Oh, for FUCK'S sake..

[docwebster]

Miami — David Joseph is a little guy, about 5-foot-5, maybe 115 pounds. He's 20 years old, looks younger, and has the sluggish demeanor and sad expression of one who is deeply depressed. He has nightmares and headaches. He spends his days dressed in the blue fatigues of detainees at the federal Krome Detention Center, washing dishes at mealtimes, staring listlessly at television images broadcast in a language he doesn't understand, and praying.

"I thought I would come here for a few days and be released," he told me in a soft voice, his words translated by an interpreter. "But I watch the other people come and go, and I am stuck here."

Mr. Joseph is a refugee from Haiti who is seeking asylum in the United States. He is not a terrorist, and no one has even suggested that he is a threat to anyone. And yet he's been in federal custody for nearly two years.

An immigration judge and the Board of Immigration Appeals have ruled that he should be freed on bond, pending a final ruling on his asylum request. But the attorney general of the United States, John Ashcroft, won't let him go.

Playing his ever-present, all-encompassing terrorism card, Mr. Ashcroft personally intervened in Mr. Joseph's case, summarily blocking his release. According to the attorney general, releasing this young Haitian would tend to encourage mass migration from Haiti, and might exacerbate the potential danger to national security of nefarious aliens from Pakistan and elsewhere who might be inclined to use Haiti as a staging area for migration to the U.S.

SonofaBITCH, but November can't get here fast enough!

Comments

[josette.livejournal.com]

How does a 20 year old Haitian warrant this kind of concern? How does Mr. Ashcroft get "personally involved" in this particular case? How would people in an impoverished country find out about Mr. Joseph to have him as a poster child for "don't go there" I know that we accept some Haitians because my downstairs tenants are Haitian. She has a real social security number and a real job paying real taxes. Hopefully since Mr. Joseph is in the f***ing NY Times, that will help. Shining the light of media attention always shakes things loose. Which is why they won't tell us the names or timeframes of the detainees, nor are they permitted to call anyone to inform of their detention. Sucks. Sounds unconstitutional, even.