Fam­ily Reuni­fi­ca­tion Pro­gram for Haitians | Tem­po­rary Pro­tected Sta­tus

 Hait­ian Asy­lum Infor­ma­tion Project | Stop Depor­ta­tions Now Cam­paign

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Overview:

IJDH’s immi­gra­tion work is built on three decades of lead­er­ship in ensur­ing a safe haven in the U.S. for Haiti’s persecuted. The Haiti Asy­lum Infor­ma­tion Project (HAIP), estab­lished in 2004, has pro­vided asy­lum appli­cants from across Haiti’s polit­i­cal spec­trum the expert tes­ti­mony and coun­try con­di­tion infor­ma­tion they need to present strong cases. Our Stop Depor­ta­tions Now Cam­paign, the plat­form for over a year of Tem­po­rary Pro­tected Sta­tus (TPS) advo­cacy in Con­gress, in the media, and on the streets, led to the de facto sus­pen­sion of all non-criminal depor­ta­tions to Haiti in early 2009 and set the stage for the grant of TPS to Haitians already in the United States on Jan­u­ary 12, 2010, the day of the Haiti earthquake. The earth­quake has gen­er­ated great needs, but also oppor­tu­ni­ties for U.S. immi­gra­tion poli­cies, such as grant­ing TPS and parol­ing thou­sands of Haitians into the United States, to reunite fam­i­lies, facil­i­tate orderly migra­tion, and, most impor­tantly, help Haiti recover by speed­ing the flow of remit­tances to hun­dreds of thou­sands in need there.

Fam­ily Reuni­fi­ca­tion Pro­gram for Haitians

Fol­low­ing our suc­cess­ful cam­paign for Tem­po­rary Pro­tected Sta­tus for Haitians, IJDH is now urg­ing the cre­ation of a Fam­ily Reuni­fi­ca­tion Pro­gram for Haitians, win­ning sig­nif­i­cant edi­to­r­ial and other sup­port. The approved and pend­ing visa peti­tions of ben­e­fi­cia­ries in Haiti should be expe­dited so that these per­sons may be brought to the United States and reunited with their fam­i­lies imme­di­ately. This would save lives, reunite fam­i­lies, insure more orderly migra­tion from dev­as­tated Haiti, and speed the flow of remit­tances to hun­dreds of thou­sands in need.

Press Releases:

• Press Release: New York City Coun­cil Joins Cho­rus Urg­ing a Hait­ian Fam­ily Reuni­fi­ca­tion Parole Pro­gram  — March 2, 2012
• Press Release: 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 (IJDH) — Novem­ber 4, 2011
• Press Release: New York Res­o­lu­tion call­ing upon the Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­rity to cre­ate a Hait­ian Fam­ily Reuni­fi­ca­tion Parole Pro­gram, which would ben­e­fit Haitians recov­er­ing from the Jan­u­ary 12, 2010 earth­quake by allow­ing Haitians with approved family-sponsored immi­grant visa peti­tions to come to the United States. — Novem­ber 3, 2011
• Press Release: Mass­a­chu­setts’ Con­gres­sional Lead­ers Urge DHS Sec­re­tary Napoli­tano to Save Lives and Help Haiti by Reuni­fy­ing Hait­ian Fam­i­lies (IJDH) — Octo­ber 26, 2011
• Create a Hait­ian Fam­ily Reuni­fi­ca­tion Parole Pro­gram to Help Haiti Recover. End the Dou­ble Stan­dard — Sep­tem­ber 29, 2011

Let­ters of 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 Gril­li­brand, 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
• 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), March 8, 2010

Edi­to­r­ial Support:

• 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
• Pres­i­dent Obama Should Imple­ment the “Most Effec­tive Way” to Help Haiti Recover, Steven Forester, Dorch­ester Reporter, Sep­tem­ber 8, 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

Reports/Analysis:

• 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
• 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.

Media: Pod­cast, Video, and Radio:

• 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.

Click here to learn more about Hait­ian Fam­ily Reuni­fi­ca­tion Parole Pro­gram campaign

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Tem­po­rary Pro­tected Status (TPS)

On Jan­u­ary 15, 2010, in response to the dev­as­tat­ing earth­quake in Haiti, the U.S. Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­rity Sec­re­tary Napoli­tano announced the des­ig­na­tion of Tem­po­rary Pro­tected Sta­tus (TPS) for Haitians liv­ing in the U.S. On July 12, the dead­line for Haitians to apply for TPS was extended by six months to Jan­u­ary 18, 2011. TPS allows eli­gi­ble Haitians to remain in the U.S., work, and send remit­tances to needy rel­a­tives in Haiti.

Click here to learn more about Tem­po­rary Pro­tected Sta­tus (TPS) Campaign

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Hait­ian Asy­lum Infor­ma­tion Project (HAIP)

The Hait­ian Asy­lum Infor­ma­tion Project (HAIP) is an online resource library for asy­lum appli­cants and their lawyers. It con­tains key doc­u­ments, con­tact infor­ma­tion, and model plead­ings to facil­i­tate the fil­ing of suc­cess­ful Hait­ian asy­lum cases.

Click here to learn more about Hait­ian Asy­lum Infor­ma­tion Project (HAIP)

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Stop Depor­ta­tions Now Campaign

• Press Release: New York City Coun­cil Joins Cho­rus Urg­ing a Hait­ian Fam­ily Reuni­fi­ca­tion Parole Pro­gram — March 2, 2012
• A Guide for Haitians in Immi­gra­tion Deten­tion (Uni­ver­sity of Miami) — Decem­ber 20, 2011
• US Depor­tees Face Ille­gal Deten­tions, Health Risk in Haiti (Miami Her­ald) — Novem­ber 15, 2011
• U.S. Depor­tees to Haiti, Jailed With­out Cause, Face Severe Health Risks (Florida Cen­ter for Inves­tiga­tive Report­ing) — Novem­ber 14, 2011
• US Reviews Care of Deported Hait­ian Who Died (Herald-Tribune) — Sep­tem­ber 20, 2011
• Inter-American Com­mis­sion Orders United States to Stop Depor­ta­tions to Cholera-Stricken Haiti:3,400 Amer­i­cans Urge Obama Admin­is­tra­tion to Halt Life-Threatening Depor­ta­tions after Depor­tee Death (IACHR) — June 4, 2011

Click here to learn more about Stop Depor­ta­tions Now Campaign

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Take Action

Take action now for fair immi­gra­tion pol­icy toward Haitians. Make your voice heard by sign­ing peti­tions, writ­ing to or call­ing your rep­re­sen­ta­tives, and get­ting up-to-date infor­ma­tion about Hait­ian immigration.

• 852 to go! Please Sign The Online Peti­tion For Hait­ian Fam­ily Reuni­fi­ca­tion Before May 1 Dead­line! — April 25, 2012
• Please SIGN the Peti­tion NOW Urg­ing Pres­i­dent Obama to Expe­dite Hait­ian Fam­ily Reuni­fi­ca­tion ! — Feb­ru­ary 2, 2012

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