Hundreds of Haitian immigrants from in and around Boston are expected to descend on City Hall Plaza this Thursday to protest what they call the " discriminatory " and " unjust " immigration policy recently put into effect by the Bush administration. Since last December, when the new policy was implemented, some 270 Haitian immigrants seeking political asylum in the United States have been held in federal-detention centers in Miami, Florida. But the new Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) directive does not apply to refugees of any other nationality.

" We want people to know what’s going on with these immigrants, " says Carmelle Bonhometre, a family advocate with the Association of Haitian Women in Boston, one of the organizations sponsoring the July 25 demonstration. " They have done nothing wrong, but they are facing really inhumane treatment. "

The immigrants fled their politically volatile homeland back in December, to escape persecution for denouncing the Haitian government. But before making it to the Florida coast, they were intercepted by the Coast Guard. The new INS order, implemented on December 14, 2001, requires officials in this country to detain Haitian refugees with credible asylum claims, rather than release them to relatives while awaiting final judgment. All other Haitian immigrants are shipped back to Haiti.

The INS has publicly stated that such a policy is necessary to deter thousands of Haitians from taking to the sea in rickety rafts and either flooding South Florida, or dying while trying to get there — an argument that has yet to sway advocates. " We feel that is not enough of a reason to hold refugees who meet the credible standard for asylum in prison, " Bonhometre explains.

Opposition to the Haitian detainment has steadily grown among advocates and politicians across the country. A lawsuit filed last March in federal district court seeks to force the government to release the detainees. US House members, such as Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Miami) and John Conyers (D-Michigan), have called for the Bush administration to rescind the policy. Even President George W. Bush’s own brother Jeb, the Florida governor, has gone on record rejecting the action.

Meanwhile, advocates claim that some immigrants have taken matters into their own hands. Earlier this month, 37 of them reportedly went on a self-imposed hunger strike to protest their indefinite prison sentences. As Bonhometre puts it, " This is a real struggle, and anyone who believes in justice and human rights should come out and show support for these immigrants. "

A demonstration to protest the Haitian detainment will take place this Thursday, July 25, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., in front of the JFK Federal Building on City Hall Plaza. For more information on the immigrants’ plight, contact the Association of Haitian Women in Boston at (617) 287-0096.