Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 16 juillet 2019

 With Miami expecting deportations, some tips on your rights if ICE knocks on the door

Miami is facing mass deportations as early as this Sunday, sources told the Miami Herald.

The deportation efforts, originally planned for late June, were delayed after media reports revealed the plans for mass deportations in major cities, including Miami.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement effort will focus on people “who have been issued final deportation orders by federal judges yet remain at large in the country,” a Trump administration official confirmed. Agents will also ask household members for their immigration documents when making arrests.

Here are some frequently asked questions about ICE detainment:

WHAT HAPPENS IF IMMIGRATION KNOCKS ON YOUR DOOR

The Florida Immigrant Coalition released the following recommendations if an immigration agent knocks on your door.

▪ Don’t open the door.

▪ Ask to see the judicial warrant, which can be slid under your door. It must have your correct name and address and be signed by a judge. If the document does not have that information, say that you do not authorize their entrance and that you will call your attorney.

▪ Remain silent until you speak with your attorney.

▪ DO NOT provide any information on your background, place of birth or when/how you came to the United States.

▪ DO NOT sign any document that you don’t understand.

Experts recommend you do not lie about your place of birth, how you got into the country or about whether or not you’re a U.S. citizen.

WHAT IF I’M A NATURALIZED IMMIGRANT? A PERMANENT RESIDENT?

Naturalized immigrants or permanent residents can tell ICE their citizenship status, but if they cannot immediately provide documents to prove it, they may be detained. Experts recommend they keep relevant documents with them, such as a permanent residence card or green card. If you don’t have them, stay calm and silent.

HOW TO FIND SOMEONE DETAINED BY ICE

Immigrants held in an ICE detention facility may be located using the agency’s Online Detainee Locator System. Friends, relatives and attorneys can also telephone any Enforcement and Removal Operations field office.

The online searches can be done by A-number, the nine-digit number starting with the letter A assigned to each foreigner during any immigration procedure, or by biographical information, which requires the name and surname of the immigrant detained as well as the detainee’s country and date of birth.

From Little Havana to Little Haiti, migrants' fear of Trump's raids is felt in Miami

Hundreds protest in Homestead, advocates work to keep migrants informed

By Christian De La Rosa - Reporter, Glenna Milberg - Reporter, Andrea Torres - Digital Reporter/Producer

"Right now there would be more than 20 people waiting here, but it's empty because everybody is scared," Ortega said. "Nobody wants to go out."

President Donald Trump's warning that a nationwide immigration enforcement operation is set to begin on Sunday has sparked fear in areas of Miami-Dade County, targeting thousands of migrants with final deportation orders.

"They are going to take people out and they are going to bring them back to their countries or they are going to take criminals out and put them in prisons," Trump told reporters on Friday.

The order will also apply to migrant families whose cases were fast-tracked by judges and Venezuelans who have found refuge in South Florida. In an attempt to protect asylum seekers, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Thursday.

Immigration advocates are working to raise awareness about immigrants' rights and organized protests Friday. Hundreds of protesters met outside of a detention center in Miami-Dade County's city of Homestead.

Jorge Marrero said he just wants the nightmare to end. He owns a nail salon in Little Havana and his business is suffering.

"Some of my clients don't want to go out and about," Marrero said in Spanish.

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez wants residents to remember that Miami Police Department officers will not be getting involved in the federal operation.

"We don't get involved in immigration enforcement," Suarez said.

Advocates are asking migrants to find out if they have an order of removal by calling an automated information line at 1-800-898-7180. If the case isn't in that database, they are directing migrants to immigration attorneys.

The Florida Immigrant Coalition is offering migrants help and guidance at 1-888-600-5762. They are advising migrants to avoid opening their doors to immigration agents and to keep and memorize an immigration attorney's phone number.

For more information from advocates, text the word "protection" to 313131.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 24 juillet 2019

‘I am alarmed,’ U.N. Secretary General says about 2018 Haiti massacre

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The secretary general of the United Nations said Wednesday he is “alarmed” by the findings of his human-rights investigators on a 2018 massacre in a Haiti slum, as well as the lack of any judicial action against the accused, including two former Haiti National Police officers and a current government official.

“The allegations of complicity by at least two police officers and a representative of the State call for authorities to act swiftly to bring to justice those who are responsible for the crimes,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said in his first public comments about a U.N.-issued report on the November 2018 massacre in Port-au-Prince’s La Saline neighborhood.

Haiti-based human rights organizations have put the death toll in La Saline as high as 71. U.N. investigators , who acknowledged that their probe was not exhaustive, say at least 26 people, including a 10-month-old and 72-year-old, were killed. The killings took place over two days and were “a well-planned operation” carried out by five different gangs, the U.N. said. 

Witnesses reported that a Haitian government official, the appointed delegate for the West region, was seen in the company of police officers and gang members during the attack. One of those police officers had previously been implicated in another massacre in the Grande Ravine slum of Port-au-Prince a year earlier. As in La Saline, no legal proceedings have been initiated to date in relation to the Grande Ravine killings.

‘If Haiti gives me a government, we can work together toward a better future’ | Opinion

BY JOVENEL MOISE

JULY 12, 2019 08:11 PM, UPDATED JULY 12, 2019 08:11 PM

The past few weeks have been some of the most difficult of my presidency. Haitians are no strangers to political instability. Politics is etched into daily life in Haiti — debated in the street and daubed on walls across the country. Political differences are healthy and inherently Haitian. But the current instability comes with a cost we cannot afford to pay.

It has plunged Haiti into a state of gridlock. With a minority in Parliament refusing to vote on the appointment of a government, last year’s budget sat gathering dust, and no easy solution is in sight. So many people require urgent attention: According to the National Council for Food Security, there are approximately 7 million living in poverty, 3 million of whom live in extreme poverty; 350,000 Haitian children do not attend school; and 100,000 children under 5 are malnourished. Haitians have understandably taken to the street demanding answers to pressing questions — and demanding action.

It’s right for the public to hold me, as president, accountable for this country’s governance. I hold myself accountable as well. I was elected by the people with a mandate to improve Haitians’ lives. Each day that our politicians spend fighting among themselves at the expense of the issues that matter to the people — opportunity, safety, rule of law and good governance — is one day too many. I accept my responsibility for that. It is time others do, too.

I am working day and night to fix the current crisis. That has meant trying everything possible to bring together groups for dialogue to find a path forward, no matter how acrimonious the disagreements. It has also meant answering questions that the Haitian people have for me.

The PetroCaribe corruption crisis has plagued our country. Anger is palpable and entirely understandable. For my part, I took to the airwaves to directly answer allegations made against me in a report about PetroCaribe funds. Before running for office, I was a banana farmer and then a successful agricultural entrepreneur in northern Haiti. In 2014, my company was contracted to renovate a road that had fallen into disrepair. The report incorrectly alleges that the work was not done, and that the funds were therefore stolen. That is patently untrue — Agritrans renovated three kilometres of unmetalled road, 85 percent of the total, despite being paid just 35 percent of the total due, or 15 million gourdes. I invite any interested observers to travel to the road and drive along it today.

I have addressed this subject directly and on several occasions. I hope Haitians will see the accusations for what they are: a tool to further the cynical political and financial interests of a small group of people who have been abusing weaknesses in our system for a long time. The PetroCaribe wrongdoing is a decade-old problem, and genuine justice is long overdue. In this hyper-partisan, fractious environment, honesty and justice are distant goals. That is why I am working with the Organization of American States to assemble a team of independent international financial experts for a commission that will work around our broken politics to deliver a fair, credible, objective audit so that Haitian judges can pursue accountability for anyone found to have committed crimes and stolen from the Haitian people.

Appointing this commission is the only way for Haiti’s political system to return to the business of governing. And our first order of business must be to appoint a new government. I have certainly done my part, making compromises in the formation of my own cabinet. Numerous members of the opposition will receive cabinet posts under my proposals. I am ready to go, we need to get moving. There are no excuses left.

The appointment of a government will unlock billions of dollars in development funding that currently sits waiting for our empty parliament to act, earmarked for our electrical grid, agricultural projects and the health and education of the Haitian people. These monies form part of a Citizen’s Development Plan secured from our allies in the United States, Taiwan, Europe, and international financial institutions — it must not be sacrificed on the altar of politics. This is the cost of political gridlock.

While this development plan is crucial and stands to affect Haitians across the country, gaining access to those funds is not the end of the road. We need to think farther ahead. We need to break the cycle of political chaos, thinking past the upcoming parliamentary elections in October and past the end of my administration.

This will be a primary goal of the government I form. I will serve until the end of my term in 2022, then leave office. But without serious, sober reform and commitment to changing who we are truly working for and how we are working for it, the next president — and the president thereafter — will be condemned to face the same challenges that I and those who preceded me have faced. And the people and our country will wind up with nothing.

Working closely with international partners, we will need to design and legislate effective reforms for transparency that have real teeth and give Haitians a sense of accountability and trust in elected officials. We will need to de-politicize and strengthen our electoral commission — to inspire genuine confidence ahead of October’s parliamentary elections. To pass these and other measures, we will need to work together across party lines. Nothing meaningful can be done alone, and I pledge to work with all sectors and parties in Haiti.

We all must be willing. This is difficult and important work that needs to begin immediately. Our country and our people deserve to have hope. They deserve a democratic system that works and a government that gets things done.

The people are waiting.

Jovenel Moise is the president of Haiti.

Read more here: https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article232622617.html#storylink=cpy

Few Signs of Immigration Raids Outside of New York City | Newsmax.com 

The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said efforts to deport families with orders to leave the country will continue after an upcoming national sweep that President Donald Trump said would start Sunday.

But just after noon on Sunday, there were few reports or signs that the raids were being conducted.

Immigration attorneys and advocates around the country said they had not heard any reports of ICE activity.

"We've not heard anything," Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said on MSNBC on Sunday morning.

Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, would not confirm that the raids had even started.

"I can't speak to operational specifics and won't," he said on CNN's 'State of the Union.'

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he was getting reports that a nationwide crackdown on immigrants facing deportation is already underway in his city.

The sweeps were expected to start Sunday, but de Blasio tweeted on Saturday that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency had already taken action in New York.

The mayor said ICE agents did not succeed in rounding up any residents of Brooklyn's Sunset Park neighborhood and Harlem.

Immigrants who've been given orders to leave the country are government targets in at least 10 cities.

Advocates are coaching them on their rights, including instructions not to respond if agents knock on the door unless shown a warrant signed by a judge.

De Blasio has said his city would not cooperate with ICE.

A group of Chicago aldermen and activists were patrolling the city on bike to look for immigration authorities detaining people as part of broader federal immigration sweeps.

Roughly 65 people were  taking part in Sunday's bike patrol, which is focusing on the immigrant-heavy neighborhood of Albany Park on the city's northwest side.

Alderwoman Rossana Rodriguez said the idea is to keep people informed. She said bikers would ride in shifts, possibly for several days.

She said an attorney is also available to help people who do get detained.

The Wall Street Journal reported that ICE agents went to residences in the Harlem section of Manhattan and Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood. The agents were rejected by people at the residences because they didn’t have warrants, but plan to return to Sunset Park tomorrow, the Journal reported.

Elsewhere, however, immigration experts said they were seeing few if any signs of a massive dragnet.

The Miami Herald reported that South Florida advocacy groups redirected their efforts from helping detainees to spreading information and awareness of immigrant rights.

"At the ICE central processing facility in Miramar, all was quiet. No agents were seen entering or leaving the building before sunrise, and only a single RV was stationed inside the fenced-in center," the Herald reported.

"Also quiet were hot lines set up by attorneys and others who had been anticipating the removal of thousands of immigrants with deportation orders. They had not received any calls from immigrants or their families seeking help Sunday morning."

Immigration sources told the Herald that it’s possible that ICE agents had not acquired the warrants necessary to carry out the removals.

Matthew Albence, the agency's acting director, said targets were on an "accelerated docket" of immigration court cases for predominantly Central Americans who recently arrived at the U.S. border in unprecedented numbers. Similar operations occurred in 2016 under President Barack Obama and in 2017 under Trump.

"This family operation is nothing new," Albence told The Associated Press. "It's part of our day-to-day operations. We're trying to surge some additional resources to deal with this glut of cases that came out of the accelerated docket, but after this operation is over, these cases are still going to be viable cases that we'll be out there investigating and pursuing."

The operation will target people with final deportation orders on 10 major court dockets, including Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Miami. Albence said that doesn't mean arrests will be limited to certain areas. Authorities will go where their investigations lead, even if it's five states away from where the case is filed.

Trump said authorities were "focused on criminals as much as we can before we do anything else."

"It starts on Sunday and they're going to take people out and they're going to bring them back to their countries or they're going to take criminals out, put them in prison, or put them in prison in the countries they came from."

The operation further inflamed the political debate over immigration as Trump appeals to his base with a pledge to crack down on migrants and Democrats cast the president and his administration as inhumane for going after families.

The Obama-era family operation in 2016 resulted in about 10% of those targeted being arrested, and the 2017 effort had a lower arrest rate, Albence said. Other operations that have targeted people with criminal arrest records have yielded arrests rates of about 30%, aided by access to law enforcement databases.

"If you have an individual that's been arrested for a criminal violation, you're going to have much more of an investigative footprint," Albence said.

Administration officials have said they are targeting about 2,000 people, which would yield about 200 arrests based on previous crackdowns. Trump has said on Twitter that his agents plan to arrest millions of immigrants in the country illegally.

It is highly unusual to announce an enforcement sting before it begins. The president postponed the effort once before after a phone call with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but immigration officials said it was also due in part to law enforcement concerns over officer safety because details had leaked.

But they're pressing ahead with this one, even though the president and other administration officials have discussed the long-planned family operation for months.

"Nothing to be secret about," Trump said. "If the word gets out, it gets out because hundreds of people know about it."

The operation will target entire families that have been ordered removed, but some family may be separated if some members are in the country legally. Albence gave a hypothetical example of a father and child in the U.S. illegally but a mother who isn't

"If the mother wants to return voluntarily on her own with the family, she'll have an opportunity to do so," he said.

Families may be temporarily housed in hotels until they can be transferred to a detention center or deported. Marriott said it would not allow ICE to use its hotels for holding immigrants.

If ICE runs out of space, it may be forced to separate some family members, Albence said. The government has limited space in its family detention centers in Texas and Pennsylvania.

"If hotels or other places do not want to allow us to utilize that, it's almost forcing us into a situation where we're going to have to take one of the parents and put them in custody and separate them from the rest of their families," he said.

Meanwhile, activists ramped up efforts to prepare by circulating information about hotlines and planning public demonstrations. Vigils outside of detention centers and hundreds of other locations nationwide were set for Friday evening, to be followed by protests Saturday.

Haiti’s government is hurting for cash. It just hired yet another lobbyist in D.C.

“Haiti should be focused on domestic problems to provide medicines to hospitals, potable water to its population and education to its youth,” said Gary Bodeau, the president of the Lower Chamber of Deputies. “That amount of money could be used in a more efficient way, not to satisfy lobbyists to promote a political agenda.”

The country’s designated prime minister still can’t get confirmed. Civil servants and diplomats in its foreign embassies aren’t getting paid. And hospital staffs are dealing with rolling blackouts and a dire shortage of blood .

Despite the ongoing turmoil, however, Haitian officials appear to once again be more concerned about their image in Washington.

According to forms filed with the U.S. Justice Department, the international law firm Dentons US LLP is now working for Haiti, the third lobbying shop on the cash-strapped government’s payroll. The global public relations firm Mercury, hired back in February 2018 to soften Haiti’s image after President Donald Trump reportedly derided the country as a “shithole” during a White House meeting, remains active. So does Johanna LeBlanc, a consultant hired by the country’s Washington embassy in March.

Mercury, which has helped Haitian President Jovenel Moïse and other government ministers land opinion pieces in major U.S. dailies including the Miami Herald, said it was to be paid $4,690 a month in a 2018 filing until December, and then continue on a month-to-month basis thereafter. 

In her March 2019 filing, LeBlanc said she was being paid $5,000 a month until September to interact with “U.S. government officials and public entities in order to promote the interests of the State of Haiti and its citizens in the United States.”

Dentons, meanwhile, is charging a flat rate of $25,000 per month for 12 months, for what it describes as legal advice on various matters and lobbying. The firm’s principal contact, David Tafuri, did not respond to a Miami Herald inquiry about the scope of its work on behalf of the Haitian government.

Haiti Foreign Minister Bocchit Edmond, who is listed as Dentons’ contact in the June 28 filing, would not provide specifics on what the international firm will be tasked with, and why the country needs a third firm to lobby for its interests. (A fourth firm is also registered, but it has been contracted by the Association of Haiti Industries to set up meetings for government ministers in order to push for extension of the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act.) 

“A state has the right to contract the service of a firm at the same time identifying the kind of service it is seeking,” said Edmond, referring to the ongoing contract with Mercury, which he said the government is currently “reconsidering.”

“We are not dissatisfied [with] Mercury. I must admit they have been very helpful. But we wanted to assess Dentons’ work. We just contracted them so we are on [a] trial period,” added the minister, who in a June letter to Haiti’s diplomatic missions abroad acknowledged that the country was having financial difficulties and “it has been some time since you have received your pay.”

While it is not unusual for countries to hire lobbyists, the latest decision raises questions about Haiti’s priorities at a time when hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid are stalled because there is no functioning government to vote on a budget, and the Parliament has refused to even vote on an accord to receive a $150 million low-interest loan from the Republic of Taiwan to revamp the capital’s electrical grid. 

Recently, the finance minister announced that tax revenues had fallen by more than 35 percent due to the ongoing protests and instability, and the World Bank predicted a 0.4 percent annual growth rate for Haiti — far less than the 2.8 percent forecast.

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 31 juillet 2019

 Skepticism geared toward new government

Sociopolitical sectors are expressing skepticism at the formation of new Prime Minister Fritz William Michel’s cabinet. The majority of the people making up the cabinet are of unknown personalities according to senator Pierre François Sildor who asks to wait to see which direction Michel’s general policy statement will go at the time of voting. 

“What means will the new government use to solve the big challenges of the hour: the expensive life, the insecurity, the environment, the return to school and the socio-economic situation,” Sildor said.

“Haiti en Folie” festival takes over Montreal

Thousands of festival-goers attended Montréal’s Place des Festivals on Monday to attend the opening show of the Festival en Folie organized as part of Juste pour Rire, which runs through July 28. Musicians Emeline Michel and James Germain kicked off the festivities that commemorate the 215 years of Haitian independence and the 60 years of presence of Haitians in Quebec. Also involved the festival includes DJ’s Rock Steady, Buzz and Sweet Larock and on Friday, a tribute will be paid to the singer Cornelia “Ti Corn” Schutt, born in Haiti to German parents and raised in Cap-Haitien.

Artists struggle to save Haiti museum after 2010 earthquake

DÁnica Coto | APJuly 19

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Franck Louissaint sighed and frowned as he stepped onto his patio and flung aside shower curtains protecting a painting by a former voodoo priest who became a renowned Haitian artist.

The painting from the 1960s once depicted a seemingly joyous voodoo spirit known as a loa, but it warped into something that looked like a three-dimensional satellite image of mountains after it was damaged by rubble and waterlogged when a 2010 earthquake hit the museum where it was displayed.

“It’s like the skin of a crocodile!” exclaimed Louissaint, an artist who expects seven more months of work to fully restore the painting by Robert Saint-Brice.

It is one of dozens of well-known paintings that artists are still trying to rescue nearly a decade after the magnitude 7.0 quake killed an estimated 300,000 people or more and struck countless buildings, including the Museum of Haitian Art of St. Pierre College — one of the country’s top institutions. More than 600 other watercolors and paintings by prominent artists are still in storage and in danger of decaying as a small group of artists struggles to restore the damaged works.

While life has begun anew for much of Haiti since the quake, the museum has been shuttered for nine years and only recently opened a tiny room to display a small quantity of art.

On a recent day, 91-year-old museum president Louis Du Bois walked briskly through the building, pointing out the damaged roof and walls as he occasionally put on his glasses to inspect certain paintings.

“We have to reopen to the public,” he said. “All the great artists are here.”

The quake also devastated other public spaces dedicated to art across Haiti, with $30 million in losses reported at the Museum d’Art Nader, which had one of the world’s most extensive collections of Haitian art.

But the Museum of Haitian Art is one of the few worldwide to host Haitian paintings from the 20th century. The museum, which previously drew 9,000 visitors a year, was established in the 1970s by art lovers to commemorate U.S. painter DeWitt Peters and is tucked into the southeast corner of Port-au-Prince’s historic area. It features mostly donated artwork.

Fewer than a dozen paintings are currently on display, including one titled “Marriage of Interest” by Rigaud Benoit, who is considered a master of Haitian painting, and “Tower of Babel” by Préfète Duffaut, whose work was collected by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Both men also painted murals inside a cathedral in Port-au-Prince that was flattened by the earthquake.

The museum’s oldest painting dates to 1945 and is by seminal Haitian artist Hector Hyppolite.

The Smithsonian Institution has helped the museum restore some paintings, as has the Louvre, which also donated 1,000 copies of a catalog illustrating all of Hyppolite’s paintings so local officials could sell them to help generate money.

But the museum still has blank, white walls, with hundreds of works stacked in a narrow storage area exposed to heat, humidity and other dangers. They are taken out only for the occasional cleaning while the more than 30 earthquake-damaged works are being restored.

Among those needing attention is a 1960s lush jungle scene by Jean-Claude Toussaint, which is nearly ripped in half and also slashed diagonally. The painting remains rolled up with yellowed masking tape that has lost its stickiness.

Du Bois estimates that the museum needs $50,000 to reopen, noting the roof must be fixed and the electricity repaired before additional paintings can be displayed.

For now, he and others are relying solely on the restoration efforts of artists such as Erntz Jeudy of nearby Quisqueya University.

Jeudy recently sat in front of a 71-by-79-inch (180-by-200-centimeter) painting by Miami-based artist Edouard Duval Carrié titled “The Republican Army of Santo Domingo,” which was stripped down to blank canvas in certain areas.

“This means a lot to me because it’s the restoration of a very rich heritage,” he said. “It’s great to be able to work and transmit this to future generations.”

It’s a feeling familiar for Louissaint, who works up to 10 hours at a time to restore Brice’s painting. He said it makes him proud to have permission to touch such artwork.

“It’s the story of the old Haiti,” he said. “It starts to live again.”

Soles With Soul: Donna Karan and Kenneth Cole Are Collaborating With Artisans in Haiti on Summer Sandals

Donna Karan and Kenneth Cole: two iconic names in the New York fashion industry; a combined 70 years of experience between them; never collaborated! Until today, that is. (Let’s chalk it up to collaborations being a 2010s thing.)

Like most great ideas, this one started with a personal story: Three years ago, Karan purchased a pair of leather sandals with a plush rubber sole from Cole’s Gentle Souls line (which fuses performance technology with natural materials), and they instantly became her summer signature. “Everyone was constantly asking where I got my sandals,” she says. “They are seriously the most comfortable shoes in the entire world—they are beyond comfortable. I can’t even explain it!” That got her thinking about the leather sandals she was producing in Haiti through her label, Urban Zen, which sparked another thought: What if she could get these crazy-comfy, foamy soles into the hands of the artisans and create something totally new and modern?

She called up Cole, who has also been working in Haiti for nearly a decade, to discuss a potential partnership. (Another point of similarity between the two designers: Both immediately went to Haiti after its devastating 2010 earthquake and have aided health care, education, and cultural preservation initiatives ever since.) Cole and his team had been working with a group of artisans making shoes out of local materials, “but they were a little stiff and uncomfortable,” he admits. So Karan connected his team with Pascale Théard, a longtime Urban Zen partner and highly skilled local workshop owner. In January, Cole and Karan flew down to her shop in Port-au-Prince and finalized 10 designs, all of which merge Cole’s comfy soles with traditional Haitian leather-working.

The finished products are equal parts Cole and Karan: gladiator sandals with cushioned soles, fringed and embroidered leather uppers, and braided straps that wrap around the ankle. “You know when you try on a shoe and go, Oh, my gosh! It’s that kind of feeling when you put these on,” Karan says. “I always say, if you can’t sleep in it and go out in it, I don’t want it. [I want] things that go from day to night, with an artisanal hand, with a story, with a meaning, with a soul. I always say it’s never about me—it’s about we and who we work with.”

Following a low-key launch party in the Hamptons over the weekend, the shoes are arriving in Cole’s store on the Bowery, at Urban Zen in Sag Harbor and New York City’s West Village, and on both designers’ websites today, with prices starting at $325. “Hopefully it becomes an ongoing sustainable business,” Cole says. “If nothing else, it shines a light on a culture that deserves to be celebrated. We’re making these in very limited quantities to start. We want them to be a vehicle for telling the story of this community.”

Haiti's Notorious Gang Leader Arnel Joseph Arrested

WASHINGTON/PORT-AU-PRINCE - A wounded Arnel Joseph was lying on a stretcher, ready to be wheeled into an operating room at the Bonne Fin hospital of Les Cayes, a Caribbean seaport located in Haiti's southern region, when members of a special unit of the National Police Force's (PNH) swooped in to arrest him.

"We've captured Arnel!" the officers shouted angrily, then they fired their weapons into the air, in a video seen by VOA Creole.

The alleged gang leader, considered to be one of the country's most dangerous and wanted fugitives, was awaiting surgery on his wounded leg, when he was found and captured, according to National Police Chief Michel Ange Gedeon. The leg was wounded during a fire fight with rival gang leader Ti Sourit, Arnel told reporters as they snapped photos and recorded video of him after his arrest.

Police Chief Gédeon tweeted the news to a stunned nation. 

"The gang leader Arnel Joseph (who) the national police force spent months trying to locate has been apprehended Monday at the Hopital Bonne Fin (Cayes). Thank you to our police officers and to the people of Haiti."

The police had been tracking him for months and suspected he was hiding out in the lush seaside of Artibonite in the agricultural region of the country.

Gedeon said the arrest "had been an obsession for the 15,000 police officers of the institution," during an interview with radio station Magik9 Tuesday morning.

In 2018, PNH had offered a $27,000 reward (2 million gourdes) for any information leading to Arnel's arrest.

Post arrest photos go viral 

Photos of the tall, thin young man in his 20s, lying naked on a dirt surface as people shouted questions at him quickly went viral on Haitian social media Monday night. In one photo obtained by VOA Creole, the tan Timberland-style boot of a police officer wearing camouflage pants can be seen pressing down on his chest. Arnel looks up in bewilderment.

The image sparked questions about whether human rights activists and MINUJUSTH, The United Nations Mission for Justice Support in Haiti would investigate the circumstances of Arnel's arrest and his treatment by police afterward.  The special unit had decided to move in on Arnel before the surgical procedure, rather than waiting until after it was over to swoop in.  

MINUJUSTH's stated mission is "strengthening Haiti's rule of law institutions, developing the Haitian National Police, and promoting and protecting human rights."  

Who is Arnel Joseph?

The 20-something Arnel had been arrested and sentenced to six years in jail  in 2011 for the murder of several policemen. He was released in May of 2017.   Haiti's penal code is based on the French judicial system. It is unclear how his sentence was determined. 

Arnel is accused of terrorizing residents of the Village de Dieu slum of the capital, and more recently of robbing trucks loaded with merchandise, raping, kidnapping and attacking motorists on National Highway #1, which links the capital and cities to the north.

In a conversation with journalists posted on YouTube, he said he considers himself to be a "representative" of the Village de Dieu slum of the capital, Port-au-Prince. "Our revolution is the Haitian people's revolution," he said.

Links to lawmakers

In April, the discovery of of 24 mobile calls between Arnel and Senator Garcia Delva roiled the nation.  Senator Delva, who represents the Artibonite agricultural department of the country where the alleged gang leader had been hiding out, denied any wrongdoing.

"I only have one position on this," he told reporters. "If the commission finds that I, in my conversations with Arnel, ever agreed to associate myself with his (illegal) activities then I agree and accept to pay the consequences. For once, this country needs justice."

When journalists pressed him about why he was in contact with the gang leader in the first place, Delva responded that he "talks to everyone."

"Everyone knows my number, I've never changed it - so everyone calls me - anyone can call me. Anyway, I don't think I'm the only one who converses with him," Delva said.   The senator refused to divulge what they discussed and alleged that prominent Haitian businessman and opposition leader Reginald Boulos recognizes Arnel as a community leader. He said Boulos confirmed that in a conversation with a local radio station.

How the phone calls were tracked remains unclear.

Senator Senatus told reporters the commission (Senate Commission for Justice, Security and Defense) had received information that led to them asking the National Telecommunications Council (CONATEL) to provide information about the calls made to and from Senator Delva's phone.  But Jean David Rodney, the institution's executive director, denied ever receiving such a request in an interview with Haiti Libre newspaper. He said CONATEL has "no direct relationship with the Senate."

Former Senate leader Youri Latortue, who also represents the Artibonite region in the Senate, echoed his colleague Delva's claims about other prominent politicians being linked to the gang leader.

"I think there are a lot of other names on the list of connections to Arnel," Latortue told VOA Creole. "For example there's Vladimir Jean-Louis "Ti Vlad" who does security work for (former president Michel) Martelly - he's on the list too. We have to investigate the links between what they said exists (between) - the president and the thugs - because some people say it was the president who brought Arnel to Port au Prince.

Those allegations remain unsubstantiated.

Conditions to turn himself in to law enforcement

Prior to his arrest on Monday, Arnel expressed a willingness to turn himself in if the government met certain conditions. 

His conditions were: finishing potable water projects, building roads, boosting agriculture and providing electricity to the population.

What's next?

Arnel's capture put an end to years of living on the lam, but the police investigation into his criminal activities continues, according to Carl-Henry Boucher, the administrative director of the national police force.

On social media, reaction to the arrest was mixed.

"Good Job" @michaljoseph9341 commented on VOA Creole's Instagram page.

User @albandywedson questioned why the police waited until he sought treatment to arrest him.

And @benaldo_paul was skeptical of justice really being served, commenting "jomo (President Jovenel Moise) and the honorable garcia delva will have him released."

Détails

Catégorie : What's up Little Haiti

Création : 10 aout 2019

Trump to Haitians awaiting green cards: You can’t come to the U.S., wait in Haiti

The Trump administration is ending an Obama-era immigration program that allowed thousands of Haitians who were eligible to receive a green card in two years to wait it out in the United States with relatives.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Friday that it was ending the Haitian Family Reunification Parole Program, and will now decide whether to allow Haitians to travel to the U.S. to await their lawful permanent resident status on a case-by-case and humanitarian basis. 

The decision, USCIS said, is consistent with a 2017 executive order on Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements. The order limits access to asylum, expands the use of detention, enhances enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border, and ensures that parole into the U.S. is exercised on a case-by-case basis.

USAID Awards New Agreement to Tackle Human Trafficking in Haiti

Port-au-Prince, July 31, 2019- In an effort to increase public awareness and protect victims, USAID signed a four-year cooperative agreement with the LUMOS Foundation to support a major acceleration of the Haitian government’s and civil society’s efforts to deliver transformative progress on the endemic issue of human trafficking, with a special focus on child trafficking and the thousands of children victim to cross-border trafficking and who have been placed in institutionalized care and domestic servitude.

This project will be implemented nationwide from 2019 to 2023 with an overarching goal of strengthening the capacity of the Haitian Government, local authorities and civil society to prevent, recognize, respond and prevent trafficking. USAID and LUMOS will increase public awareness of the dangers, legal consequences, and various forms of trafficking; develop and implement victim-centered services to provide protection and assistance to trafficked persons at the national and departmental levels; and enable the National Counter-Trafficking Committee (NCTC), L'Institut du Bien-Etre Social et de Recherches (IBESR), and partners to more effectively coordinate counter Trafficking in Persons activities. 

“There are many reasons vulnerable citizens can become trafficked - from their socio-economic conditions, to geographic locations, or their age,” said Acting Mission Director Gary Juste. “In Haiti, these situations tend to manifest themselves among children or those living along the border with Dominican Republic.  I look forward to USAID continuing its progress with the Government of Haiti to provide resources for victims and ensure that traffickers are brought to justice.”

This new project will build upon previous anti-trafficking successes by the Government of Haiti with support from the U.S. government. In the last seven years, the government of Haiti has closed several abusive orphanages and worked to reconstruct its foster care system to support child trafficking victims and reduce vulnerability to abuse. The government also increased the number of trained police; deployed its first class of border police trained to detect and combat trafficking; and increased coordination and oversight of its anti-trafficking efforts.

In Haiti, at least 30,000 children live in institutions, most of them in abusive orphanages where they are often subject to trafficking. Another form of trafficking in Haiti can be found within the widespread practice of placing children with other families to perform domestic worker, known as restavèks. In exchange for performing domestic tasks, children of families too poor to care for them should receive some sort of care and education from the receiving family. However, this practice is often characterized by children that are physically abused while in domestic servitude, unpaid for their work and prevented from attending school. In 2016, UNICEF published a report on children in domesticity, which estimated that 400,000 children are involved in domestic work; of those, 207,000 under age 15 are in unacceptable conditions.

\Lawsuit filed by Little Haiti resident over new development

Magic City Mega Complex developers plan to build 17 buildings in area

MIAMI - A development debate is creating controversy in Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood.   

The Magic City Mega Complex got the green light to transform the neighborhood, but now one resident's new lawsuit is holding it up. 

Warren Perry didn't get to give his say on the issue with the city commission because he's a renter not a property owner. 

He is suing for standing. Whether he gets it or not remains to be seen. 

Perry and some others are opposed to not only the size of the development, but the entertainment components that they fear will create noise from traffic and ruin the quality of life. 

Developers said it will enhance the area and have promised to bring programs to the area and other benefits.

Although he is a renter, Perry maintains that he is a resident and, as such, has just as much stake in the neighborhood.

"It's too large for the scale of the community," Perry said about the new development.

Perry's lawsuit is the latest attempt to stop the development after it got final approvals five weeks ago.

Haiti senator tied to kidnapping committed by notorious gang leader, police say

A Haiti senator who recently questioned his own qualifications to hold public office is being tied to one of several kidnappings carried out by a notorious Haitian gang leader. 

Haiti National Police sources say an investigation into several kidnappings by infamous gang leader Arnel Joseph, who was arrested last week, reveal that during one of the kidnappings the gang leader was in contact with Haitian senator Garcia Delva.

The victim was a neighbor of Delva’s who had been kidnapped along with two of his employees in March as they drove from Léogâne to Port-au-Prince. During negotiations to secure the group’s release, the businessman’s wife reached out to Delva for help.

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Unbeknownst to the victim’s wife, police say, Delva had already spoken with the gang leader, first on his cellphone and then seconds later on the kidnap victim’s telephone. The kidnapped group was eventually released after a ransom of $110,500 was paid.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” Pierre Esperance, a human rights advocate who is familiar with the police investigation, said of Delva. “He is a deportee of the United States who is implicated in wrongdoing and he’s repeating what he used to do before. He has dirtied the image of the Senate like other senators.”

Delva, 45, did not return calls from the Miami Herald seeking comment. Founder and lead singer of the Haitian konpa band Mass Konpa, Delva earlier this year expressed his desire to run for president of Haiti and recently said during a live radio broadcast that there are many more Haitian citizens “who are are much more qualified than myself to be senator.”

Telling Haitians they should have the courage to run for office, he said: “I don’t want you to have another senator like me.”

This is not the first time that Joseph has been tied to Delva, who was charged with battery in 2000 in Miami-Dade County.

In April, the head of the Senate’s justice commission, Sen. Jean-Renel Senatus, told reporters that “there were a total of 24 phone conversations, some of which lasted 15 minutes, 92 seconds, others which lasted a minute” between Delva and Joseph. Senatus, a former government prosecutor, said the calls were made between Feb. 7 and Feb. 22. During that period, Joseph was being sought by Haitian police and even appeared, alongside members of his gang, at an anti-government protest near the presidential palace openly brandishing his gun. 

“The Senate has only one thing to do in this case and it is to remove Sen. Delva’s immunity,” said Esperance, who visited Joseph on Tuesday. 

The allegation involving Delva raises questions about the credibility of the Haitian Parliament, which has been derided as “legal bandits,” given the number of lawmakers with criminal histories. It also underscores concerns about the collusion between those in power in Haiti and gangs. In a detailed U.N. report on a gang-led massacre in the La Saline slum in November, human-rights investigators raised a number of concerns about the abuses committed against residents and the alleged involvement of government officials..

The allegation involving Delva raises questions about the credibility of the Haitian Parliament, which has been derided as “legal bandits,” given the number of lawmakers with criminal histories. It also underscores concerns about the collusion between those in power in Haiti and gangs. In a detailed U.N. report on a gang-led massacre in the La Saline slum in November, human-rights investigators raised a number of concerns about the abuses committed against residents and the alleged involvement of government officials..

At the time of his arrest, Joseph was preparing to head into surgery for a wounded leg when specialized Haiti National Police units swooped into Bonne Fin hospital in Les Cayes and arrested him. Laying on the ground naked as reporters took photos and videotaped him, Joseph said in Creole that his leg had been wounded during a shootout with a rival gang, Ti Sourit.

Considered Haiti’s most wanted fugitive, Joseph had spent more than a year eluding police as his gang terrorized residents in Port-au-Prince’s Village de Dieu slum and in the Artibonite Valley, where earlier this year the gang attacked a police station

On Wednesday, Joseph was released from a local hospital, after finally having surgery on his leg, and into the custody of the judicial police. That same day, Police Chief Michel-Ange Gédéon, who has been lauded for Joseph’s arrest, announced the arrest of nine other members of Joseph’s gangs. Gédéon and his top brass also appeared before the Senate in a closed-door hearing to discuss the current state of security and Joseph, who police said raised tens of thousands of dollars through ransom-kidnappings and other criminal activities.

During the hearing, police were also questioned about the allegations concerning Delva. Delva was present during the questioning.

“The polices said they were 98 percent certain Sen. Delva is involved in kidnapping with Arnel Joseph,” said Sen. Patrice Dumont, who was present during the questioning.

Dumont said that based on police revelations, he wrote to the Senate bureau asking that Delva, who serves as vice treasurer, not continue to assume the role. Dumont said the Senate’s internal rules do not permit him or any other senator to ask Delva to resign or for them to remove his immunity, which all Haitian lawmakers have. The Senate, he said, can vote to authorize Delva to present himself before the courts, should a Haitian judge ask him to. something Dumont said he’s prepared to do if a judge were to ask.

“There is just too much evidence,” Dumont said.

AG RACINE LEADS MULTISTATE COALITION CHALLENGING TRUMP’S MOVE TO GUT PROTECTIONS FOR ASYLUM SEEKERS FLEEING PERSECUTION

21 Attorneys General Argue Changes to Asylum Standards Violate Federal Law and Judicial Precedent

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Attorney General Karl A. Racine today led a group of 21 State Attorneys General to challenge the Trump administration’s proposed changes to asylum standards. If implemented, these changes would allow the Executive branch to arbitrarily deny asylum claims to immigrants seeking haven from domestic or gang violence. In a friend-of-the-court brief filed in Grace v. Barr before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, AG Racine and his counterparts argue that these stringent revisions—which would effectively bar asylum claims based on domestic or gang-related violence—go against longstanding federal law and judicial precedent, undermining the rule of law itself.

“Denying asylum to people fleeing persecution in their home countries will mean forsaking victims of gang and domestic violence, particularly vulnerable women and children, to unspeakable fates,” said AG Racine. “We cannot allow this administration to abandon our values for the sake of their unlawful, fear-based agenda. Our coalition of State Attorneys General is urging the Judiciary to police the administration’s compliance with longstanding statutes and legal precedents, which these changes seek to undermine. The president may believe that he is above the law, but his administration must still follow it.” 

The District of Columbia and partner states filed this amicus brief in Grace v. Barr, in support of the plaintiffs’ challenge to the Trump administration’s heightened asylum standards. The lawsuit was first filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, the ACLU of Texas, and the ACLU of D.C., in response to a policy former Attorney General Jeff Sessions implemented in June 2018. 

Sessions articulated this policy change in Matter of A-B-, while intervening in the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA)’s decision to grant a Salvadoran woman asylum based on her claim of spousal abuse. In his ruling, Sessions broke sharply from existing precedent to argue that BIA should reject asylum claims regarding domestic or gang violence. Shortly after, the United States Customs and Immigration Service issued guidelines for implementing this policy, emphasizing denial of such claims.

In December 2018, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia struck down the change, ruling it incompatible with existing law. The Department of Justice is now appealing the ruling in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

In this amicus brief, the states collectively argue that the District Court’s decision to reject the administration’s heightened standards should be upheld, on the basis that:

• The standards violate established federal law: A near categorical bar to asylum claims based on domestic or gang violence, as Matter of A-B-recommends, would illegally prevent victims of such violence from attaining asylum protection. The asylum process is rooted in the Immigration and Nationality Act. Among other things, that legislation makes it legal for anyone who arrives at the U.S. border to apply for asylum over a “well-founded fear of persecution” in one’s home country. Subsequent court cases have validated the legitimacy of claims made based on gang or domestic violence.
• The standards are inconsistent with state, federal, and international policies protecting victims of violence: All 50 states have enacted provisions in their criminal and civil codes to protect victims of domestic violence, and the federal government has acknowledged the need to assist immigrant women who have been victimized by domestic violence. Both have dedicated programs and resources to gang violence prevention.Furthermore, in signing the 1967 United Nations Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, the United States vowed to protect individuals escaping persecution. The Trump administration’s policy clashes with these commitments.
• The standards restrict states’ abilities to grow their economies: Immigrants make significant contributions to the economy, and American society more broadly. This is evident in D.C., where more than one in seven residents, and one in six workers, is an immigrant. It’s also borne out in study after study, and through recent experience nationwide. For example, nearly half of all new residents in the Great Lakes region between 2000-2015 were foreign-born, arriving at a moment when the region’s population growth lagged behind the national average. This influx of foreign-born residents boosted jobs and wages in the region. Given that the majority of asylum grantees are of working age and can contribute to a state’s economic activity, the Trump administration’s standards would limit states’ access to a valuable source of labor.

AG Racine is leading today’s friend-of-the-court brief and is joined by Attorneys General from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.

The brief as filed in Grace v. Barr is available at: https://oag.dc.gov/sites/default/files/2019-08/Grace-v-Barr-Amicus.pdf

This is the latest effort by AG Racine to protect established federal immigration policy, defend asylum rights, and stand up for immigrants in the District and nationwide. In 2018, AG Racine led a similar coalition of states in filing an amicus brief in this case, then referred to as Grace v. Sessions, while it was under review in the District Court for the District of Columbia. He also joined with other Attorneys General to take action against the Trump administration to protect public safety funding for “sanctuary” cities; prevent attempts to close the Southern border to asylum seekers; block immigration-related conditions on law enforcement grants; stop a cruel family separation policy; keep longtime District residents from El Salvador, Haiti, and Honduras from losing their protected status; fight for hard-working “dreamers” to stay in the United States; and to oppose the “Muslim travel ban.”

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The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) works to protect and defend District residents, enforce District laws, and provide legal advice to D.C. government agencies. Karl A. Racine leads OAG as the first elected Attorney General of the District of Columbia. Visit www.oag.dc.gov to learn more.