FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Steven Forester, Immigration Policy Coordinator, Insti­tute for Jus­tice & Democ­racy in Haiti, 786–877-6999, steveforester@aol.com (U.S.)

Massachusetts’ Congressional Leaders Urge DHS Secretary Napolitano to Save Lives and Help Haiti by Reunifying Haitian Families

(Boston, October 26, 2011) – Yesterday U.S. Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­rity Sec­re­tary Janet Napoli­tano was again urged to promptly parole into the United States Haitian beneficiaries of approved family-based visa petitions, to “mirror” the Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program which promptly paroles such beneficiaries and help Haiti recover from last year’s devastating earthquake by generating significant remittances.

United States Senators John Kerry and Scott Brown and United States Representatives Michael Capuano, Barney Frank, James McGovern, Edward Markey, John Olver, and Stephen Lynch, all of Massachusetts, urge Secretary Napolitano:

“We write with what we believe to be a simple and compelling request: that you use your authority to parole into the United States the beneficiaries, now in Haiti, of approved family based immigration petitions, without regard to the priority date of the applications. Members of Congress made this request in the immediate aftermath of the January 2010 earthquake. Conditions in Haiti remain deplorable, and, in many cases, life threatening. Family members in the United States continue to express to us their anxiety and anguish about children and spouses living there.”

They state that “we believe this exercise of parole authority, which would mirror that of the Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program established in 2007, to be just and appropriate” and “are chiefly concerned to reunite families of legal permanent residents separated from spouses and minor children. We respectfully request immediate exercise of parole authority on their behalf.”

They also affirm that there “would be substantial benefits in admitting adult children of citizens and LPR’s. Haitian adults, gainfully employed in the United States, would, we are convinced, aid in the reconstruction of Haiti through remittances which they would send to their extended families there.”

Yesterday’s letter references a March 8, 2010 letter to Secretary Napolitano urging this same relief from eight leading House members of both parties, including Republican U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Her counterpart, Senator Kerry, who has now written two letters urging this relief, is Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has also urged Secretary Napolitano to do this. In his September 22, 2011 letter, the Governor wrote, “An exer­cise of parole author­ity would allow Haitians with an already approved, legal method of enter­ing the United States to be reunited with close fam­ily mem­bers in the United States while await­ing visa avail­abil­ity. Expe­dit­ing fam­ily reuni­fi­ca­tion through safe and orderly chan­nels would bring fam­i­lies together safely with­out the risk of a dan­ger­ous mar­itime migra­tion, and would allow for greater remit­tances to be sent to aid Haiti’s recovery.”

These let­ters championing Haitian family reunification join calls for this relief from the editorial boards of the Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Washington Post, San Antonio Express News, Miami Herald, Newsday, Star-Ledger, and Palm Beach Post, in thirteen separate editorials; from Philadelphia’s City Council and the U.S. Conference of Mayors in strong resolutions; from six U.S. Senators in a separate 2011 letter; from Haitian-American leaders and editorial writers; and in a June 2011 Center for Global Development working paper urging DHS to create a Haitian Family Reunification Parole Program and to start by promptly paroling vulnerable children and spouses.

As of November 1, 2010, the United States had approved family-based immi­grant visa peti­tions for 105,000 ben­e­fi­cia­ries who nev­er­the­less remain on a wait list of four to eleven years in Haiti, where many may not sur­vive. In con­trast, over 30,000 approved Cuban ben­e­fi­cia­ries have been paroled into the United States since 2009 alone under the Cuban FRPP, which the Massachusetts leaders urge DHS Secretary Napolitano to “mirror.”

In urg­ing this action as a low-cost way to help Haiti recover, the authors of “Migra­tion as a Tool for Dis­as­ter Recov­ery: A Case Study on U.S. Pol­icy Options for Post-Earthquake Haiti,” Center for Global Devel­op­ment, June 2011, note:

• Rather than wait­ing 4 to 11 years for a visa in Haiti, ben­e­fi­cia­ries could be paroled into the United States where they can be reunited with fam­ily and have employ­ment authorization.
• The pro­posal has merit not only for the human­i­tar­ian pur­pose it would serve but also to enable Haitians to send more remit­tances home and fos­ter eco­nomic devel­op­ment with greater speed.
• Insti­tut­ing a fam­ily reuni­fi­ca­tion parole pro­gram for Haitians is sim­pler than it may appear, since it requires no con­gres­sional action.
• The Cuban program’s ratio­nale of sav­ing lives at sea and pro­vid­ing for orderly migra­tion applies with equal force to Haiti.
• No one would get a “green card” any sooner — like the Cubans, they’d just be able to wait for them here w/their fam­i­lies rather than in Haiti.

Since Haiti’s Jan­u­ary 12, 2010 earth­quake, IJDH has led national efforts to per­suade the White House to cre­ate a Hait­ian FRPP. Grass­roots efforts are under­way in areas includ­ing Florida, New York, and Massachusetts, where a ded­i­cated team of vol­un­teers helped secure yesterday’s letter, which the Hait­ian Amer­i­can com­mu­nity and its sup­port­ers strongly wel­come and applaud.

At the Insti­tute for Jus­tice & Democ­racy in Haiti (IJDH), we fight for the human rights of Haiti’s poor in court, on the streets, and wher­ever deci­sions about Haitians’ rights are made. We rep­re­sent vic­tims of injus­tice, includ­ing earth­quake vic­tims, vic­tims of gender-based vio­lence, and the unjustly impris­oned. Together with our Hait­ian affil­i­ate, the Bureau des Avo­cats Inter­na­tionaux (BAI), we have six­teen years of demon­strated suc­cess enforc­ing Haitians’ human rights in Haiti and abroad. Visit haitijustice.org. Fol­low @IJDH on Twitter.

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Download Press Release: Massachusetts’ Congressional Leaders Urge DHS Secretary Napolitano to Save Lives and Help Haiti by Reunifying Haitian Families

Read Letter: https://ijdh.org/archives/22430