Parole in the 112,000 Hait­ian Ben­e­fi­cia­ries of Already-Approved Immi­grant Visa Petitions

Prior to the earth­quake, the Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­rity had approved the immi­grant visa peti­tions of 112,000 Haitians who how­ever must wait years longer in Haiti due to the visa back­log.  All will even­tu­ally join their fam­i­lies here; it makes more sense for them to do so imme­di­ately.  DHS should cre­ate a Hait­ian Fam­ily Reuni­fi­ca­tion Parole Pro­gram – like the still-ongoing Cuban Fam­ily Reuni­fi­ca­tion Parole Pro­gram it cre­ated in 2007 – or oth­er­wise imme­di­ately parole in the 112,000 to give par­ity and per­mit their con­se­quent remit­tances to help an esti­mated 550,000 rel­a­tives back home.  This would reunite fam­i­lies, facil­i­tate orderly migra­tion, save lives at sea, and speed cru­cially needed recov­ery funds to hun­dreds of thou­sands in need. Addi­tional still-pending peti­tions should be expe­di­tiously approved.

Edi­to­r­ial sup­port for our posi­tion to imme­di­ately parole in 112,000 ben­e­fi­cia­ries of already-approved visa petitions:

• Law­mak­ers Cast Sym­bolic Vote for Haitians , Herald/Times Tal­la­has­see Bureau, Feb­ru­ary 13, 2012
• Haiti earth­quake 2 years later: Home­land Secu­rity has failed Hait­ian Fam­i­lies (Steve Forester, thegrio.com) , therio.com, Jan­u­ary 12, 2011
• The Hait­ian Migra­tion: Want to help the hun­dreds of thou­sands of Haitians still suf­fer­ing from the 2010 earth­quake? Let some of them into the United States, New Amer­ica Foun­da­tion, Jan­u­ary 9, 2012
• No time to despair OUR OPINION : Haiti’s progress has been slow, but improve­ments are under­way , Miami Her­ald, Jan­u­ary 9, 2012
• Time for Action on Human­i­tar­ian Parole, Boston Hait­ian Reporter, Octo­ber 7, 2011
• Open the door, Mr. Pres­i­dent: Our Opin­ion: There are 55,000 rea­sons to be fair to Hait­ians, Miami Her­ald, Jan­u­ary 6, 2011
• How to Help Haiti, Chicago Tri­bune, Novem­ber 18, 2010
• Visa Pro­gram Would Help Haitians and Haiti, News­day, Sep­tem­ber 27, 2010
• Obama Admin­is­tra­tion Should Act to Speed Haiti Visas, New Jer­sey Star-Ledger, August 10, 2010
• Hait­ian immi­grants need expe­dited entry, San Anto­nio Express, July 22, 2010
• Help­ing Haitians Help Them­selves, Los Ange­les Times, July 21, 2010
• Haiti: Expe­dite Visas for Fam­ily Mem­bers, Boston Globe, July 17, 2010
• Help­ing the Haitians, Philadel­phia Inquirer, July 2, 2010
• Pres­i­dent Obama Could Rapidly Aid Hait­ian Asy­lum Seek­ers, Wash­ing­ton Post, June 26, 2010
• To End Haiti’s Despair, Miami Her­ald, March 28, 2010
• U.S. Must Lead in Haiti’s Recov­ery, Miami Her­ald, March 22, 2010
• Let Haitians Join Rel­a­tives in U.S.: Speed the Visas for Earth­quake Vic­tims, New Jer­sey Star-Ledger, Feb­ru­ary 13, 2010
• The U.S. Should Wel­come Haitians In, Wash­ing­ton Post, Jan­u­ary 29, 2010
• What Haiti Needs: A Hait­ian Dias­pora, Elliot Abrams Op-Ed, Wash­ing­ton Post, Jan­u­ary 22, 2010

Other sup­port:

• Let­ter for Urg­ing expe­dited Hait­ian Fam­ily Reuni­fi­ca­tion and Extend­ing low-skilled tem­po­rary worker visas to Haitians (By Nel­son and Rubio, Florida’s U.S. Sen­a­tors and six other FL del­e­ga­tion mem­bers), Con­gess of the United States, Decem­ber 22, 2011
• Let­ter for Urg­ing the Pres­i­dent to Cre­ate a Hait­ian FRPP or Start prompt Paroles (By Kerry, Durbin, Cardin and Gilli­brand, U.S. Sen­a­tors and 87 U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tives) , Con­gress of the United States, Decem­ber 15, 2011
• Mass­a­chu­setts’ State Black and Latino Leg­isla­tive Cau­cus Urges DHS Sec­re­tary Napoli­tano to Cre­ate a Hait­ian Fam­ily Reuni­fi­ca­tion Parole Pro­gram to Save Lives and Help Haiti Recover, Mass­a­chu­setts State Black and Latino Leg­isla­tive Cau­cus, Novem­ber 4, 2011
• Mass­a­chu­setts’ U.S. Sen­a­tors and Rep­re­sen­ta­tives urge DHS Sec­re­tary Napoli­tano to Cre­ate a Hait­ian Fam­ily Reuni­fi­ca­tion Parole Pro­gram, Mass­a­chu­setts Sen­a­tors and Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, Octo­ber 25, 2011
• Mass. Gov. Patrick Urges DHS Sec. Napoli­tano to Cre­ate a Hait­ian Fam­ily Reuni­fi­ca­tion Parole Pro­gram to Help Haiti Recover, Mass­a­chu­setts Gov­er­nor Deval Patrick, Sep­tem­ber 22, 2011
• Urg­ing the Obama Admin­is­tra­tion to Cre­ate a Hait­ian Fam­ily Reuni­fi­ca­tion Parole Pro­gram to Help Haiti Recover, Save Lives, and End a Dou­ble Stan­dard, The Coun­cil of the city of Philadel­phia, April 28, 2011
• Pres­i­dent Obama Should Imple­ment the “Most Effec­tive Way” to Help Haiti Recover, Steven Forester, Dorch­ester Reporter, Sep­tem­ber 8, 2010
• Let­ter to DHS Sec­re­tary Janet Napoli­tano signed by 75 orga­ni­za­tions, March 12, 2010
• Haiti Remit­tances Key to Earth­quake Recov­ery, World Bank, May 17, 2010
• “Migra­tion as a Tool for Dis­as­ter Recov­ery:” Case study on U.S. Pol­icy Options for Post-Earthquake Haiti from the Cen­ter for Global Development.
• Two-page sum­mary pre­pared for Con­gress out­lin­ing our posi­tion and sup­port for imme­di­ately parol­ing the then 55,000 (now esti­mated 105,000) approved ben­e­fi­cia­ries and for giv­ing U.S. Cit­i­zen­ship and Immi­gra­tion Ser­vices the legal author­ity, now lack­ing, to enter­tain and grant indi­vid­ual appli­ca­tions to waive the required $305 fee to apply for human­i­tar­ian parole based on urgent med­ical or other needs.
• Unan­i­mously adopted June 14 U.S. Con­fer­ence of May­ors res­o­lu­tion urg­ing the Obama admin­is­tra­tion to imme­di­ately parole in the 55,000 (now esti­mated 105,000) ben­e­fi­cia­ries of already-approved visa petitions.
• Let­ter to DHS Sec­re­tary Janet Napoli­tano from U.S. House Judi­ciary, For­eign Affairs, and Immi­gra­tion Sub­com­mit­tee Chair­per­sons John Cony­ers, Howard Berman, and Zoe Lof­gren; Con­gres­sional Black Cau­cus Whip Rep. Yvette Clark; South Florida Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Lin­coln Diaz-Balart, and Mario Diaz-Balart; and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Anh Cao (R La).
• Video of IJDH Immi­gra­tion Advo­cacy Coor­di­na­tor Steven Forester speak­ing on “Race, Cor­po­rate Inter­ests, and Pol­i­tics of the U.S. Immi­gra­tion Sys­tem” at the National Lawyers’ Guild annual con­fer­ence in New Orleans.
• Press Release on Protest Rally in front of U.S. Cit­i­zen­ship & Immi­gra­tion Ser­vices in Miami Thurs­day, August 11 at 11am,  Unjust Immi­gra­tion Poli­cies for Haitians Must Change Now (TransAfrica Forum)

For more infor­ma­tion about our immi­gra­tion advo­cacy work or to get involved, please con­tact IJDH Immi­gra­tion Advo­cacy Coor­di­na­tor Steven Forester.