Petition: Stop Deportation of 30,000 Haitians!

Tell President Obama, Vice President Biden, Secretary of State Clinton, U.N. Secretary-General Ban, Caribbean Economic Community Chair Barrow, Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano, ICE director John P. Torres, Congress and members of the media: Stop the Deportation of 30,000 Haitians!

Please tell Homeland Security and ICE to STOP THE DEPORTATION OF 30,000 HAITIANS!
YOUR EMERGENCY ACTION IS NEEDED NOW!

Sign the Petition today at http://www.iacenter.org/haiti/haitideportationpetition

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Petition

To: Janet Napolitano, Secretary, Homeland Security; Esther Olavarria, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy;
cc: President Obama, Vice President Biden, Secretary of State Clinton, U.N. Secretary-General Ban  Congressional leaders, and members of the media

Dear Janet Napolitano, Secretary, Homeland Security and Esther Olavarria, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy, Homeland Security:

The Department of Homeland Security has singled out 30,000 Haitians living in this country to be deported to the famine, disease and homelessness currently raging in Haiti. 

From September to December last year, Haitians had "temporary protected status" which allowed them to stay because four hurricanes had washed houses, bridges, roads, crops and the land on which they were growing away.

Now, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson says the 10,000 UN peace keepers currently occupying the country guarantee everybody's safety.

A spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Miami replied, "Deportations at this time are simply inhumane, sending people to conditions of famine and disease."

The temporary protected status must be restored for these 30,000 Haitians and they must be released from detention and house arrest immediately.

Haiti's National Coordination of Food Supply (CNSA) estimates 3 million Haitians out of 8 million cronically eat less than they need to maintain themselves.

People not only need food, they also need homes.  The bishop of Cap Haitian says that over 10,000 buildings, which sheltered 165,337 families in his diocese, have been destroyed. 

In Gonaïves, which used to be Haiti's second largest city, every single building was damaged. Over 500 people died there and over a thousand in all of Haiti.

The Haitian government has refused to issue travel documents because it cannot handle a massive influx of 30,000 people when its economy is in complete shambles.  In response,  ICE is threatening to keep Haitians under indefinite detention.

Almost all the people that ICE targets are people of color but many Haitian activists feel that they have been singled out because they  resist the wishes of the United States.

For example, they elected Jean-Bertrand Aristide as president in 1990 over the U.S. favorite. After a U.S.-backed coup in September 30, 1991, he came back and in 2000 was elected president with 92% of the vote.  Another U.S. organized coup-kidnapping sent him into exile in 2004.

Many other citizens of countries like Nicaragua and Honduras living in the U.S. have received TPS after natural disasters. Haitians should be released from detention and granted the same relief.

Sincerely,

Sign the Petition today at http://www.iacenter.org/haiti/haitideportationpetition