9 Die as Haitian Immigrants’ Boat Sinks

[struggle4progress]

By DAMIEN CAVE
Published: May 13, 2009

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 ...

“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 ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/us/14boat.html?hp

[Judi Lynn]

1. Did we ever really have a conscience in dealing with Haiti? Couldn't prove it, I'm afraid!

From the same article:

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 a screaming shame. How profoundly two-faced, dishonest.