration: Stop the Raids, Pass Just and Humane Immigration Reform
- Raids hurt our communities, our economy and all workers and immigrants. Raids victimize the very people that helped to bring change to the White House and elect President Barack Obama.
- Yesterday, 28 workers, incuding 3 mothers, were chained and arrested in a factory in Bellingham, WA as part of ICE enforcement operations.
- In this time of economic hardship it is completely unacceptable for the Obama administration to be executing raids on our workers, businesses and communities- it is time for him to hear from us.
CALL the WHITE HOUSE NOW: 202-456-1414 to speak to the President
Tell President Barack Obama:
- The raid in Washington state is unacceptable, and hurts all of our communities.
- He must stop the raids NOW, and work to pass comprehensive immigration reform - NOW!.
or
FAX a letter to: 202-456-2461
Tell the Obama Administration: Stop the Raids, Pass Just and Humane Immigration Reform
- Raids hurt our communities, our economy and all workers and immigrants. Raids victimize the very people that helped to bring change to the White House and elect President Barack Obama.
- Yesterday, 28 workers, incuding 3 mothers, were chained and arrested in a factory in Bellingham, WA as part of ICE enforcement operations.
- In this time of economic hardship it is completely unacceptable for the Obama administration to be executing raids on our workers, businesses and communities- it is time for him to hear from us.
CALL the WHITE HOUSE NOW: 202-456-1414 to speak to the President
Tell President Barack Obama:
- The raid in Washington state is unacceptable, and hurts all of our communities.
- He must stop the raids NOW, and work to pass comprehensive immigration reform - NOW!.
or
FAX a letter to: 202-456-2461
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