Immigration releases Haitian teen after more than a year

[Judi Lynn]

Immigration releases Haitian teen after more than a year

Sun-Sentinel
Posted January 7 2004

MIAMI -- A teenage Haitian refugee was released from U.S. immigration custody after being held for more than a year, a detention that outraged human-rights workers who said she was being treated unfairly.

Rose Thermitus, 17, was freed Tuesday and went to stay with a relative in New York. But U.S. officials could still seek to deport her when she turns 18 on Oct. 27 and is no longer an unaccompanied minor, the status that set her free, said Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center.

Officials with the Homeland Security Department, which had sought to deport her, had no immediate comment Wednesday.

An official at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services decided to release her Tuesday after determining that her parents were probably dead and the Haitian government, arguing that she is an unaccompanied minor, refused to issue a travel visa to a child traveling alone with nowhere to go when she arrived.

(snip) Thermitus and her brother left Haiti after the family's home was burned down by a mob. Their parents are missing and presumed killed. Her brother was deported to Haiti after his asylum request was denied. She does not know where he is now.
(snip/...)

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/miami/sfl-17haitianboy,0,7502457.story?coll=sfla-news-miami

_Bush's Homeland Security really has its stuff together, doesn't it? Good grief. Somewhere in Haiti, as the chaos intensifies, her young brother is left to fend for himself, thanks to our exceptional right-wing interests, which allow ANYONE FROM CUBA who arrives on our shore, by smuggler or innertube, to stay, NO QUESTIONS ASKED, and recieve instant legal status, work visa, green card, Section 8 government subsidized housing, food stamps, medical treatment, social security, educational financial assistance, etc., etc.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. But you forget

Haitians are black and speak a variety of French. Obviiously a security threat. </sarcasm>

[gator_in_Ontario]

2. I think that will change

but far too slowly. The key is political power..and Haitians have very little of that, even on the local level. The fact that they are dark-skinned doesn't help a bit, but many Cubans are just as dark, really.