Dear Friend:

On behalf of New Jersey Immigration Policy Network Inc. (NJIPN/Network), Haitian Community Outreach Program, it is my pleasure to invite you as an honored guest to the New Jersey Haitian Leadership Summit scheduled for Saturday, June 25, 2005 from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at Princeton University Community House in New Jersey.

The purpose of the summit is to bring awareness to the current injustices that Haitian asylum seekers face in the United States. The INS exercises a no-release policy that automatically detains any Haitian person seeking asylum; they are held in some of the most horrific conditions. This policy is based solely on their country of origin. This discriminatory act that primarily targets people of Haitian ancestry violates the basic tenet of human and civil rights laws and should not be tolerated.

The time has come for our community to mobilize just as we did when people of Haitian ancestry were accused of being carriers of the HIV virus. In response to this allegation, thousands of Haitians protested all over the United States and consequently that stereotype no longer exists. We have to be as vigilant as we were then.

I urge you to join us on June 25, 2005 at Princeton University Community House, 86 Olden St. Princeton NJ, at 10 am. Please feel free to contact me at 973-621-0031 or njbaptiste@njipn.org for further information. I look forward to seeing at the Summit.

Please distribute widely.

Best Regards, Naomi Jean-Baptiste, Project Coordinator