Ashcroft and Civil Liberties (no suprises here)
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Ashcroft and Civil Liberties (no suprises here)
Ashcroft's Quiet Prisoner
August 13, 2004
By BOB HERBERT
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.
Mr. Ashcroft has been out in the Washington sun too long.
Terrorism is not an issue here. Mr. Joseph is a nervous,
nail-biting young man who has an uncle in Brooklyn who's a
U.S. citizen and would be only too happy to take in his
nephew. Keeping Mr. Joseph imprisoned for years is
inhumane.
What's really at work here is the Bush administration's
unwillingness to budge even an inch from its unfair and
frequently cruel treatment of Haitians seeking refuge in
the United States.
Mr. Joseph and a younger brother, Daniel, were among more
than 200 Haitians aboard a boat that landed at Key
Biscayne, Fla., in October 2002. The boys' immediate family
had been viciously attacked in the political turmoil that
wracked their homeland, and David Joseph still does not
know whether the mother and father he left behind are
alive. (Daniel, a teenager, is reportedly in foster care in
New York.)
The United States may be a beacon of liberty, but when
someone like David Joseph sails toward that beacon he can
find himself perversely embraced in the barbed wire of a
place like Krome.
"He was fleeing persecution,'' said Selena Mendy Singleton,
a vice president of TransAfrica Forum, a research and
policy group that is among several organizations supporting
Mr. Joseph's request for asylum. "He is not a threat to the
community. He is not a terrorist. And he meets the criteria
to be released on bond. David needs to be let out."
Mr. Ashcroft was pointedly questioned about the Joseph case
by Senator Arlen Specter during an appearance before the
Senate Judiciary Committee in June.
"On April 17 of last year," said Mr. Specter, "an issue
came before you where there was a young Haitian refugee
where there had not been any showing of a problem with
respect to terrorism. And you overruled both the
immigration judge and the Board of Immigration Appeals. And
then the inspector general of the Department of Justice
criticized the department for the failure to distinguish
between immigration detainees who are connected to
terrorism and those who don't have any reason for
detention.''
Senator Specter urged Mr. Ashcroft to consider a policy in
which the Justice Department would address cases like Mr.
Joseph's on a less sweeping, "more individual" basis, which
would enable officials to determine whether there was any
real basis for concern about terrorism.
Mr. Ashcroft was unmoved. He told Senator Specter:
"Sometimes individual treatment is important. Sometimes
it's important to make a statement about groups of people
that come."
So David Joseph, a threat to no one, sits and waits and
prays at Krome.
August 13, 2004
By BOB HERBERT
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.
Mr. Ashcroft has been out in the Washington sun too long.
Terrorism is not an issue here. Mr. Joseph is a nervous,
nail-biting young man who has an uncle in Brooklyn who's a
U.S. citizen and would be only too happy to take in his
nephew. Keeping Mr. Joseph imprisoned for years is
inhumane.
What's really at work here is the Bush administration's
unwillingness to budge even an inch from its unfair and
frequently cruel treatment of Haitians seeking refuge in
the United States.
Mr. Joseph and a younger brother, Daniel, were among more
than 200 Haitians aboard a boat that landed at Key
Biscayne, Fla., in October 2002. The boys' immediate family
had been viciously attacked in the political turmoil that
wracked their homeland, and David Joseph still does not
know whether the mother and father he left behind are
alive. (Daniel, a teenager, is reportedly in foster care in
New York.)
The United States may be a beacon of liberty, but when
someone like David Joseph sails toward that beacon he can
find himself perversely embraced in the barbed wire of a
place like Krome.
"He was fleeing persecution,'' said Selena Mendy Singleton,
a vice president of TransAfrica Forum, a research and
policy group that is among several organizations supporting
Mr. Joseph's request for asylum. "He is not a threat to the
community. He is not a terrorist. And he meets the criteria
to be released on bond. David needs to be let out."
Mr. Ashcroft was pointedly questioned about the Joseph case
by Senator Arlen Specter during an appearance before the
Senate Judiciary Committee in June.
"On April 17 of last year," said Mr. Specter, "an issue
came before you where there was a young Haitian refugee
where there had not been any showing of a problem with
respect to terrorism. And you overruled both the
immigration judge and the Board of Immigration Appeals. And
then the inspector general of the Department of Justice
criticized the department for the failure to distinguish
between immigration detainees who are connected to
terrorism and those who don't have any reason for
detention.''
Senator Specter urged Mr. Ashcroft to consider a policy in
which the Justice Department would address cases like Mr.
Joseph's on a less sweeping, "more individual" basis, which
would enable officials to determine whether there was any
real basis for concern about terrorism.
Mr. Ashcroft was unmoved. He told Senator Specter:
"Sometimes individual treatment is important. Sometimes
it's important to make a statement about groups of people
that come."
So David Joseph, a threat to no one, sits and waits and
prays at Krome.
Umm regardless of the fact that he should not have been in detention for two years, I think the problem is that he is in the US at all
We need to put him on a plane and ship him back to Haiti. Haiti is not under any UN limitations and the is no proof of any need for him to be protected from their current government. I can see Cuban refugees, and Haitin refugees in different times, but as things stand he needs to be sent home and told to apply for a Visa like the people seeking to enter legally do. There is no difference between him and any other illegal immigrant.
We need to put him on a plane and ship him back to Haiti. Haiti is not under any UN limitations and the is no proof of any need for him to be protected from their current government. I can see Cuban refugees, and Haitin refugees in different times, but as things stand he needs to be sent home and told to apply for a Visa like the people seeking to enter legally do. There is no difference between him and any other illegal immigrant.
She Dreams in Digital
\"Led Zeppelin taught an entire generation of young men how to make love, if they just listen\"- Michael Reed(2005)
\"Led Zeppelin taught an entire generation of young men how to make love, if they just listen\"- Michael Reed(2005)
- Pherr the Dorf
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Kylere wrote:Umm regardless of the fact that he should not have been in detention for two years, I think the problem is that he is in the US at all
We need to put him on a plane and ship him back to Haiti. Haiti is not under any UN limitations and the is no proof of any need for him to be protected from their current government. I can see Cuban refugees, and Haitin refugees in different times, but as things stand he needs to be sent home and told to apply for a Visa like the people seeking to enter legally do. There is no difference between him and any other illegal immigrant.
I think perhaps you should reread that partMr. Joseph and a younger brother, Daniel, were among more
than 200 Haitians aboard a boat that landed at Key
Biscayne, Fla., in October 2002. The boys' immediate family
had been viciously attacked in the political turmoil that
wracked their homeland, and David Joseph still does not
know whether the mother and father he left behind are
alive. (Daniel, a teenager, is reportedly in foster care in
New York.)
The first duty of a patriot is to question the government
Jefferson
Jefferson
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Bush would get a lot more votes if he dumped Ashcroft. I detest that man, he is in between Ann Coulter and Jerry Falwell when it comes to finding a man with compleatly opposite views then me, or my personal antichrist
Look at his face, look at his expression when he talks...that alone gives off an aura of oppression, and you know nothing good is comming out of someone like that
Look at his face, look at his expression when he talks...that alone gives off an aura of oppression, and you know nothing good is comming out of someone like that
-xzionis human mage on mannoroth
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- Acies
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Ky, he is seeking asylum, not to enter illegally. Also what happened to "Give us your tired hungry masses, yearning only to be free"?Kylere wrote:Umm regardless of the fact that he should not have been in detention for two years, I think the problem is that he is in the US at all
We need to put him on a plane and ship him back to Haiti. Haiti is not under any UN limitations and the is no proof of any need for him to be protected from their current government. I can see Cuban refugees, and Haitin refugees in different times, but as things stand he needs to be sent home and told to apply for a Visa like the people seeking to enter legally do. There is no difference between him and any other illegal immigrant.
Bujinkan is teh win!
No offense but that quote is like 200 years old? I'd like to see Canada and Europe quit being blowhards and allow several million refugees to settle in their countries.Acies wrote:Ky, he is seeking asylum, not to enter illegally. Also what happened to "Give us your tired hungry masses, yearning only to be free"?Kylere wrote:Umm regardless of the fact that he should not have been in detention for two years, I think the problem is that he is in the US at all
We need to put him on a plane and ship him back to Haiti. Haiti is not under any UN limitations and the is no proof of any need for him to be protected from their current government. I can see Cuban refugees, and Haitin refugees in different times, but as things stand he needs to be sent home and told to apply for a Visa like the people seeking to enter legally do. There is no difference between him and any other illegal immigrant.
The civil war in Haiti was resolved by the UN, the United States and a partial deployment of US troops. Thanks old news.
His reason for leaving is null and void, therefore he should be returned to his country of origin. I don't see Canada offering to take in all refugees, and until they do you can STFU.
Seeking Asylum can be done legally also.
His reason for leaving is null and void, therefore he should be returned to his country of origin. I don't see Canada offering to take in all refugees, and until they do you can STFU.
Seeking Asylum can be done legally also.
She Dreams in Digital
\"Led Zeppelin taught an entire generation of young men how to make love, if they just listen\"- Michael Reed(2005)
\"Led Zeppelin taught an entire generation of young men how to make love, if they just listen\"- Michael Reed(2005)
Actually A lot of southern Mediterranean countries have as large-or larger amounts of immigration from northern Africans then America doesMetanis wrote:No offense but that quote is like 200 years old? I'd like to see Canada and Europe quit being blowhards and allow several million refugees to settle in their countries.Acies wrote:Ky, he is seeking asylum, not to enter illegally. Also what happened to "Give us your tired hungry masses, yearning only to be free"?Kylere wrote:Umm regardless of the fact that he should not have been in detention for two years, I think the problem is that he is in the US at all
We need to put him on a plane and ship him back to Haiti. Haiti is not under any UN limitations and the is no proof of any need for him to be protected from their current government. I can see Cuban refugees, and Haitin refugees in different times, but as things stand he needs to be sent home and told to apply for a Visa like the people seeking to enter legally do. There is no difference between him and any other illegal immigrant.
Tons of Moroccans and Senegalians?(sp)and most of the governments there i believe have more accepting immigration laws then the US does
And its really fucking hard to take a raft from Cuba or Haiti to Canada, and i dont think too many russians have the balls to make that trip
-xzionis human mage on mannoroth
-zeltharath tauren shaman on wildhammer
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