POSTED: 1:00 p.m. EST October 30, 2002
UPDATED: 8:56 a.m. EST October 31, 2002
MIAMI -- Six men were charged Wednesday with attempting to smuggle more than 235 Haitian migrants into the United States, officials said.
The six were on board the freighter when it ran aground near Key Biscayne Tuesday afternoon, carrying more than 220 Haitian migrants. The Haitians jumped overboard, rushing to shore and causing a traffic jam as they tried to flag down cars, all as television cameras beamed the images to national television.
Slideshow: Haitian Migrants Arrive In South Florida
Federal officials say the voyage was a for-profit venture, with the migrants paying to get aboard the wooden boat.
Detained are Jean Philippe Pettit-Homme, Genel Osmin, Sali Atanase Jean, Eli Louis, Edner Dorvil and Jean Eddy Louis. All are being detained as flight risks, and according to officials, do not speak English.
All are being held at a federal detention center as flight risks pending a scheduled court hearing Friday.
Meanwhile, we now know how many Haitian migrants are being held and where. In custody are 214 people in INS custody, including 150 men, 35 women and 26 children. The women and children are being held in local hotels, while the men are at Krome Detention Center, where they were visited by activists and politicians, including State Sen. Kendrick Meek, on Wednesday. Another 21 people who were fished from the waters off Miami are aboard a Coast Guard cutter in federal custody. One teenager is in the hospital, apparently being treated for dehydration, and the six who will be charged with aliensmuggling are in a federal jail.
The government said it identified five material witnesses among the group, including three Haitians and two Dominicans, who led authorities to the six smuggling suspects.
Among those in custody are three citizens of the Dominican Republic who were allegedly picked up by the freighter on its way to Miami.
, Meek Exchange Barbs Over Haitians
Gov. Jeb Bush and Congresswoman Carrie Meek had a sharp exchange Wednesday morning, a day after more than 200 Haitian migrants were detained by immigration officials for attempting to enter the U.S. illegally after their 50-foot wooden freighter ran aground near Key Biscayne.
Slideshow: Haitian Migrants Arrive In South Florida
Bush, who is running for re-election, was in Miami to accept the endorsement of some local Black leaders. He was met by Meek and about 30 protesters, who demanded the release of the migrants currently being held at the Krome Detention Center.
Meek, who is retiring from the U.S. congress this year, demanded that Bush call his brother, President Bush, and persuade him to expand the so-called "wet foot, dry foot" policy to treat Haitians just like Cubans, with those reaching land receiving asylum.
The governor reminded Meek that they worked together four years ago to make immigration policy fairer for Haitians. He also said he agrees with her that they should be released until their asylum request is heard.
In Washington, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the president won't interfere with the workings of the Immigration and Naturalization Service -- despite the upcoming election.
Jean Robert Lafortune, president of the Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition, joined the protesters outside the Liberty City Learning Center, where Bush was making a campaign stop. Lafortune said this latest crisis poses a leadership test for Bush, and could possibly help him in the upcoming election.
"If Bush could champion the issue, he could shift the balance in the election," Lafortune said. He said he has repeatedly appealed to Bush to use his influence as the president's brother to help the Haitians. "The time for lip service is over."
Unlike Cubans who reach dry land, Haitian immigrants usually are denied asylum in the United States and sent back to their homeland. Immigration attorneys sued the government in March, saying the Bush administration's new detention policy is racially biased.
"It's very sad to see the way human beings who are fleeing their country for a better way of life are treated," said North Miami Mayor Joe Celestin, a Haitian-American who went to the scene Tuesday and spoke to some of the migrants. "The Cubans that were on the same boat will be released. The Haitians will probably be deported. It's a double standard." Celestin was referring to three Cuban nationals who were also aboard the freighter.
Journey Began Eight Days Earlier
The Haitian migrants' journey at sea to escape their poverty-stricken homeland began eight days earlier when the boat is believed to have left from a Haitian port.
The U.S. Coast Guard spotted the 50-foot wooden vessel Tuesday and followed it for about two hours, said Coast Guard spokesman Luis Diaz. The boat ran aground about 500 yards from shore and the immigrants ran to land near Hobie Beach on Virginia Key, just southeast of Miami's downtown.
"They were all over the front of the boat, the top of the boat, the back of the boat. They were all over it," said windsurfer Ovidio DeLeon, who witnessed the scene. "Then they started jumping."
At least one witness reported seeing bystanders yelling to the migrants to run, saying she felt sympathy for their plight. "There has to be such desperation to leave everything you have and come here like that," she said.
Some of the Haitians jumped from the deck; others, including small children, were lowered into the water to struggle to shore. Once on land, they dashed onto six-lane Rickenbacker Causeway, snarling traffic for over three hours while police and immigration agents pursued those who had scattered onto the roadway, trying to flag down passing cars and in some cases even heading back into the water.
Twenty-one of the Haitians had to be rescued by the Coast Guard after jumping from the overloaded boat into water 10- to 12-feet deep and becoming too fatigued to make it to shore, Coast Guard Lt. Jeffrey Smith said. They remained aboard a Coast Guard vessel Wednesday, awaiting processing by immigration authorities. Another 214 migrants, including young children who had been dropped from the boat and carried to land by adults, were rounded up on land by Border Patrol agents. They were awaiting processing Wednesday at Krome Detention Center, and Haitian activists feared they would be deported. Authorities on Wednesday were still searching for others who may have escaped authorities.
"It was extremely dangerous. You had these people who had been on this boat for a number of days without food, without water," Smith said Wednesday on NBC's "Today" show. "They were already weak and then they were jumping into the water."
NBC 6 Explainer: Haiti
Thousands of Haitians each year risk dangerous voyages aboard rickety, crowded boats to flee the crushing poverty in their homeland, the hemisphere's poorest country where two-thirds of the population is unemployed or underemployed and most people survive on less than $1 a day.
U.S. Policy Quietly Changed As Officials Feared Mass Exodus
The Bush administration quietly changed its detention policy on Haitian refugees in December to discourage a feared mass exodus. Before the policy change, Haitian migrants applying for asylum were released into the community while their petitions were processed. Haitians arriving since December, however, are kept in immigration custody.
Immigration attorneys sued the government in March, saying the new policy of detention was racially biased.
"It's very sad to see the way human beings who are fleeing their country for a better way of life are treated," said North Miami Mayor Joe Celestin, a Haitian-American who went to the scene and spoke to some of the migrants. "The Cubans that were on the same boat will be released. The Haitians will probably be deported. It's a double standard."
News reports later stated that three people on board the freighter who were thought to be Cuban were actually from the Dominican Republic. That has not been confirmed and there was no word on their status Wednesday.
Gov. Jeb Bush said he spoke to White House officials about the migrants' status and was assured they would receive "fair and decent treatment."
About 4,000 immigrants have been interdicted at sea this year, including about 1,500 Haitians, Coast Guard Commander Jim McPherson said. AAccording to Miami attorney Kendall Coffey, only six percent of assylum applications by Haitian migrants are approved. Coffey also raised the question of how the boat was able to get within a mile of the Miami coastline in broad daylight without being interdicted.
"The boat people phenomenon is a manifestation of distress," said former Haitian President Leslie Manigat. "Haitians have no hope because their government has failed to give them any."
NBC 6 Explainer: Haiti
Copyright 2002 by NBC6.net The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
