CWS Calls Supreme Court Decision "Shameful"
Episcopal News Service. July 28, 1993 [93144N]
Church World Service (CWS) has released a statement criticizing the Supreme Court's 8-1 decision to uphold the Clinton Administration's policy of intercepting and returning Haitian refugees without a hearing for refugee claims. "The court so narrowly defined our obligations under federal and international law that our commitment to protect refugees and others is now meaningless. It's a shameful statement for the United States to make, especially when nations the world over are shutting their doors to people in need of protection," said Matthew Giuffrida of the American Baptist Church who chairs the CWS immigration and refugee program committee. In the Haitian case, the U.S. government argued that while it did not have the right to return refugees from U.S. shores or territory to states where they would be persecuted, it could do so if it intercepted persons on the high seas. The Supreme Court agreed with the argument, saying that protection from forced return applies only to aliens physically present in the host country.