Florida advocates: Stop deporting Haitian immigrants!

Rescue workers continue to search the sea off Florida today for survivors after a boat carrying about 30 people - many of them smuggled migrants traveling to the United States from Haiti - capsized and sank Wednesday morning. 

The Associated Press reports that at least nine people were killed, including an infant. Another sixteen more people were pulled out of the waters although the Coast Guard doesn't know how many people were aboard or how many might still be lost at sea. 

The accident arrived the same day that Haitian-Americans, as well as several faith-based, immigrant rights and labor groups from around the country, traveled to Washington, D.C. to lobby for temporary protective status, or TPS, for Haitians who have fled to the United States. TPS advocates met with representatives from the White House and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, as well as Congressional leaders as they called for an end to the deportation of Haitians and requested that President Barack Obama issue an executive order granting TPS to Haitian nationals living in the U.S. 

TPS is a special state granted to immigrants who are unable to return to their countries because of armed conflict, environmental disasters, or other extraordinary and temporary conditions. TPS was granted to Nicaragua and Honduras in 1999 following Hurricane Mitch and of El Salvador in 2001 following severe earthquakes. It has also been granted to Somalia, Sudan, and most recently, under the Obama Administration, to Liberia. Yet, Haiti has never been offered TPS. 

Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere, is still in the midst of a humanitarian disaster. Some 6.2 million people (out of population of 9 million) live in poverty and are unemployed. As Facing South reported, the small island nation's troubles significantly increased with the passage of four deadly back-to-back storms last fall -- Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike -- that killed more than 800 persons and worsened the nation's food crisis. The storms devastated the country, causing more than $1 billion in damage to irrigation, bridges and roads, and rendering hundreds of thousands homeless. Fifteen percent of Haiti's already fragile economy was destroyed, the equivalent of ten Hurricane Katrinas hitting the United States in the same month. 

The U.S. government did halt deportations to Haiti for three months last fall. But in December 2008, the administration of then President George W. Bush denied Haiti's request for TPS and resumed deportations. The same policy has remained under the Obama Administration. In fact, as Facing South reported in February, in the first 50 days of Obama's term the United States issued deportation orders to more than 30,000 Haitians. Hundreds of Haitians were put in camps to await their return home, while others were put under a form of house arrest and monitored with electronic ankle bracelets. 

The Obama Administration has not yet taken action to stop deportations or to release Haitian detainees, but TPS advocates across the country hope that the new administration will provide a change to the controversial U.S. policy toward Haiti. It's a policy human rights advocates and lawmakers have long called discriminatory and steeped in racism. Over the years, the United States has become notorious for turning away Haitian "boat people" coming into South Florida with legitimate claims to seek refuge and asylum from political upheaval and disaster. 

This double-standard and disparate treatment of Haitians compared to other immigrants has become a point of protest for Florida's Haitian-American community. While advocates from across the country are intensifying pressure on the U.S. government, the campaign for TPS has been gaining momentum across Florida as well. The Florida Immigrant Coalition and Haitian Women of Miami sent a bus load of Florida religious leaders, students and other advocates from Miami, Palm Beach, Orlando and Jacksonville to the action on Wednesday in D.C. They are also hosted a national call-in campaign this week urging President Obama to grant TPS. This week's D.C. meetings follow two major South Florida rallies in February and April that attracted thousands of Haitians and their allies demonstrating their support for TPS. 

The movement for Haitian TPS has also garnered support from several Congressional leaders. In January, Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) introduced the Haitian Protection Act of 2009, which would designate TPS for Haitians. The bill currently has 47 cosponsors, and advocates say the list is growing. Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Representatives Barney Frank (D-MA) and Stephen Lynch (D-MA) have also been urging the DHS to grant Haitians TPS, reports the Boston Globe. 

Hurricane season starts June 1, and forecasters are predicting it will be above average.