República Dominicana, ante el reto de reordenar la inmigración
Cientos de miles de haitianos indocumentados, destinatarios de la regularización
IBAN CAMPO - Santo Domingo - 16/06/2009
A Franklin Almeyda, ministro del Interior y Policía de República Dominicana, le atraen las misiones imposibles. En el verano de 2006 logró la aplicación de un decreto para establecer límites de horario de cierre a bares y restaurantes en un país en el que la diversión nocturna es casi una obligación nacional.
Ahora quiere cambiar la frágil realidad inmigratoria de su país, marcada por la ausencia de estadísticas fiables sobre los extranjeros que viven en él, pero sobre todo en lo concerniente a la cantidad de haitianos que lo habitan, la gran mayoría de manera ilegal, principal foco de discordia cuando se analiza el tema migratorio.
Para provocar el cambio, el ministerio ha iniciado el debate en torno a una propuesta para registrar y regularizar a los extranjeros, legales e indocumentados.
Los cientos de miles de haitianos que viven sin papeles en República Dominicana —el rumor público habla de que, junto con los legales, suman en total cerca de millón y medio— serían los principales destinatarios de una iniciativa que sigue el ejemplo de otros países que han llevado a cabo procesos semejantes.
Algunas de esas experiencias se analizaron en el encuentro
internacional Políticas Migratorias y Experiencias en Procesos de Regularización, celebrado el 10 y 11 de junio en Santo Domingo, la capital del país, y al que asistieron representantes de 25 países.
Una de las dificultades para el proceso que se quiere aplicar en República Dominicana se palpa en la epidermis del país, especialmente sensible a la hora de hablar de la legalización de sus vecinos isleños. Lo que se plantea como la solución definitiva para enfrentarse a la debilidad en la aplicación de legislaciones migratorias tiene los visos de una carrera de obstáculos que el ministro Almeyda pretende sortear apelando a altas dosis de firmeza y actitud racional en detrimento de las posiciones emocionales.
El debate iniciado la pasada semana trata específicamente sobre el reglamento para aplicar la ley de migración. En él se habla, entre otras cosas, de establecer cuotas para la inmigración laboral, de cuidar los intereses de los emigrantes dominicanos, de los procesos de deportación y de "preparar y ejecutar el Plan Nacional de Registro y Regularización de los extranjeros", que se extenderá durante 36 meses a partir de su inicio.
Tomando como límite la promulgación de la nueva Constitución dominicana, en proceso de revisión en la Asamblea Nacional, todo extranjero que probase hasta dicho tope su residencia en República Dominicana por espacio de 10 años o más recibiría la residencia permanente y un documento válido por cuatro años renovable. Quienes demostrasen lo mismo por un periodo de entre cinco y 10 años obtendrían la residencia temporal, válida por dos años y sujeta a su cambio a permanente. Al resto se le reconoce un estatus de no residente con la entrega de un documento valedero por 60 días para turistas y por un año para trabajadores temporales, de acuerdo con la ley.
Si bien es cierto que República Dominicana enamora a los visitantes y no son pocos los que fijan su residencia en ella, también lo es que los extranjeros de otras nacionalidades diferentes a la haitiana suelen a estar legalizados. Y hasta se nacionalizan.
Según datos del ministro Almeyda, en los últimos cinco años, se nacionalizaron dominicanos 700 cubanos, 400 chinos, 400 estadounidenses y entre 100 y 200 colombianos y venezolanos: "Sólo 25 del total de nacionalizados fueron haitianos", afirmó.
El proceso de regularización involucrará en especial a los llegados del país vecino, generalmente mano de obra barata que trabaja en el sector de la construcción, en el campo y, últimamente, en la hostelería, así como en la venta callejera de frutas y comidas de cuestionable calidad sanitaria.
Hay que añadir a quienes cruzan para acudir a los hospitales públicos dominicanos. Las embarazadas llegan a representar la mitad de los casos atendidos por los médicos. Sus hijos, sin embargo, no son susceptibles de obtener una nacionalidad dominicana que niegan las disposiciones constitucionales actuales y venideras. Sólo podrán aspirar a inscribir a sus hijos en un Libro de Extranjería a título, exclusivamente, de constancia de nacimiento.
En la inauguración de la conferencia internacional mencionada, el presidente dominicano, Leonel Fernández, planteó "un ordenamiento, una forma de regularización al fenómeno migratorio que tiene que partir de la idea siempre del respeto a los derechos humanos". El ministro Franklin Almeyda está decidido a seguir esa línea. Pero no todos en el Gobierno lo ven así. El ministro de Relaciones Exteriores, Carlos Morales Troncoso, cree que las regularizaciones "envían a quienes aspiran a inmigrar ilegalmente el mensaje de que pueden apostar a que ellos, con el tiempo, y tras una extendida permanencia, también le tumbarán el pulso a la ley". Además, "no resuelven el problema de la inmigración ilegal para siempre, y no impiden que la situación que corrigen vuelva a repetirse una y otra vez".
Advocates for Haitian Immigrants Press for Temporary Relief From Deportation - NYTimes.comMay 28, 2009
By KIRK SEMPLE
For Danie, who moved from Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to the United States in 2001 to live with her grandparents, there has never been a good time to go home.
Haiti, which has stumbled from grave political unrest to catastrophic natural disasters, remains one of the world’s poorest nations. So although Danie, 22, is an illegal immigrant, she has decided to stay in New York City. She lives in Cambria Heights, Queens, and is about to graduate from college with a degree in education. She hopes to become an elementary school teacher, but fears that her lack of a Social Security number will leave her few options beyond doing menial labor in an underground economy.
The desperation of Haitians was underscored this month when at least nine people drowned after their boat — crowded mostly with people fleeing Haiti — sank off the Florida coast.
“Things are easier here,” Danie said, speaking on condition that she not be identified by her full name because she feared detection. “There’s more security, people find food easier, you have money, somewhere to stay.”
But Haitians in New York — the city with the largest population of Haitian descent outside Port-au-Prince — are hopeful about a proposal under consideration by the Obama administration that would provide relief for her and tens of thousands of other illegal Haitian immigrants.
After four hurricanes and tropical storms in 2008 killed hundreds of people, wiped out most of Haiti’s food crops and caused nearly a billion dollars in damage, the country’s government asked the United States to grant undocumented Haitian immigrants what is known as temporary protected status. The designation would shield them from detention and deportation for a set period of time, and allow them to work legally, while Haiti tries to recover.
Such relief has occasionally been granted to immigrants who are unable to return safely to their home countries because of armed conflict or environmental disasters. It is currently in effect for people from El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Somalia and Sudan.
Supporters of temporary protected status for Haitians say that Haiti is in no condition to absorb tens of thousands of deportees, and that its recovery may depend, at least in part, on a continuing flow of remittances sent home by illegal Haitian immigrants in the United States. Those remittances totaled $1.87 billion last year, according to estimates by the Inter-American Development Bank.
The Bush administration denied Haiti’s request in December. In February, the Obama administration, in a letter from the Department of Homeland Security to immigration advocates in Miami, said it would continue to deport Haitians. And anti-immigration lobbying groups have vowed to oppose any change in the policy.
But immigrant advocates and the Haitian diaspora’s civic leadership have continued to apply pressure on the administration and pore over the tea leaves of rumors and leaks for indications of a policy shift.
They say that in recent weeks, they have drawn hope from a number of developments. In April, on the eve of a trip to Haiti, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced that the administration was reviewing its deportation policy for Haitians. During the trip, she also spoke about the importance of remittances to Haiti.
Haitian advocates in New York say they have heard that the government has been detaining and deporting only those with criminal records, rather than those accused solely of immigration violations.
Barbara Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the government would continue to detain and deport Haitians who violate immigration laws but that under a recently executed agreement with the Haitian government, the American immigration authorities were focusing on those with criminal records.
“Our priority — and we’ve clearly articulated it — is removing those who are criminal aliens and have final orders of removal,” she said.
Ricot Dupuy, the manager of Radio Soleil, a Creole-language station with storefront offices on Nostrand Avenue in Flatbush, Brooklyn, said that suggestions of changing sentiment in Washington seemed to have calmed Haitians in New York.
“It’s kind of quieted down because of the belief that with Obama, they stand a better chance,” said Mr. Dupuy, who is the host of a nightly radio program of news analysis and social commentary.
In interviews, about two dozen Haitians and Haitian-Americans in Brooklyn and Queens said that if the Obama administration accelerated deportations, it would tear apart their community, splinter families and add a crushing burden on their homeland.
“Haiti cannot take another burden,” said Mathieu Eugene, a Haitian-American member of the City Council who represents Flatbush and other Brooklyn neighborhoods with large Haitian populations. Last month, the Council unanimously approved a resolution he sponsored in support of protected status for Haitians.
One recent morning at La Baguette Shop, a Haitian bakery in Cambria Heights that sells baked goods with a French influence, like pain au chocolat, the owners and several customers discussed the state of affairs in Haiti and the effects of deportation.
Katie Richard, a home health care aide in her 40s who emigrated from Haiti, said she was particularly concerned about young Haitians who were brought to the United States as small children, raised as Americans and were now being deported to a country they did not know.
“He doesn’t know anybody — he doesn’t have any family,” she said. “It’s bad for them. It’s bad for us, too.”
Advocates for Haitian immigrants say that if the Obama administration approves protected status, the measure would most likely apply only to Haitians who were in the United States before the inauguration. But some opponents of temporary protection fear that it would encourage more Haitians to make perilous sea crossings in hopes of being grandfathered in.
Others complain that while temporary protections for immigrants can sometimes be justified, the government has been too liberal in extending the time frames. Temporary protected status “should be used just to stop the flow back home for a relatively short period of time until a country gets back somewhat to where normal was before the emergency,” said Roy Beck, executive director of NumbersUSA, a public policy group that seeks to reduce immigration.
While no one knows exactly how many Haitians would be eligible for protected status, Ms. Gonzalez, the immigration spokeswoman, said about 30,000 in the United States have exhausted their legal options and face final court-issued deportation orders. Many more are still in litigation or have not yet come to the attention of the authorities, officials say.
Haiti’s long history of hardship has made its citizens realists. Many in New York made it clear that in spite of the hopeful signs for protected status, they were not holding their breath. And those here illegally said that regardless of the outcome, they still planned to press forward with their lives in the United States.
“They stay until they catch them and send them back,” said one illegal Haitian immigrant in Cambria Heights, a day laborer and father of two, who spoke on the condition that he not be identified.
Then he considered one positive side of being deported. “If they catch you, they buy a ticket for you!” he said. His laughter was that of a man who knew he was at least free to make fun of his own situation.
EEUU.- Al menos nueve muertos tras el hundimiento de una patera frente a las costas de Florida - Yahoo! Noticias
jueves, 14 de mayo, 01.44
Europa Press
El servicio de Guardacostas de Estados Unidos rescató ayer a 17 supervivientes y nueve cadáveres que supuestamente viajaban en una patera que se hundió frente a las costas de Florida y que transportaba a inmigrantes procedentes de Haití, según las primeras pesquisas.
El capitán James Fitton explicó que las víctimas llevaban en torno a diez horas cuando fueron rescatados a mediodía. Un barco de paseo fue la primera nave en detectar a los inmigrantes y acto seguido alertó a las autoridades.
"Uno de los supervivientes nos contó que dejaron Bimini durante la noche anterior para emprender camino al sur de Florida. Alrededor de las 02:00 (hora local) algo golpeó la embarcación o ésta se hundió", explicó Fitton, que atribuyó el cayuco a las mafias que operan en la zona.
Inmigrantes procedentes de países caribeños, especialmente de Haití o Cuba, intentan buscar un futuro mejor en Florida. Los Guardacostas norteamericanos han interceptado alrededor de 2.600 'sin papeles' en los últimos siete meses y 4.800 en todo 2008.
9 Die as Haitian Immigrants’ Boat Sinks - NYTimes.comMay 14, 2009
By DAMIEN CAVE
MIAMI — The Coast Guard pulled 27 people out of the waters off Boynton Beach on Wednesday, at least 9 of them dead, after a boat packed with Haitian immigrants capsized and sank.
Survivors told rescuers that the boat flipped around 2 a.m., but it was not discovered until 10 hours later, when a person passing by in a boat called the Coast Guard to say he had fished three people out of the water about 15 miles offshore. He said dozens of others were in need of help.
Petty Officer Barry Bena, a Coast Guard spokesman, said the group included men and women, mostly from Haiti, with a few from the Bahamas. Later reports from the Coast Guard said children and a pregnant woman were among the passengers.
They appeared to be trying to reach the United States from Bimini in the Bahamas. In late springtime, the waters off Florida are more calm, and many migrants use the Bahamas as a jumping off point for Florida. But details on their identities, time of departure or what led the boat to capsizing were not known Wednesday night.
“We have not located any vessel,” Petty Officer Bena said. “We’re only getting information from people who were on it.”
Coast Guard officials said the rescue effort was among the largest in recent years. It included two large Coast Guard boats from Lake Worth, Fla., along with two HH-65 helicopters and an HU-25 Falcon jet from Miami. At least five people were flown from the scene to area hospitals.
An ad hoc trauma center, complete with a portable morgue, was set up at Phil Foster Park along the Intercoastal Waterway in Riviera Beach. Around 7:30 p.m., several paramedic trucks surrounded a mobile command unit and officials from local police agencies, Customs and Border Control and other law enforcement agencies milled about, as a Coast Guard ship returned with survivors and the dead bodies in silver bags.
“It makes you wonder what people go through to get here,” said Betty Moore, 49, who works at a drug treatment center overlooking the park. “For people to go through such extremes, there must be something horrible going on in their home country.”
Indeed, the incident promises to renew debate over immigration policy for Haitians. Haiti has long been the poorest country in the hemisphere, and it is still reeling from storms that killed an estimated 1,000 people last year and led to food shortages.
Since the fiscal year started in October, the Coast Guard said it has apprehended 1,377 Haitian immigrants, up from 972 in the same seven-month period last year.
In March, the Department of Homeland Security said it would continue deporting illegal Haitian immigrants, despite appeals by the Haitian government, which said returnees could destabilize a country where food, water and housing are scarce.
Cheryl Little, a lawyer with the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, said the roughly 30,000 Haitians currently facing deportation — a group Wednesday’s survivors are likely to join — should be allowed to stay in the United States until the situation in Haiti improves.
“What we’re encouraging our government to do is grant some kind of temporary legal status to Haitians already here,” Ms. Little said, “so they can have work permits, and be able to send desperately needed money to their loved ones in Haiti.”
Carmen Gentile contributed reporting from Riviera Beach, Fla.
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