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AN OPEN LETTER TO THE CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION OF FLORIDA URGING SUPPORT FOR THE HAITIAN RELIEF LEGISLATION
June 19, 1998 Dear Honorable Senators and Representatives: The plight of the Haitian community in Florida has always been of special concern to us. We, the Bishops of Florida, raise our voices in prayer that you will act to right the injustice now done this people who came to us fleeing their island home, suffering from persecution, to seek safety and protection in the United States. We ask for compassionate and just treatment for our Haitian brothers and sisters, just as when Congress moved last year to correct the wrongs our system inflicted on Nicaraguans and others through the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act (NACARA). Like the Haitians among us, the Nicaraguans and Cubans covered by that bill, were welcomed to our shores following policies set by the Federal Government. At the time of the debate on NACARA, we pleaded along with our brother Bishops of the United States, that Haitians be rightly included in that relief. You now have the opportunity to correct this. We were heartened when on April 23, 1998, a bipartisan majority of the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the Haitian Fairness Act, which would grant lawful permanent resident status to some 40,000 Haitian nationals in the United States, including unaccompanied, abandoned and orphaned children. Both Senators Graham and Mack have done much to support this bill, as have others among you, particularly those from South Florida, home to most Haitians in our midst. Through this letter, we are urging support from all in our congressional delegation for legislation to provide relief for deserving Haitians. This measure has wide support in the Greater Miami community. Nicaraguans, Cubans, Central Americans, African-Americans, Republicans and Democrats alike have all raised their voices in a call for relief for Haitians. South Florida is a community striving for the Gospel tradition which lies at the heart of American society, that of welcoming the refugee and stranger among us. It will be sad for our State and tragic for these people if Congress does not act to remedy the injustice that exists in the Haitian people being singled out. Now, this legislation must be considered by the full Senate. The U.S. House of Representatives also has Haitian relief legislation before it. We urge you to join together as a delegation to ask the Congressional leadership to work to bring relief to these people. We trust and pray that they will see the justice of granting the same compassionate treatment to these Haitians, as has wisely been done for others. CATHOLIC BISHOPS OF FLORIDA John Clement Favalora John J. Snyder John J. Nevins Norbert M. Dorsey, CP John H. Ricard, SSJ Robert N. Lynch Agustin A. Roman Thomas G. Wenski Gilberto Fernandez |