[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 152 (Thursday, November 12, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13003-S13004]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              THE HAITIAN REFUGEE IMMIGRATION FAIRNESS ACT

 Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, it is a privilege to join Senator 
Graham, Senator Mack, Senator Abraham and our other distinguished 
colleagues in supporting the Haitian Refugee Immigration Fairness Act. 
Last year Congress enacted the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central 
American Relief Act, which enabled Nicaraguan and Cuban refugees to 
remain permanently in the United States as immigrants.
  Haitian refugees deserve no less.
  These refugees have seen their relatives, friends and neighbors 
jailed, or murdered, or abducted in the middle of the night and never 
seen again. They have fled from decades of violence and brutal 
repression by the Ton Ton Macoutes, and later by the military regime 
which overthrew the first democratically elected president of Haiti.
  The people of Haiti have struggled long and hard to establish a 
democracy in their nation. They endured repression and suffered 
persecution at the hands of successive governments. Haitians supporting 
democracy have faced torture, extra-judicial killings, imprisonment, 
and other forms of persecution. The State Department has documented 
these and other gross violations of human rights.
  The Bush administration found that the vast majority of Haitian 
refugees were fleeing from political persecution. Thousands of these 
Haitians were paroled into the United States after establishing a 
credible fear of persecution. Many others filed bona fide applications 
for asylum upon arrival in the United States.
  This legislation will enable Haitians to apply for adjustment of 
status if prior to December 31, 1995, they were paroled into the U.S., 
under any of the parole classifications, or filed for asylum. 
Additionally, as a result of an amendment proposed by Senator Abraham 
and I, a significant number of unaccompanied children and orphans who 
did not have the capacity to apply for asylum for themselves will also 
be eligible to apply for adjustment of status.
  Like other political refugees, Haitians have come to this country 
with a strong love of freedom and a strong commitment to democracy. 
They have settled in many parts of the United States. They have 
established deep roots in our communities, and their children born here 
are U.S. citizens. Wherever they have settled, they have made lasting 
contributions to the economic vitality and diversity of our communities 
and the nation.
  This issue is about basic fairness. The United States has a long and 
noble tradition of providing safe haven to refugees. Over the years, we 
have enacted legislation to guarantee that Hungarians, Cubans, 
Yugoslavs, Vietnamese, Laotians, Cambodians, Poles, Chinese, and many 
other refugees will not be sent back to unstable or repressive regimes.
  Last year, we adopted legislation to protect Nicaraguans and Cubans. 
But Haitians were unfairly excluded from that bill. The time has come 
for Congress to end the bigotry. We must remedy this flagrant omission 
and add Haitians to the list of deserving refugees.
  By approving the Haitian Refugee Fairness Immigration Act, we can 
finally bring to an end the shameful decades of unjust treatment of 
Haitians. As the decisions of federal judges over the past two decades 
make clear, Haitans are treated with blatant discrimination under our 
immigration laws. Throughout the 1980's, less than 2 percent of 
Haitians fleeing the atrocities committed by the Duvalier regimes were 
granted asylum. Yet, other refugee groups had approval rates as high as 
75 percent.
  Haitian asylum seekers were detained by the Immigration and 
Naturalization Service, but asylum seekers from other countries were 
routinely released while their asylum applications were processed. 
Until recently, Haitians have been the only group intercepted on the 
high seas and forcibly returned to their home country, without even the 
opportunity to seek asylum. We welcomed boat people from Cuba, Vietnam 
and other parts of the world. But for years, we picked up Haitians on 
the high seas and sent them back to Haiti, in violation of 
international refugee laws.
  This Congress has the opportunity to right the shameful wrongs that 
Haitian refugees have suffered. We have before us a bill that offers 
full protection of our laws to these victims of persecution in their 
fight for democracy. The call for democracy is being heard around the 
world, and America's voice has always been the loudest. How can we 
advocate democracy on the one hand, and then deny protection to those 
who heed our call and are forced to flee their homeland as a result?
  The struggle for democracy is often dangerous and life threatening. 
Ask Nestilia Robergeau, who knows first hand the high price of 
supporting democracy on Haiti. She and her brother started a youth 
group in support of Haiti's democratically elected President, Jean 
Bertrand Aristide. After a military coup ousted President Aristide, her 
brother was murdered by the military, and she went into hiding in the 
woods around her village until

[[Page S13004]]

she could escape from Haiti in a small boat. Today, she lives in 
Atlanta and holds two jobs. She is active in her local church, and 
hopes to be a nurse. Last year, she told the Subcommittee on 
Immigration that ever since she arrived in the United States, she has 
lived in fear of being sent back to Haiti.

  Even the youngest Haitian refugees live in fear of being returned to 
Haiti. Ask Louisiana, a sixth grader at West Homestead Elementary 
School in Miami. She fled to the United States with her aunt, after her 
father, a pro-democracy activist, was murdered by the Haitian military. 
Last winter, Louisiana told us that she was terrified that she will be 
sent back to Haiti. She is terrified that the same people who killed 
her father will come after her in Haiti. She asked us to please pass a 
law that will let her stay in the United States, where she is safe.
  Ask Mr. H in Massachusetts, a journalist in Haiti who criticized the 
Haitian military government, and was repeatedly arrested for his 
outspoken views. Finally, he went into hiding in Haiti. When soldiers 
could not find him, they abducted his girlfriend, brutally beat her, 
and dumped her by the side of the road to die. But she survived, and 
she and Mr. H escaped by boat. They were picked up by the Coast Guard, 
and brought to the United States. They married and now live in 
Massachusetts. Their two children were born here. Yet, Mr. H and his 
wife could be deported without this legislation.
  Congress has a duty to offer the same protection to these Haitians 
that we have offered over the years to other refugees fleeing from 
repressive regimes. This bill is about what is fair, what is right, and 
what is just. We owe it to Louisiana, to Nestilia, and to the thousands 
of other Haitians forced to flee their homes because they believed in 
the promise of democracy.
  This legislation has strong bipartisan support. It is supported by a 
wide range of nationwide organizations, including the Americans for Tax 
Reform, U.S. Catholic Conference, the Church World Service, the 
American Baptist Churches, the Mennonite Central Committee, the Council 
of Jewish Federations, the Lutheran Immigration Refugee Service, the 
United Methodist General Board of Church and Society, the Presbyterian 
Church (USA) and many, many more. As Jack Kemp wrote to Congress 
earlier this year ``This issue presents a chance to do the right thing 
by rectifying an omission in last year's bill, and to uphold our 
nation's tradition of accepting refugees.''
  We should do all we can to end the current flagrant discrimination 
under the immigration laws. Haitian refugees deserve protection too--
the same protection we gave to Nicaraguans and Cubans last year. We 
need to pay more than lipservice to the fundamental principle of equal 
protection of the laws.