Demand TPS for Haitians, Halt All Deportations!

-- Urgent Request for Support & Solidarity --

Dear NNIRR Members, Partners, Allies & Friends:

We are asking you to take three immediate actions by calling President Obama to grant Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians and to demand a halt to the deportation of all Haitians.

NNIRR is supporting this on-going action organized by the Fanm Ayisyen Nan Miyami/Haitian Women of Miami and the Florida Immigrant Coalition with other grassroots and advocacy organizations in Florida and other parts of the country.

Please take these three actions today to support TPS for Haitians and a halt to all deportations!

1. We are asking organizations to sign and fax the below letter to President Obama on your organization’s letterhead.

2. Pick up the telephone and call the White House. Tell President Obama to end the Bush Administration’s inhumane policy towards Haiti and grant TPS to Haitians. Your call to the White House is critical to demanding a halt to Haitian deportations, pending a full review of the policy (see fact sheet below for talking points).

3. Sign an on-line petition that asks President Obama to grant TPS to Haitians and halt deportations:
http://www.petitiononline.com/TPS2009/petition.html

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PLEASE CUT AND PASTE OR WRITE YOUR OWN LETTER TO PRES. OBAMA

DATE

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500

Fax: 202-456-2461
comments@whitehouse.gov

RE: The Administration Should Urgently Stay Deportations to Haiti

Dear President Obama:

First, congratulations on your new job. Immigrant communities look forward to working with your administration. Certainly you have many pressing priorities. We are compelled, however, to bring to your attention a life or death matter: Haitian deportees face hunger, homelessness and unemployment, if not worse, in the wake of four killer storms that further devastated our hemisphere’s poorest nation. We urge you to immediately stay deportations to Haiti pending review of U.S. immigration policy toward Haitians.

These deportations are inhumane and, we believe, contrary to your administration’s values of fairness, transparency and respect for human rights. Please consider:

• The former administration stayed deportations to Haiti in September only to resume them abruptly in December without notice or reasonable explanation. This was a last-minute Department of Homeland Security policy reversal. It should not stand.

• Conditions in Haiti remain abysmal. The storms destroyed 15 percent of its GDP—the equivalent of eight to 10 Hurricane Katrinas hitting the U.S. in one month. Yesterday the State Department renewed warnings to not to travel to Haiti due to the “destructive impact” of the storms.

• Staying the deportations is in the interest of the U.S. Sending more people in need of food and shelter will further burden the Haitian government, which already is overwhelmed by the magnitude of the natural disaster. Deportees only delay recovery efforts. Meanwhile, Haitians who remain here would continue to send remittances, encouraging relatives to stay in Haiti and help rebuild their country.

• These deportations tear apart families, hurting U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents. Vialine Jean Paul, 34, married a U.S. citizen. Their 7-year-old, U.S-born daughter is being treated for a chronic viral infection. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told Ms. Jean Paul to buy plane tickets for herself and her daughter to go to Haiti on February 9. Her dilemma: Should she put her daughter at risk of malaria, hepatitis, cholera, malnutrition and uncertain medical care in Haiti or leave her sick daughter behind?

Across the U.S., many want our government to stand with the Haitian people. Haiti still needs U.S. help. Please help by immediately staying deportations to Haiti and undoing the last administration’s late-term policy reversal. It is the fair and decent course of action.

Sincerely,

NAME
Organization
Address
City, State Zip Code
Contact Telephone and email

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Fact Sheet/Talking Points for Haiti:
TPS for Haitians
STOP DEPORTATIONS NOW

Call and Fax the White House:
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
Or visit: www.whitehouse.gov

Why the U.S. Government should IMMEDIATELY halt deportations to Haiti:

· During a one-month period, and in rapid succession, FOUR DEVASTATING STORMS ravaged Haiti

· The World Bank assessed the storm damage at nearly ONE BILLION DOLLARS, or about 15 percent of Haiti’s GDP.

· THIS EQUALS EIGHT TO TEN HURRICANE KATRINAS HITTING THE UNITED STATES IN A MONTH

· The United Nations has called this “the worst disaster to hit Haiti in 100 years”

· Over 800 people were killed, with thousand missing or injured

· Haiti’s third largest city, Gonaives, has been rendered uninhabitable

· Massive flooding caused nationwide damage to agriculture and infrastructure including roads, bridges, water and sanitation systems, schools, hospitals and housing.

· Inadequate sanitation and potable water and standing pools of polluted flood water have left hundreds of thousands at risk of malaria, hepatitis, and cholera

· The nation’s food crop has been largely destroyed, as have farm tools, seeds for next year’s crop, and livestock and irrigation systems vital to farmers and rice production

· Dozens of children have starved to death, and UNICEF has said that 300,000 children are at risk of severe malnutrition

What the US Government should do in response to this humanitarian crisis:

· Immediately halt all deportations to Haiti

· Grant Deferred Enforced Departure and/or Temporary Protected Status to Haitians in the United States for 18 months; and for those so protected:

· Authorize them to work;

· Release them from detention; and

· Suspend all legal and administrative proceedings against them.

How halting deportations helps Haiti and protects U. S. interests:

· Allows Haiti to prepare and safely receive returnees in the future, reducing the stress on a fragile economy unable to assimilate additional homeless, jobless migrants

· Enables Haitians in the United States to work, pay taxes, and send remittances to relatives in Haiti crucial to their survival

· Protects U.S. borders and resources by sustaining life-sustaining remittances and reducing socio-economic burdens which lead to desperate emigration attempts; reduced outflow preserves U.S. Coast Guard, Border Patrol, detention, and administrative resources.

· Safeguards U.S.-born American children from having their parents ripped away from them; the destruction of these families is fundamentally un-American.

· Restores U.S. commitment to the rule of law and the principle of equal protection by granting Haitians the same deserved protection granted other similarly-situated nationals

· IT IS THE HUMANE THING TO DO

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PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION

Click here to support TPS for Haitians & to demand a halt to the deportation of Haitians:
http://www.petitiononline.com/TPS2009/petition.html