Why should deportations halt to Haiti?
Should 30,000 people with deportation orders just be allowed to stay?
There have been many other natural disasters which have been more damaging, and we have sent aid. Should these illegals be sent back to help build back their country?
Or at least suspend them for a small amount of time and then deport them back?
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U.S. Halts Deportations to Haiti
Wednesday, 13 Jan 2010 05:23 PM
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano temporarily halted deportations Wednesday of some Haitians illegally in the U.S. in response to the Caribbean nation’s devastating earthquake.
Those with deportation orders will be allowed to remain in U.S. Those held in detention centers will remain jailed, Homeland Security spokesman Matt Chandler said.
The magnitude 7.0 earthquake that hit Haiti Tuesday is believed to have left thousands dead. Corpses were piled in the streets near flattened buildings as the world relief response got under way.
About 30,000 Haitians have orders to leave the U.S. and about 160 are in detention, according to the Homeland Security Department.
The U.S. deported 1,570 Haitians in 2008, Homeland Security statistics show.
The federal government has suspended deportations following previous disasters. Deportation flights to Haiti were suspended in September 2008 because of hurricane damage in the country. Those flights resumed in March for deportees with criminal records, according to members of Congress and immigration advocates.
Several members of Congress who represent Haitian communities have been pressuring the Obama administration to give temporary protected status to Haitians illegally in the U.S.
The designation would allow Haitians to remain and work legally in the U.S. and send some of their earnings to back home.
Matthew Chandler, a Homeland Security Department spokesman, said temporary protected status is an option that DHS considers in a disaster, “but our focus remains on saving lives.”
On a conference call with grassroots leaders and business officials, White House political director Patrick Gaspard told the listeners “the conversation around TPS is one that informs our thinking” on the U.S. earthquake response.
http://newsmax.com/US/Haiti-Earthquake-halts-Deportations/2010/01/13/id/346294
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May 12 2008 Sichuan province, China: 87 000 dead or missing. Magnitude 8.0.
October 8 2005 Indian and Pakistani Kashmir: at least 75 000 killed. Magnitude 7.6
December 26 2004 Asia: An undersea earthquake unleashes a tsunami, that kills more than 220 000 people in around 10 countries around the Indian Ocean. Magnitude 9.1
December 26 2003 BAM, Iran: At least 31 000 people die. Magnitude 6.7
January 26 2001 Gujarat, western India: 25 000 dead. Magnitude 7.9
August 17 1999 Northwestern Turkey: at least 20 000 dead. Magnitude 7.4
June 20 1990 Northwestern Iran: 37 000 killed. Magnitude 7.7
December 7 1988 Spitak, Soviet Armenia: 25 000 dead. Magnitude 7.0
September 19, 1985 Mexico City, Mexico: At least 10,000 killed. Magnitude 8.1
September 16 1978 Tabass, Iran: 25 000 killed. Magnitude 7.2
July 28 1976 Tangshan city in Hebei province, China: 242 000 dead. Magnitude 7.8
February 4 1976 Guatemala: 26 000 dead. Magnitude 7.5
May 11 1974 Sichuan, China: Estimates of between 10 000 and 20 000 dead. Magnitude 7.1
December 23 1972 Managua, Nicaragua: About 10 000 killed. Magnitude 6.3
May 31, 1970 Mount Huascaran, Peru: Earthquake and subsequent avalanche killed 66,800. Magnitude 7.5
January 1 1970 Yunnan, China: Officially, 15 621 dead. Magnitude 7.3
August 31 1968 Northeast Iran: 10 000 dead. Magnitude 7.3
September 1, 1962 Qazvin, Iran: 12,000 dead. Magnitude 6.9
February 29 1960 Agadir, Morocco: 12 000 people killed. Magnitude 6.7