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[karizmua]

This is an initiative from a friend of mine. Spread the word!

Dear Friends:

Please help Haitian families in the United States by calling US Congress! The process of calling Congress is quick and easy and provides an opportunity to advocate for temporary protected status for Haitian nationals currently with families in the United States. We would like first call each of the nine Congressmembers listed below. Then, we may attempt to call others.

It doesn't matter if you are a constituent of the particular Congressperson, however you must be a citizen and/or otherwise be able to vote. If you can, please make these calls by next friday, April 20th.

Some of you indicated that you may have friends who would like to make calls. By all means, please encourage them to do so. But, please make sure that you have them send me an email informing me of who they have called.

We will call the following Congress members:

1. Rep Delahunt, William D. [D-MA-10]

2. Rep Ellison, Keith Maurice [D-MN]

3. Rep. Gutierrez, Luis [D-IL-4]

4. Rep. Sanchez, Loretta [D-CA-47]

5. Rep. Andrews, Robert [D-NJ-1]

6. Rep. Carson, Julia [D-IN-7]

7. Rep. Cummings, Elijah [D-MD-7]

8. Rep. Engel, Eliot [D-NY-17]

9. Rep. Frank, Barney [D-MA-4]

Please follow the following instructions:

1. Dial 202-224-3121; the congressional switchboard, it will connect you with any representative you ask for.

2. When that office answers, please say "I'm calling to ask Rep. ______ to please co-sponsor Rep. Alcee Hastings' Haitian Protection Act, HR 522, which was introduced January 17."

3. They may ask for your zip code, please give it.

4. Lastly, PLEASE write down who you have called and send him an email and let him know. If you have called all nine, please email him and let him know you have called the entire list.

If you have friends that would like to do this, please make sure that you have them send him an email informing him of who they have called.

Also included a link to the Act below, as well as a couple of press releases from the Haitian Women of Miami, Inc, detailing the problems these Haitian families are facing right now.

DON'T FORGET TO EMAIL ONCE YOU HAVE MADE THE CALLS! (jdoll002@fiu.edu)

Thanks for all your help!

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http://www.theorator.com/bills110/text/hr522.html

http://www.haitiwebs.com/forums/show...light=thelusma

http://www.haitiwebs.com/forums/show...gration+policy

[karizmua]

Miami Herald, Monday, April 16

MIAMI

Little Haiti hunger strike enters 12th day

A U.S. congressman visited a Miami real estate agent who's on the 12th day of a hunger strike to call attention to the treatment of 101 detained Haitian migrants.

BY ALDO NAHED

anahed@MiamiHerald.com

AL DIAZ/MIAMI HERALD STAFF

U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, second from left, holds the hand of hunger protester Henry Petithomme on Sunday. At left is state Rep. Ronald Brise.

Inside a Little Haiti church, Henry Petithomme struggles with the ravages of a dozen days on a hunger strike.

The 32-year-old's body can't support his tall frame without the help of a wooden cane or assistance from a wheelchair. He's visibly feeble, his blood pressure is high and his heart beats fast.

But his mind remains strong and determined.

''I feel like a soldier, like a soldier,'' he quietly told a group of reporters who came to see him Sunday.

U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Fla., also came to meet Petithomme at St. Paul Episcopal Church, where Petithomme spends his days resting on a cot as he grows weaker. The two spoke about granting temporary protected status to the 101 Haitian migrants who landed on Hallandale Beach on March 28.

Meek said the process is going to be long and may even fail.

''We don't have the power to pull them out of detention,'' Meek said. ``We ask for fair representation.''

The Haitian adults remain at the Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach, and 14 minors are at the Boystown shelter in Miami-Dade while their individual cases are heard.

Meek said he's going to personally deliver a letter by Petithomme that asks President Bush for compassion. Meek urged Petithomme to get medical assistance.

''The last thing we need is to be in this church talking about what kind of person he was, his contribution to our community and this country, as a former member of the Army,'' Meek said. ``We need him in this battle. . . .''

Petithomme, a local real estate agent who migrated from Haiti with his parents and sister when he was 3, has received moral and spiritual support from co-workers, friends and members of St. Paul who admire his courage and his stand.

''This is more of a humanitarian statement,'' said Jetro Nelson, 25, a co-worker who joined Petithomme for three days in the hunger strike. ``This is a cry for everyone who believes in equality.''

Lying on the cot near the entrance to the church, Petithomme was surrounded by worried relatives and friends. He encouraged them to smile.

A friend held his head up, and his mother, Felicie Petithomme Jean, held a cup to his mouth. He has been surviving on vitamin water, Gatorade and maple syrup.

''I feel bad for him,'' his mother said. ``I pray for him to stop.''

Sun-Sentinel, April 12

Hunger strike over treatment of Haitians enters second week

By Ruth Morris

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Posted April 12 2007

Sleeping on a mat in the back of a church, living off bottles of blue Gatorade, Henry Petithomme entered the second week of a quiet hunger strike Wednesday to support 101 Haitians who scrambled ashore in Hollywood and remain in federal custody.

"I try not to focus much on my stomach. I'm trying to focus on action," said Petithomme, 32, a Miami Realtor of Haitian descent and a former Army specialist. "We need to get together and put some pressure on the government."

LocalLinks

Petithomme began the hunger strike on April 4 to protest what he considers unfair treatment of Haitians who risk sea crossings in unstable boats and then face arrest and detention in South Florida. The group that arrived last month said they had been at sea 22 days, running out of fresh water and food, and developing bedsores because of their tight quarters. Authorities are holding them at a Pompano Beach detention center while their cases are processed.

Petithomme is also calling for temporary protected status for Haitians -- an immigration shield that allows nationals of several other countries to remain in the United States legally because of adverse conditions in their home country.

"The Haitian migrant must stay. We want to see equality," he said.

Muscular but weak, Petithomme said his last meal was a huge breakfast of pancakes, eggs and bacon a week ago. Since then he has consumed Gatorade and vitamin water. He sleeps on a narrow mat at the back of St. Paul Episcopal Church in Miami's Little Haiti. His mother sometimes sleeps in a church pew nearby.

The Rev. Chanoine Bazin, who presides at the church, said he thinks Petithomme has accomplished his goal, because the survivors of last month's journey all had a chance to explain their cases to immigration authorities and were not immediately sent back to Haiti. The case sparked a rally at the federal immigration building in Miami, and calls by Miami Archbishop John Favalora to release the survivors on humanitarian parole.

"We do understand that you cannot open the gates to everyone, because of economic reasons," Bazin said. "This is a wakeup call to this country, to deal with a small country they consider is in their backyard."

Doctors have asked Petithomme to use a wheelchair to move about. He experienced an irregular heartbeat during a Wednesday check-up but said he had no immediate plans to end his strike.

Friends and Haitian-American community leaders have visited him, as has Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center. For the most part, though, the small church where he has staged the strike has been almost empty, apart from wooden pews and red and blue Bibles. Petithomme decided to embark on a hunger strike without consulting media outlets or local advocacy groups. He referred to the decision as a spiritual calling.

There he visited families crammed into tiny zinc-roofed houses with no running water and patchy electricity service.

The Haitians who arrived in South Florida recently received visits last week from lawyers who explained their rights. Several have undergone so-called "credible fear" interviews, where an immigrant must demonstrate a credible fear of persecution in their home country to enter the U.S. asylum process.

South Florida legislators have followed the case. Earlier this week, U.S. Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security asking the government to guarantee "all procedural rights" for the Haitians. "The fact that this large group of Haitians risked their lives to cross the Florida Straits on a rickety wooden boat that most would not consider seaworthy, is indicative of the despair they face in their homeland," the letter said.

Ruth Morris can be reached at rmorris@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5012.

[Sucorra]

PLEASE HELP OUR BROTHER

AND JOIN TO SUPPORT THESE PEOPLE

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/REFUGEES101

REFUGEES101@NETZERO.COM