Posted on Fri, Nov. 26, 2004
Family: Death of man, 81, in U.S. custody another Haitian tragedy
AMY BRACKEN
Associated Press
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - The Rev. Joseph Dantica fled to the United States nearly a month ago seeking asylum because gangs in his neighborhood ransacked his church and threatened to kill him if he stayed.Though the 81-year-old Baptist pastor escaped safely to Miami, he died five days later in the custody of U.S. immigration authorities - in disputed circumstances that relatives say boil down to mistreatment.The U.S. Department of Homeland Security categorically denies Dantica's detention had anything to do with his Nov. 3 death. The medical examiner listed inflammation of the pancreas as the cause of death.
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Maxo Dantica said he protested when officials took his father's briefcase, which included prescription pills and a rum bottle full of medicinal leaves.
"I said, 'If you take that from him he might die,' and they said, 'Well, he'll die then.' They were joking about it," he said. Officials later told the son they were giving Dantica a substitute for his medicine, but it was unclear what it was.As Dantica was attending an asylum interview Nov. 1, he began vomiting and fell back in his chair, motionless, eyes open, DHS officials said. Pratt, who was present, said a health worker was called in, but instead of trying to revive the pastor tried unsuccessfully to get him to speak.
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Officials took the younger Dantica away, and after two hours his father was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital. Relatives were barred from calling or seeing him.
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http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/10280548.htm(Free registration is required)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Amnesty InternationalTake Action!
Urge Investigation Into the Death of Rev. Joseph Dantica, A Haitian Asylum Seeker
Amnesty International is saddened and outraged that an 81-year-old asylum seeker, the Rev. Joseph Dantica, has died in detention in Florida. Rev. Dantica arrived in Miami on October 29, 2004, entering the country legally with his own passport and a valid visa. The minister had fled Haiti after he cooperated with Haitian police and UN troops conducting a raid – and then was threatened by Haitian gang members as a result. Upon his arrival at Miami International Airport, Rev. Dantica forthrightly declared that he wished to apply for asylum, even though this meant giving up the opportunity to enter the country on his visitor’s visa.
Instead of releasing the elderly minister to his family in the United States – some of whom are U.S. citizens – the authorities sent him to the Krome detention center, southwest of Miami. His family reports that his medicine was confiscated. After several days in detention, Dantica became violently ill, and was eventually transferred to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) refused to allow Rev. Dantica’s family members to visit him in the hospital – “for security reasons” – and he died there, alone.
BACKGROUND
Rev. Dantica was senior pastor of the Church of the Redeemer, which he founded 25 years ago in the Bel-Air quarter of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Bel-Air had come under the control of gangs of young men loyal to ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and they had barricaded the neighborhood. Early in the morning of October 24, Haitian police and UN troops bulldozed their way past the barricades, and began to fight the gangs. When Dantica allowed the policemen to enter his church, they used it as a fort, shooting gang members in the street below. Afterward, some of those who survived went to the church and threatened Dantica. Although he had weathered many political crises in Haiti, this time he decided to flee with his son, Maxo. He arrived in Miami on October 29, 2004.
The Department of Homeland Security took Rev. Dantica into custody, although Maxo Dantica says he begged them to allow his aged father to stay with relatives while applying for asylum. DHS has denied responsibility for the death, saying that Rev. Dantica died of pancreatitis, a pre-existing, fatal condition. The medicine that the pastor carried was a folk remedy, according to DHS, not a “legitimate, prescribed” medicine.
DHS says it had decided to grant the minister humanitarian release after he got out of the hospital. Nonetheless it would not allow his family to visit him, for “security reasons.”
This is the latest example of the U.S. government’s ill-treatment of Haitian asylum seekers, which in the past two years has also included keeping Haitian toddlers in detention for months at a time, and turning back virtually all Haitian boat people attempting to reach the United States – without a meaningful opportunity to apply for asylum – in violation of the U.N. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Amnesty International firmly opposes this discriminatory treatment.
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http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=11325~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~This will NEVER happen to a Cuban immigrant, who arrives here from 90 miles away, as opposed to Haitians who travel by boat over 700 miles to the U.S., only to be incarcerated as soon as they are discovered.
Here's what the Cuban immigrants may expect:
Another major contributing to the uniqueness of the Cuban Model are the generous federal benefits which Cuban refugee received. First, the United States granted Cuban immigrants special status, allowing them to enter the United States without the restriction imposed on other groups. "The Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966" gives automatic residency to any Cuban who comes to the United States, be it a tourist who overstays his visa or someone who sneaks in, after only a year and a day after arriving in the United States. People fleeing any other country, even other communist countries, must submit clear proof that they are persecuted. For Cubans, escape is usually enough to guarantee permanent resettlement in the United States. No other group has benefitted from such an exception for so long. The act, also allows Cubans to apply for federal assistance (SSI, Food Stamps, Medicaid, etc.) immediately after becoming legal residents. More than 500,000 persons immigrated to the U.S. under the Cuban Adjustment Act.(17) Moreover, the U.S. government invested over $1 billion in assisting Cuban resettle in the United States through the Cuban Refugee Program.(18)
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http://www.fiu.edu/~morenod/scholar/empower.htm
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