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Time grows short for Haitian refugees in U.S.
Concern
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C oncern is risino
rising over the
fate **•
of
over 50,000 Haitian refugees who
are seeking asylum in the United
Stales. Unlike the Cubans who are
arriving daily in southern Florida,
these retugees are receiving little at
tention.
Because the U.S. government has
determined that they are coming for
economic rather than p o litic a l
reasons, there is no welcome for the
Haitians. They do not qualify for
work permits or fo r government
aid. A group o f Miami city officials
recently told the federal government
that "starvation, not malnutrition is
becoming the major problem among
Haitian refugees in south Florida.”
The
Im m ig ra tio n
and
Naturalization Service has been for
ced by a court order to stop depor
ting Haitians refugees. A federal
judge also told INS to issue work
permits but, according to an attor
ney representing Haitians in a class
action suit, Im m igration o fficia ls
are defying that order. Because un
der existing law persons designated
as "e co n o m ic” refugees are not
eligible to reamin in the U.S. only 61
persons have been granted political
asylum. The remainder remain in
legal limbo, under constant threat
of deportation.
Several organizations including
the Am erican Friends Service
Com m ittee, the N A A C P , and
O peration PUSH and church
organizations have asked President
Carter to grant political asylum to
the Haitians. It is imperative that
the action be taken before May
15th, when the law changes. After
that date the new law w ill allow
Congress and the Attorney General
to grant asylum, which will be much
more difficult process.
A m ajor problem is that after
May 17 the new Refugee Act o f 1980
terminates the President’ s parole
authority to grant political asylum
to refugees on a group basis.
According to U nited Nations
statistics Haiti is the poorest country
in the western hemisphere. Illiteracy
is 90 percent and infant mortality 20
percent. Approximately 50 percent
ot the work force is umemployed.
•he hie expectancy is less than 45
years.
While the U.S. refuses to accept
H aitian exiles, it helps keep the
regime in power by providing arms
and police training. Assistance other
than military came to J28 million in
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Civil Rights Bureau suit goes to court
•he C ivil Rights suit o f Walter
W illiam s and James Amaya has
come to tria l, six years after the
com plaint was file d . The suit is
being heard by Judge Owen M .
Panner.
James Amaya testified that in
1973 he was hired by the Burea o f
Labor to be its affirm ative action
officer. He said he was informed by
Gayle Gemmer and others that the
funds fo r the position had not
arrived and that he should "take it
easy for a while and learn as much
as you can.” After weeks o f inac
tiv ity he asked fo r cases to in
vestigate and was given several. He
testified that during several conver
sations with Labor Commissioner
Nilsen he was introduced as "m y af
firmative action m onitor," as iden
tified as a Chicano, in a negative
manner and was asked about things
pertaining to Chicanos.
He testified that at one point the
Labor Commissioner asked him if a
certain C hicano activist was his
triend. A fte r he said he was, the
Commissioner said he didn’ t like the
man or his " m ilit a n t ” friends.
Amaya percieved this remark to
mean that in the interest o f his job
he had better stay away from some
o f his friends, so he did.
Amaya said that "a fte r 1 told him
1 was a Chicano who identified with
Chicanos,” the attitude toward him
became unfriendly. Amaya said he
was not provided training as an in
vestigator, the position he found
him selt. He was assigned some
cases, but never more than eight,
while others had twenty or more.
Eventually a white man was hired
as the a ffirm ative action o fficer,
with an Argentine woman as
assistant. Amaya stayed on as an in
vestigator.
His first evaluation said he was not
when he was hired by the Bureau of
providing the quantity or quality of
Labor in 1971 there were no other
w ork expected, but he said Ms.
Blacks working there. During his
Gemmel indicated there was no
period o f work there - from 1971
problem, that he would receive a u n til 1975, he was subjected to
raise anyway, he said he constantly
frequent racial slurs by staff mem
requested more cases so he could
bers and to repeated conversations
achieve the expected work goals but
about racial inferiority o f Blacks.
that he was given no answers.
^He testified that at a staff meeting
Amaya said that when Lee Moore
the s ta ff was inform ed that sex
became Acting Adm inistrator the
discrim in a tio n cases w ould be
atmosphere became more hostile.
pushed and race discrimination put
Moore called him into his office and
aside because “ Oregon is not ready
asked, "D o you consider yourself
for cases dealing with race, color or
the leader o f Chicanos in Oregon?”
national o rg in .” The explanation
He was told all ot his cases would
was that the Judges in Oregon could
have to be redone.
more easily understand and deal
I wo days later he gave Moore his
with sex discrimination. When he
resignation. He testified that Moore
complained, he was intormed by the
told him that was what Nilson want
director, Gayle Gemmel that he was
ed. The next day Amaya attempted
too sensitive.
to take back his resignation but that
In 1972, he told the court, he went
right was denied.
to a concilliation meeting with Tri-
W alter W illiam s testified that (Pleaseturn to P 2 Col 1)
Proby heads Washington minority program
Nathan Proby, founder and for
for-
mer director ol the United M inority
Workers, is the director o f the newly
organized Southwest Washington
Association o f M in o rity Contrac
tors,
In c.,
funded
by the
Washington State Highway Depart
ment. SWAMC will serve six coun
ties in Southwest W ashington,
assisting m in o rity contractors to
participate in federally funded road
related projects.
Proby’s job is to identify minority
contractors, have them certified by
the Highway Department, arrange
fo r technical assistance and
negotiate tor them. Additional o f
fices have been established in
Spokane, Bellevue, Tacoma and
Seattle.
The project will identify areas o f
pending contracts that can be per
formed by m in o rity contractors,
and have that stipulated before the
project is put out for bid by general
contractors.
"T he idea is not to have a per
centage set-aside, but to identify
The beach at Cathedral Park offers relief from Sunday's heat for
Marco. Paul and Tracy Parks, and Nick Campbell.
(Photo by: Richard J. Brown)
projects that can be done by
hv
minorities,” Proby explained. "F o r
example, it we have one or more
m inority contractors who can do
guard rails or pavement striping, we
w ill identify jobs for them. Then
our agencies w ill look at the jobs
ind see what it takes in equipment,
supplies, time and help the contrac
tor decide whether he can do it and
make a profit.
"The idea is to supply the work a
minority contractor can reasonably
do and make money, which w ill
allow him to develop his company.
"W e ’ re not trying to just grab a
lot o f contracts and not know
whether we have anyone to perform
them.”
The program identifies the por
tion ot the job that will be done by
minority contractors before it goes
to the general contractor. "W hen
the general contractor bids the job
he knows what is expected of him .”
In set-aside programs the contractor
decides what areas he wants to sub
contract to minorities and this has
not always been successful. “ They
h .v .
„ h i-
... . .
have
been able
to set-aside
a job that
no minority is qualified or available
to do, so it is o f no benefit to us.”
Proby said the atmosphere for
m inority contractors is much d if
ferent in W ashington than in
Oregon. " T h e H ighway D epart
ment here in Washington is very
cooperative. They have let the
general contractor know that they
mean business. The Associated
General Contractors also have a bet
ter attitude They are working with
us and are anxious for the program
to w ork.”
W ith few m inority owned com
panies in Southern W ashington,
many P ortland businesses are
looking North where they find their
services are wanted and needed.
0
C om m unity U nity Day
The Black U nited F ront w ill
sponsor day-long activities fo r
“ Community Unity Day,” on Sun
day, M ay 18 at the King Neigh
borhood Facility and King School
Grounds, one day p rio r to the
scheduled, BUF-organized, boycott
o f Portland Public Schools.
According to the Front, the theme
o f "C o m m u n ity U n ity D ay” is
comunity unity, quality education
and a tribute to Malcom X. May 19,
day o f the boycott, is the birthday
o f the late civil rights activist.
Speakers, music, food, artistic
displays and exhibits w ill highlight
the "C om m unity U nity Day” ac
tivities and w ill take place from 10
a.m. to 8 p.m.
Why America's prisons are Black, Hispanic
Bv Joseph Kelly and
Frank Fiviano
I wo statistical milestones were
passed by U.S. prisons between
1975 and 1980. For the firs, time in
the n a tio n ’ s h is to ry , the in c a r
cerated
po p u la tio n
exceeded
300,000, marking a 50 per cent in
crease in the to ta l number o f
prisoners in jus, five years.
And also for the firs, time in U.S.
h isto ry, the non-w hite prison
population became a substantial
majority.
Today, 55 per cent o f the men and
women behind bars in the United
States
are
" T h ir d
W o rld ”
Americans: Blacks, Hispanics and
Indians. The consequences may be
social dynamite. The recent bloody
uprising in New M exico’ s state
penitentiary is viewed by some as
the opening salvo in wha, could be a
decade o f Third W orld revolts in
side the U.S. prisons. Since then,
riots have erupted at prisons in New
Jersey and Indiana.
“ Tensions within the system are
b u ild in g ra p id ly ,” concluded a
C a lifo rn ia Bar Association study
which found five state penitentiaries
"u n fit for human habitation.” The
study warned " th a , explosions
comparable to what occured at A t
tica in New Y ork can be an
ticipated.”
N ationally, Blacks are put into
prison at a rate eight times tha, o f
whites, according to a survey com
pleted last summer by the National
Institute o f Corrections, par, o f the
Federal Bureau o f Prisons. In New
York and C alifornia, nearly 50 o f
every 10,000 Black citizens are im
prisoned, which is some ten times
the incarceration rate for whites.
In states w ith large H ispanic
populations, the pattern is repeated.
Chicanos are three times as likely as
whites to be incarcerated in C alifor
nia, and four times as likely in New
Mexico. The imprisonment rate for
Puerto Ricans in New York is eight
times the state-wide average.
to 30 per cent o f Black men in their
Com pared to other western
early twenties w ill spend time in
nations,
white
incarceration
prison. The rate for white men in
statistics in the United States are not
that same age group is ap
unusual. But because o f its extraor proximately seven per cent.
dinary number o f Blacks and
But, m aintains crim in o lo g ist
H ispanics, A m e rica ’ s inmate
M ichael H indelang, " T o o many
population is proportionately the people for too long have said that
third larges, in the w orld - sur the only thing tha, accounts for the
passed only by the Soviet Union and
higher arrest rate o f Blacks is
South Africa.
discrimination.” Hindelang believes
Why this appalling imbalance?
that Blacks simply commit more o f
The reason begin with economics.
fenses — and he has completed a
After dropping 28 per cent in the
study o f more than eight million in
Sixties, the number o f Blacks o f cidents o f robbery, rape and assult
fic ia lly classified as poor began
which shows them to be dis
growing once agin in the Sixties, the
proportionately involved in nearly
number o f Blacks o ffic ia lly
all categories o f personal crimes.
classified as poor began growing
Others claim discrim ination is
once again in the Seventies. The
central to that very problem .
group most severely hi, by the com
“ Crime is a matter o f opportunity,”
b ination o f in fla tio n and unem observes W illiam Nagel, a former
ployment -- young Black men — is
prison o ffic ia l who heads the
also the one most responsible for the
American Foundation Institute o f
large increase in the prison
Corrections. "Bankers and people
population. In 1973, criminologist
with large expense accounts do no,
Flagwoman Bonnie Thomaa helps control tha flow of traffic thru
Erik Olin Wright estimated that 25 (Please turn to P 9 Col 4)
tha Union Avenue construction site.
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