Storming the court by Brandt Goldstein

Author:Brandt Goldstein
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Refugees -- Law and legislation -- United States, Detention of persons -- United States, Haitians -- Cuba -- Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, United States -- Trials, litigation, etc, World War, 1914-1918
Publisher: Scribner
Published: 2005-03-03T16:00:00+00:00

Brandt Goldstein

had been sympathetic, but reports about the situation in Haiti seemed custom-made to create a refugee backlash. General Cedras remained firmly in power, and news stories warned that an armada of refugee boats would head for the United States if Clinton reversed the direct return policy. While touring the Haitian coast, one U.S. congressman predicted a “human tidal wave,” and Defense Secretary Dick Cheney told reporters, “the evidence is there that thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of Haitians are in fact preparing to descend upon Florida.” Other sources suggested such warnings were based more on fear than reality. The U.S. Coast Guard advised that fishermen might be responsible for the boatbuilding, and a Miami Herald reporter found that Haitians who wanted to flee now faced a black-market boat fare as high as seven hundred American dollars—far beyond what most could afford.

Still, Florida was taking no chances. State officials prepared to detain tens of thousands of refugees in vacant fairgrounds, airports, and old department store buildings. The Pentagon assured Governor Lawton Chiles that it could move a hundred thousand refugees away from South Florida if necessary, but U.S. Congressman E. Clay Shaw of Fort Lauderdale would have none of it. “We’ve lost our damn minds if we think the military can handle this,” he told the press.

Debate about a possible exodus from Haiti took hold at Yale as well. Graham Boyd, one of the graduated third years, had stayed in New Haven to clerk for a judge, and he raised the issue during a dinner at Tory’s house. He agreed that the direct return order violated the law, but also pointed out that the entire Haitian population couldn’t come to the U.S. Simply reversing Bush’s order wasn’t the whole answer, he insisted. The team had to think in broader terms about a humane, workable solution to the situation.

“It’s not our job to solve that problem,” Tory shot back. “We’re here to tell the INS what they can’t do. They can’t return everyone.” In fact, she now believed that the Yale team’s obligation was to obtain asylum for everyone who fled Haiti. Political refugees, economic migrants, whatever we call them, they’re all suffering, she thought. Let’s just get them out of there. As far as she was concerned, Clinton couldn’t act fast enough.

But others on the team were starting to wonder if the president-elect would really honor his campaign promises. Mike Wishnie didn’t trust any government official to reform a policy just because it was the right

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