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1199SEIU Members Rally in Miami for Equal Treatment for Haitians
Monday, August 15, 2011
(1199SEIU)Ghislaine Bazile, a certified
nursing assistant and 1199SEIU member
who works in North Miami, lost an uncle to the
cholera epidemic in
Haiti. She has not seen her two sisters and her
cousins in more than ten
years. She believes that if the U.S.
Department of Homeland
Security changed its discriminatory immigration
policies for Haitians,
her uncle would still be alive and her family
could be reunited.
On Thursday, August 11th, I stood alongside more than 200 workers and labor, human rights, and immigration reform activists chanting, "We Want Justice!" in front of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Office in Miami to demand justice from the Department of Homeland Security's immigration policy for Haitians.
As part of the A. Philip Randolph Institute's (APRI) 42nd National Education Conference, the rally - sponsored by APRI, TransAfrica, 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, NAACP Miami, and the Florida Immigrant Coalition - sounded the alarm on the discriminatory policies that are holding 16,000 children and spouses of lawful permanent residents in Haiti, where they face life-threatening conditions during a worsening cholera epidemic.
Today, 50 more Haitians are scheduled for deportation back to a country where there are still more than 800,000 people in tent cities struggling to get by in the aftermath of the devastating 2010 earthquake. The Department of Homeland Security must immediately enact the Haitian Family Reunification Plan to grant immediate parole in the U.S. to already-approved immigrants to halt deportations, and to ensure that the Temporary Protected Status for Haitians lasts as long as the humanitarian crisis persists. Extending this legislation to Haitian immigrants is not a far-fetched proposal. The Cuban Family Reunification Plan has been renewed in 2009 and 2010, allowing family members of lawful permanent residents, to apply for a green card and remain in the U.S.
In 2010, there was a global response to the crisis in Haiti. Let us not forget our responsibility to our Haitian brothers and sisters. We must stand in solidarity and demand justice from the Department of Homeland Security.
