On January 25, 2012, the Committee on Immigration of the New York City Council held a hearing on Resolution 1096 calling upon the Department of Homeland Security to create a Haitian Family Reunification Parole Program. The Resolution, introduced by Haitian-American Councilor Mathieu Eugene, would benefit Haitians recovering from the January 12, 2010 earthquake by allowing Haitians with approved family-sponsored immigrant visa petitions to come to the United States.

Following is the statement that was delivered at the hearing on behalf of the Haitian-Americans United for Progress (HAUP)

My name is Jocelyn McCalla and I am pleased to testify today before this Committee on Resolution No. 1096, on behalf of the Haitian-Americans United for Progress (HAUP).

HAUP was founded 37 years ago by Haitian-American community leaders and advocates to help resettle and integrate Haitian asylum-seekers and immigrants in New York City. These leaders included the Most Rev. Guy Sansaricq, auxiliary bishop of Brooklyn and Ms. Carolle Berotte Joseph who is currently serving as President of Bronx Community College.

HAUP is located in Cambria Heights which is home to the largest Haitian-American enclave outside of Brooklyn. While HAUP began as a volunteer-based organization focused initially on responding to the needs of Haitian immigrants and refugees, it has since expanded and offers its multitude of services to newcomers and citizens alike. Under the leadership of Executive Director Elsie Saint-Louis, HAUP has risen to serve annually some 15,000 people who come to us from Cambria Heights proper as well as from Queens Village, Jamaica, Springfield Gardens and Laurelton. We provide services to clients in Brooklyn through our ambulatory programs. Residents of Elmont and Hempstead on Long Island also seek our services and support, since we are located so close to the border with Nassau County.

Regarding Resolution 1096

The Obama Administration responded remarkably fast and aggressively to the major catastrophe that hit Haiti some two years ago on January 12, 2010. The United States deployed thousands of troops to support the actions of a government that had literally collapsed, and to facilitate the relief and recovery response that poured from all over the world into Haiti. Stateside, it promptly granted Temporary Protected Status to Haitian non-immigrants who were in the United States at the time. Last year, the Administration extended TPS for this class and broadened it to include Haitians who had hurriedly joined their relatives after the earthquake because their livelihood had been destroyed. Most recently, the Administration has decided to allow Haitians to take part in the guest worker programs that U.S. growers and farmers use to ensure that they have sufficient legal labor to bring in the harvest.

Yet there’s one more step that the Administration could have taken and which – as Res. 1096 notes – it has not taken: it has not speeded up the family reunification process for Haitian immigrants who are already in the pipeline. These Haitians could be paroled and safely reunited with their relative sponsors in the United States while awaiting their final immigrant visa interviews. Such a program already exists for Cuban nationals. Failure to establish it for Haitians raises issues of double-standards.

HAUP supports the Resolution and urges the Committee on Immigration and the entire NY City Council to approve it. Such an action would send a very strong signal to the Obama Administration that this great city – which has one of the most diverse and productive immigrant populations in the United States – supports a Haitian Family Reunification Parole Program

Haitian Reality Today

Haiti’s recovery barely got off the ground in 2010, in spite of the close to $10 billion pledged at the March 2010 International Donors Conference, and the commitment to hasten efforts to build Haiti back better. As time went by, frustrations with political management of Haitian affairs and of the recovery efforts led both Haitians and their international allies to turn to electoral politics. These turned out to be highly controversial; a disaster was only averted by heavy-handed management of the process by the US and its key allies. Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, remains home to more than half a million internally displaced earthquake refugees. Many have returned to homes that are unsafe.

While the United States and its allies have done much in the past year to support Haiti’s recovery and reconstruction, economic growth and political stability remain a dream deferred. We hope that Haiti’s new President and legislature will provide the leadership necessary to allow for growth and prosperity. Most observers however agree that real economic progress is years away. Meanwhile, Haiti remains vulnerable to the vagaries of nature (floods, tropical storms, hurricanes) and societal misfortunes (health emergencies such as cholera outbreaks, malnutrition, increased commodities and food costs due to world price fluctuations).

Conclusion

Haitian-Americans United for Progress resolutely supports the adoption of Res. 1096. We are prepared to offer support to the beneficiaries of a Haitian Family Reunification Parole Program once it is promulgated. We can help ease resettlement woes for the newcomers, and assist their relatives who are either resident or citizens with the inevitable questions that arise in such situations. In short, we believe that this is the right thing to do and we urge the Committee and the Council to adopt the resolution unanimously.

SATURDAY, MARCH 13 , 2010
10:00 AM – 4:00 PM

APPOINTMENTS PREFERRED
WALK INS WELCOME

FOR APPOINTMENTS AND INFORMATION PLEASE CALL:
718-527-3776

HEALTH PLUS WILL ALSO BE IN ATTENDANCE FOR INFORMATION AND ENROLLMENT

HAUP will hold a Haiti Relief Service Fair at Sacred Heart School in Cambria Heights, NY.  The 6 hour fair which starts at 10 AM and ends at 4 PM will address the concerns of community residents.

There will be free counseling to Haitians on applying for Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a benefit which the Obama administration triggered in response to the quake, as well as other immigration counseling. Questions regarding adoptions, entitlements, and available community resources will be handled by trained and qualified personnel at the fair. For children, there will be a fun zone where they can play.

Sacred Heart School is located at 115-50 221st street in Cambria Heights. Please call 718.527.3776 ext 17 to speak to Warren or Sophia for additional information.

TPS is a measure enacted as part of the Immigration Act of 1990 that provides temporary relief from deportation and a work permit  to “aliens in the United States who are temporarily unable to safely return to their home country because of ongoing armed conflict, an environmental disaster, or other extraordinary and temporary conditions.”

Read the full story here.

The Committee heard testimony from 4 Haitian-Americans, among them Bishop Guy Sansaricq. Jocelyn McCalla testified on behalf of Haitian-Americans United for Progress (HAUP). Following is the statement that was delivered at the hearing.

Statement of Haitian-Americans United for Progress

Hearing on Res. No. 1595

April 20, 2009

My name is Jocelyn McCalla and I want to begin by thanking the Committee on Immigration for extending an invitation to testify to Haitian-Americans United for Progress (HAUP). Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is an important measure that has long been denied Haitian nationals in the United States although they have clearly qualified since the measure was adopted by the US government. I will go more in depth on this matter but allow me to first say a few words about my organization, HAUP.

HAUP stands uniquely in the NY City area as the oldest community-based organization that emerged 34 years ago to help resettle and integrate Haitian asylum-seekers as well as advocate on their behalf. Amongst our founders, we proudly include Bishop Guy Sansaricq, a refugee from the Duvalier dictatorship which caused thousands of Haitians to immigrate to the United States and make New York City their home. We like to believe that it is thanks to the efforts deployed by HAUP and other Haitian CBOs and advocacy organizations that today many Haitian-Americans can be found at the helm of some of the leading private and public sector institutions that make NY such a great city.

HAUP is located in Cambria Heights which is home to the largest Haitian-American enclave outside of Brooklyn. While HAUP began as a volunteer-based organization focused initially on responding to the needs of Haitian immigrants and refugees, it has since expanded and offers its services to anyone who qualifies. We serve annually some 15,000 people. We are thankful to the City and the State of New York which fund many of our programs. We are most thankful for the strong support of Councilman Leroy Comrie and the good relations that we have had with many of the members of the Council, and in particular members of this Committee.

I have long been involved with promoting Haitians’ rights under US and international law. As the Executive Director of the National Coalition for Haitian Rights (NCHR) for almost 20 years, I have testified several times before Congress on issues of asylum, refugee rights and fairness. The NCHR led national campaigns that resulted in the adoption of the Cuban-Haitian Adjustment Act in 1986 (as part of the Immigration Reform and Control Act) and the Haitian Refugee and Immigration Fairness Act in 1998. Together these Acts rendered about 90,000 Haitian immigrants and refugees eligible for legal permanent resident status.

In addition to campaigning on behalf of Haitian immigrants and refugees, I have taken up the cause of Haitians living in Haiti and elsewhere, promoting their human rights in US and international forums. I have served on the Boards of Directors of the New York Immigration Coalition, the National Immigration Forum, the Haitian Studies Association, and the Board of Advisers to Human Rights Watch/Americas. I have written several reports and monographs documenting human rights conditions in Haiti and the Dominican Republic and worked closely with US, United Nations and regional institutions to help shape policies that would benefit the people of Haiti. This said, I have had the opportunity to come before the NYC Council in the past to testify and I am pleased to do so again on behalf of HAUP.

HAUP Supports Res. No. 1595

Exactly a month ago on March 20, President Barack Obama signed an Executive Order extending the temporary stay in the US of an estimated 3,500 Liberians for another 12 months. Liberians breathed a sigh of relief because their current stay of deportation would have expired on March 31st, 2009.

What distinguishes Haitians from Liberians? The circumstances that led to their seeking refuge in the United States are not different. Political upheaval, a shattered economy, a dysfunctional and feeble government, the presence of thousands of UN peacekeepers, these are the common ground that justify the presence of Haitians and Liberians on American soil.

The main argument against granting TPS to Haitians boils down to the fear that it will trigger a massive exodus from Haiti. We respectfully disagree and here is why:

1. With near-zero forest cover Haiti cannot provide for enough wood to build the boats that would support a “massive” exodus. It bears to remind ourselves that the last major influx of boat people to the United States occurred in 1980 when 125,000 Cuban refugees and about 18,000 Haitians made it to the shores of Florida. The Mariel exodus as the Cuban exodus was called was heavily facilitated by boats deployed from Florida to pick up the Cubans whom the Cuban government allowed to leave en masse at the time. That was almost 30 years ago.

2. US coast guard cutters have been patrolling the waters just outside of Haiti since September 1981 when President Ronald Reagan signed an executive order specifically targeting Haitian refugees. The Haitian Migrant Interdiction Operation authorized US coast guardsmen to intercept on the high seas any vessels flying the Haitian flag or carrying Haitians, and return its passengers to Haiti after a perfunctory interview that paid lip service to the prohibition against refoulement contained in the UN Convention on the Status of Refugees.

3. The US does not plan on suspending Coast Guard interdiction: not now, not in the future. Interdiction remains a key component of US policy towards Haiti although it is carried out with little fanfare. It is effective: the Coast Guard catches most Haitian boat people before they are too far away from Haitian shores. In 1992 and 1994, during the period when a military junta ruled Haiti with an iron hand, the US Coast Guard intercepted more than 60,000 Haitian boat people. It coordinates its interdiction operations with the Bahamas which promptly repatriates Haitians who wash ashore or found floating at sea near their shores.

4. President Bill Clinton granted Deferred Enforcement Departure (DED) to Haitian immigrants in the US. DED is a modified form of TPS. Granting DED did not lead to mass exodus from Haiti. Later, President Clinton supported the enactment of the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act (HRIFA), a measure that had the unanimous support of the members of the Congressional Black Caucus and many other members from both parties. Enactment of HRIFA did not lead to mass exodus. In fact there has been no mass exodus from Haiti in the last 15 years!

There is Widespread Support for TPS for Haitians

Most of the major US Newspapers have argued that Haitians should be granted TPS. They include the NY Times, the NY Daily News, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Miami Herald among others. National groups, such as the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, the NAACP, the National Immigration Forum and several state-wide immigration coalitions have affirmed or reaffirmed support for the temporary measure.

The Council of the City of NY would not be out of step with the mainstream of American thoughts by voting in favor of Res. 1595. In fact it would be an additional signal to the Obama Administration that the constituency for TPS for Haitians continues to grow and now enjoys the support of a city that is home to a significant segment of the Haitian Diaspora.

We see signs that the Administration is listening. Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton indicated during a visit to Haiti that the Administration was seriously considering reversing past policies and granting Haitians the well-deserved respite from fears of deportation. We urge the Council to put TPS for Haitians on a fast track by not wasting another minute in approving the sensible resolution that is before this Committee.

Let’s be clear however: the resolution supports a legislative remedy, but the White House has the power now to act. It does not need the force of legislation to do so. That power was given the Executive Branch long ago. President Obama should do the right thing by Haitians. The NYC Council should help him take that step promptly.

The City of New York Should Support TPS Implementation

Should TPS be granted – and we truly hope that it will be sooner rather than later – it is estimated that more than 30,000 Haitians would be eligible, many from New York City. TPS is temporary protection from deportation. It may be granted for no more than 18 months. At his discretion, the President can extend TPS as he has done in the case of the Liberians and as has been done for Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Hondurans, Nicaraguans and others.

There may be a limit placed on the registration period and there may not be sufficient information provided to eligible Haitians to educate them about the benefits, the eligibility criteria and most importantly the need to emerge out of the shadows to qualify.

We suggest that the Council of the City of New York consider providing monetary support to community-based organizations that, like HAUP, have the credibility and a long history of delivering quality services to Haitian immigrants and refugees.

It has long been held as a given that given its dependence on remittances from abroad, Haiti would benefit the most from TPS. Haiti will certainly benefit. We suggest however that municipalities like NY, which hosts a large number of TPS beneficiaries, benefit tremendously from having constituents who possess a legal work permit and can contribute to the revenues from taxation. Consequently it is in the best interests of the people of NY to ensure maximum Haitian participation in an eventual TPS program. We believe that the benefits to New York City outweigh the costs associated with TPS implementation.

In conclusion, we wish to commend the sponsors of Resolution 1595 for their vision and support for TPS for Haitians. Adoption of the resolution will send a strong signal to the Obama Administration and Congress that New York City, home to hundreds of thousands of Haitians, remains sensitive to the needs of its constituents and looks forward to the day when we can celebrate the granting of TPS to Haitians.