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Seventy international, national, and local organizations, joined by three individuals, wrote DHS Sec. Napolitano today urging broad Haitian immigration relief. The letter was organized by the Washington, D.C. office of Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS)

12 March 2010 Comments: 0

March 12, 2010

Sec­re­tary Janet Napolitano
Depart­ment of Home­land Security
U.S. Depart­ment of Home­land Security
Wash­ing­ton, DC 20528
Dear Sec­re­tary Napolitano:
We write to express our appre­ci­a­tion for the actions you have taken since the Jan­u­ary 12
earth­quake in Haiti. As the full impact of the earth­quake has become clear, we also write
to respect­fully ask you to take addi­tional steps to address the scope of cur­rent Haitian
migra­tion needs.
Fam­ily reuni­fi­ca­tion should be para­mount at a time of such loss and grief. Expediting
fam­ily reuni­fi­ca­tion through safe and orderly migra­tion chan­nels would keep families
together, increase U.S. remit­tances to Haiti, and help to avoid dan­ger­ous maritime
migra­tion.
Equally impor­tant, while the U.S. takes steps to pre­vent Haitians from risk­ing their lives
at sea, law­less­ness, impunity, and per­se­cu­tion often fol­low nat­ural dis­as­ter. Haitians
inter­dicted at sea must be screened to deter­mine if they are refugees. The U.S. cannot
ignore its inter­na­tional treaty oblig­a­tions to pro­tect those who are flee­ing persecution.
Specif­i­cally, we ask that DHS imple­ment the fol­low­ing measures:

• Cre­ate a Hait­ian Fam­ily Reuni­fi­ca­tion Parole Pro­gram: Thou­sands of Haitians
who reside legally in the U.S., many as U.S. cit­i­zens, have been wait­ing for years
for the U.S. gov­ern­ment to issue visas to their fam­ily mem­bers in Haiti so that
they may join them here. Some 19,000 Haitians have visa appli­ca­tions pending,
and nearly 55,000 Haitians have been approved for fam­ily visas but are on
wait­ing lists to enter because Con­gress has set lim­its on how many may come
each year. The Cuban Fam­ily Reuni­fi­ca­tion Parole Pro­gram, imple­mented by
DHS under Pres­i­dent George W. Bush in 2007, allows Cuban ben­e­fi­cia­ries of
approved family-based immi­grant visa peti­tions to come to the United States
rather than remain in Cuba dur­ing the long wait for a visa. A sim­i­lar program
should be cre­ated for Haitians.

• Grant Human­i­tar­ian Parole and TPS to Imme­di­ate Fam­ily Mem­bers of Haitians
with TPS: Imme­di­ate fam­ily mem­bers, includ­ing the spouse and chil­dren, of
Haitians granted TPS should be allowed to reunite with their fam­ily mem­bers and
be granted tem­po­rary legal sta­tus within the United States. Chil­dren should be
able to derive their parent’s TPS sta­tus for the time the par­ent is autho­rized to
legally reside and work in the United States. Spouses should be allowed to join
their TPS recip­i­ent spouses through human­i­tar­ian parole.

• Cre­ate a Hait­ian Parole Lot­tery Pro­gram: To abate spon­ta­neous and uncontrolled
migra­tion from Haiti, the U.S. should con­sider repli­cat­ing for Haitians the
suc­cess­ful Cuban parole lot­tery pro­gram, which has allowed indi­vid­u­als who do
not qual­ify as refugees or immi­grants to seek to enter the United States with
human­i­tar­ian parole and which has been suc­cess­ful in sig­nif­i­cantly reduc­ing the
num­ber of Cubans attempt­ing to reach the U.S. by sea. Access to the lottery
should be open to Haitians regard­less of fam­ily ties to the U.S., edu­ca­tion, or
work expe­ri­ence, and any fees asso­ci­ated with the pro­gram should be payable
after arrival in the U.S. This will help to ensure access for Haitians in most need
of the oppor­tu­nity to sup­port them­selves and their families.

• Con­sider Detained Haitians for Release: As Haitians have the poten­tial to become “longterm”
DHS detainees because depor­ta­tion could be delayed indef­i­nitely due to the
con­di­tions in Haiti, detained Haitians should be imme­di­ately released from detention
unless the gov­ern­ment can demon­strate that they pose a dan­ger to the com­mu­nity. All
Haitians released from deten­tion should be pro­vided with work authorization.

• Rescind the “Shout Test”: Under a pol­icy in place since the 1990s, only Haitians who
phys­i­cally or ver­bally resist repa­tri­a­tion are eval­u­ated to deter­mine if they have been
per­se­cuted or fear per­se­cu­tion in Haiti. Not all asy­lum seek­ers escap­ing by boat are
sub­ject to this pol­icy, known as the “shout test.” Cubans are pro­vided infor­ma­tion in
Span­ish inform­ing them that they can raise con­cerns about their return. Chi­nese are
given a ques­tion­naire ask­ing about their rea­sons for leav­ing their coun­try. Haitians are
not screened at all, and as the U.S. does not require inter­preters on the boats they cannot
truly com­mu­ni­cate any fear of return. It is inde­fen­si­ble that Haitians are given unequal
oppor­tu­nity to express a fear of per­se­cu­tion based solely on who they are and the fact that
they are from Haiti. DHS should aban­don its pol­icy of declar­ing that asy­lum seek­ers at
sea are not pro­tected by the Refugee Con­ven­tion and start ensur­ing that Hait­ian asylum
seek­ers inter­dicted at sea receive the pro­tec­tions to which they are enti­tled under our
country’s inter­na­tional treaty obligations.

We appre­ci­ate your atten­tion to the plight of Haitians in the after­math of this tragedy and
look for­ward to your response.
Sin­cerely,

Inter­na­tional and National Organizations

Amer­i­can Immi­gra­tion Council
Amer­i­can Immi­gra­tion Lawyers Association
Amer­i­can Jew­ish Committee
Amer­i­can Jew­ish World Service
Asian Amer­i­can Jus­tice Center
Asso­ci­a­tion of Hait­ian Professionals
B’nai B’rith International
Black Alliance for Just Immigration
Chris­t­ian Reformed Church Office of Social Justice
Church World Service-Immigration and Refugee Program
Daugh­ters of Wisdom
Dis­ci­ples Jus­tice Action Network-Disciples of Christ
Domini­can Sis­ters of Houston
Epis­co­pal Migra­tion Ministries
Ethiopian Com­mu­nity Devel­op­ment Coun­cil, Inc.
Friends Com­mit­tee on National Legislation
Grass­roots International
Hait­ian Renewal Alliance
Haitian-American Grass­roots Coalition
Hait­ian Amer­i­can Vol­un­teer Efforts Foundation
Hait­ian Dias­pora Federation
Hebrew Immi­grant Aid Society
Human Rights First
Insti­tute for Jus­tice and Democ­racy in Haiti
Inter­na­tional Res­cue Committee
Jesuit Refugee Service-U.S.A.
Jew­ish Coun­cil for Pub­lic Affairs
Jew­ish Coun­cil on Urban Affairs
Jew­ish Labor Committee
Jubilee Cam­paign U.S.A.
Lambi Fund of Haiti
Lutheran Immi­gra­tion and Refugee Service
Men­non­ite Cen­tral Com­mit­tee U.S. Wash­ing­ton Office
National Immi­gra­tion Forum
National Immi­grant Jus­tice Center
Quixote Cen­ter
Rab­bini­cal Assembly
Refugee Women’s Net­work, Inc.
Refugees Inter­na­tional
Sis­ters of Mercy of the Amer­i­cas, South Cen­tral Community
Soci­ety of Amer­i­can Law Teachers
United Methodist Church
TransAfrica Forum
Uni­tar­ian Uni­ver­sal­ist Asso­ci­a­tion of Congregations
Uni­tar­ian Uni­ver­sal­ist Ser­vice Committee
United Methodist Church
U.S. Com­mit­tee for Refugees and Immigrants
Wider Church Ministries-United Church of Christ
Women of Reform Judaism
Women’s Refugee Commission
World Relief

Local Orga­ni­za­tions

Bal­ti­more Jew­ish Coun­cil: Bal­ti­more, Maryland
Casa de Esper­anza: Bound Brook, New Jersey
Catholic Cau­cus South­east Michi­gan: Auburn Hills, Michigan
Cen­ter for Gen­der and Refugee Stud­ies: San Fran­cisco, California
Domini­can Sis­ters of Hous­ton: Hous­ton, Texas
El Rescate Legal Ser­vices, Inc.: Los Ange­les, California
Foundry United Methodist Church: Wash­ing­ton, Dis­trict of Columbia
H.I.A.S. and Coun­cil Migra­tion Ser­vice of Philadel­phia: Philadel­phia, Pennsylvania
Jew­ish Alliance for Law and Social Action: Boston, Massachusetts
Jew­ish Com­mu­nity Action: Saint Paul, MN
Jew­ish Fam­ily and Career Ser­vices: Atlanta, Georgia
Jew­ish Fam­ily Ser­vice: Seat­tle, Washington
Jew­ish Fam­ily Ser­vice of Buf­falo and Erie County: Buf­falo New York
Jew­ish Voca­tional Ser­vice of MetroW­est, Inc.: East Orange, New Jersey
Penn­syl­va­nia Coun­cil of Churches: Har­ris­burg, Pennsylvania
Refugee Fam­ily Ser­vices, Inc.: Atlanta, Georgia
Sis­ters of Char­ity of Saint Eliz­a­beth: Con­vent Sta­tion, New Jersey
United Jew­ish Appeal-Federation of New York: New York, New York
Wel­com­ing Immi­grants Net­work: Dal­las, Texas

Indi­vid­u­als

Patrick Richard, PhD., Assis­tant Research Pro­fes­sor at George Wash­ing­ton University
Michael Clemens, Cen­ter for Global Development
Rev­erend Charles W. Dahm, O.P., Domini­cans of North America

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