The Haitian fisherman`s tearful eyes fixed on the young woman with the dogeared legal pad. His voice trembling, he described his terror last fall when the military seized control of his island homeland.
The man, a fervent supporter of deposed Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, said he feared for his life and soon joined thousands of others who risked death at sea in a desperate exodus.
He told his story last month to a fresh-faced, second-year law student from the University of Pittsburgh in a spartan meeting hall in Miami`s Little Haiti. The student, 24-year-old Maureen Sweeney, spent most of the day asking questions through an interpreter, trying to unravel the fisherman`s case for political asylum.
”Getting a frightened person to talk isn`t easy,” said Sweeney, who skipped classes last week to conduct interviews for the Miami Haitian Refugee Center. ”I`ve never done anything quite like this before, and I`m learning a lot about asking questions.”
Sweeney is one of a small group of law students who have forgone classes or spring break to interview the mounting tide of refugees. She came to Miami with four of her Pitt classmates. A week earlier, 40 other law students from Yale, Columbia and Case Western Reserve Universities asked the questions.
The Haitian applicants are arriving from the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba, where the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service found that they might have grounds to seek asylum. Of 16,600 boat people detained since the Haitian coup last Sept. 30, about 6,500 were deemed to have a basis for a claim; the rest were repatriated.
Many of the applicants are billeted in the seedy hotels that line Biscayne Boulevard in Little Haiti.
Nearly 3,500 so far have been admitted to the U.S.
Once here, they have 90 days to complete applications for asylum. Overwhelmed, refugee support groups put out a call for aid to law schools, and the students responded.
”We are greatly pleased with the help the students have offered,” said Rolande Dorancy, the refugee center`s executive director. ”When the universities up north heard about the situation here, they sent us letters asking if they could give assistance.”
When they arrive, the students receive an interviewing guidebook. Even with instructions, however, the task can be daunting. Dorancy said the students really become judges: they must decide whether an applicant`s case is worth pursuing.
The refugee center has just three staff attorneys.
”It`s remarkable how shy (the refugees) are when they come here,” said Saily Joshi, a second-year law student at Pitt. ”It`s like their whole lives were lived with suspicion. I have to spend a long time making it clear that what they say here is confidential and won`t get back to the Haitian government.”
Joshi, 24, said she became interested in the Haitians through her studies in international law.
”I`ve been following the Haitian situation very closely in the newspapers since the refugees began being detained in Cuba,” she said. ”I`m happy for the chance to help.”
Joshi said her classmates helped make the mission to Miami possible.
”The other students are attending our classes and taking notes for us this week,” she said. ”In general, the faculty is also very supportive of what we`re doing here.”
It will take months, maybe years, before the Haitians interviewed this spring learn whether they`ll receive asylum. Duke Austin, spokesman for the INS in Washington, said the refugee review system is overwhelmed with cases.
”The system as it now stands is bankrupt,” Austin said. ”We have a backlog of perhaps 230,000 cases, and we aren`t equipped to deal with that. Nationwide, we have only about 80 asylum review officers. In Miami, there are only six.”
The refugees will remain in legal limbo until the INS reviews their cases. If denied asylum, an applicant can appeal, a process that can go on indefinitely, Austin said.
The Haitian Refugee Center expects the caseload to grow ever larger as boat people continue to flee to Florida. The organization has talked with other law schools, and expects more volunteers to arrive later this spring, including a group from Harvard.
Joshi said helping the Haitians is worth the hardship of skipping crucial classes.
”Opportunities like this are rare, and I jumped at the chance at becoming involved,” she said. ”There are a lot of causes that you can become involved in, but this one really hit home for me.”
