Church-Legal Protests Overridden by U.S.
Episcopal News Service. June 11, 1981 [81175]
Washington -- Despite vigorous protest from Church and legal authorities, the United States Justice Department has said it will expel 76 Haitian refugees and will resume hearings on others.
Episcopal Bishop Calvin O. Schofield, whose Southeast Florida Diocese is temporarily home for most of the refugees, cabled a protest June 5 to Attorney General William French Smith in which he sought assurances of due process in the hearings and safeguards against future persecution. The same day, attorneys who had tried to represent the Haitians also protested the due process issue.
Much of the protests centered on the allegations that the hearings were being conducted in locked courtrooms from which attorneys were barred and that the hearings were being conducted for large groups rather than for individuals. At least 140 such refugees had their cases adjudged in this fashion before the hearings were halted.
On June 8 the Immigration and Naturalization Service suspended the hearings. The authorities then announced the expulsions the following day, saying that the 76 had waived their rights to counsel and that the other hearings had met safeguard standards.