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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 15, 2005

SCHUMER URGES DHS TO GRANT MONTSERRATIANS DEFERRED ENFORCED DEPARTURE – ALLOWS THEM ANOTHER 12-18 MONTHS TO GET AFFAIRS IN ORDER

292 individuals from the island of Montserrat were granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in August 1997, due to volcanic activity beginning on the island in1995

On July 7, 2004, Department of Homeland Security declared that Montserrat nationals and their American-born children must leave the US by the end of February 2005 or risk deportation

Senator introduced legislation last October to extend their stay; called on the President to reverse the DHS decision in February, DHS rejected the extension

As over 500 Montserratians face immediate deportation after being denied an extension of Temporary Protected Status, today Senator Charles E. Schumer called on the Department of Homeland Security to grant the refugees and their American-born children Deferred Enforced Departure (DED). DED status is given to refugee groups in the US, who have no other way to stay here legally if they would be put in danger by returning to their home countries. It allows the refugees to stay here for an additional 12-18 months to get their affairs in order before moving. This status has been conferred upon five groups since 1990. Schumer asked that the Montserratians become the sixth group.

“Almost 8 years ago these Montserratians came to the United States fearing both their safety and their livelihood, to build a better life for themselves and their families,” said Schumer. “They have succeeded and now we are turning our backs on them, telling them to go back to their homes which are uninhabitable, or move to the U.K, the cost of which would drive them into abject poverty, or worse.”

In 1995 volcanic activity began on the island of Montserrat forcing 8,000 of the 12,000 inhabitants to flee to various regions of the world. In 1997, 292 refugees were granted TPS in the US, renewable each year, as a result of the continuously erupting volcanoes in Montserrat.
The TPS program was terminated because, according the Department of Homeland Security, Montserrat no longer meets the conditions for designation under the TPS program. Since the volcanic eruptions are ongoing they can no longer be considered "temporary" as required by Congress when it enacted the TPS statute. However, on the island of Montserrat, the volcanic activity is in its 10th year. About 2/3 of the island is uninhabitable, with the island's economy, infrastructure and most property virtually destroyed.

In an effort to combat their deportation, last October Schumer introduced the `Montserrat Immigration Fairness Act' . It would have allowed for adjustment of immigration status to nationals of Montserrat provided they apply for adjustment of status within a certain time frame and are determined to be admissible to the United States for permanent residence. He re-introduced the bill on February 4, 2005. Since the bill could not pass before the deadline set by the Department of Homeland Security, Schumer, along with Senators Kennedy and Kerry, sent a letter urging the President to immediately reverse the decision.

The request for the extension was denied. DHS stated that Montserratians, by virtue of being of British dependency, can go to the United Kingdom. Though factually accurate, a Montserratian heading to the UK would need at least six months of funds to support themselves without work, as well as a family member or friend with whom to stay in the UK. The relative weakness of the dollar to the pound compounds these refugees’ difficulties, as does the fact that few of them have family or friends in the UK.

Schumer’s letter to DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff is the last hope the Montserratians have before being deported.

Schumer wrote “Whatever choices the Montserratian refugees are forced to make, they will need to have some means to support themselves for at least six months or more after they leave the United States, and this deferred period would enable them to prepare for their departure, prevent some economic and social hardships for themselves and their families, and provide them with an opportunity to seek a safe haven and jobs outside the United States.”

Click here to view letter.

FACTS Communications / Report: 3/17/05,

Latest FACTS and Data on Montserratian affairs in USA.

Montserrat refugees to be deported from U.S.

From Wikinews, the free news source (BETA)

February 27, 2005

A last gasp effort is underway to prevent the deportation of Montserratian refugees from New York City, U.S.A., to the disaster-stricken volcanic island they fled ten years ago.

Representative w:Major Owens (D, NY), of Brooklyn, is hoping the outpouring of support for victims of the Asian tsunami will save the refugees from returning to an island with an active volcano that is at constant risk of a further catastrophe.

Until last year, the Department of Homeland Security had allowed the families to stay in the United States under a special designation called “Temporary Protected Status”. But in July, secretary of homeland security, Tom Ridge, withdrew the status—not because it was safe to return to Montserrat, but because the volcano would remain active for decades to come and therefore was no longer a “temporary” danger. On February 27, the city’s estimated 100 Montserratians and their families will be forced to leave or risk deportation. A further 200 families, many of them living in Boston, are also under threat.

Earlier efforts to win a reprieve for the Montserratians were blocked by anti-immigrant forces in the House of Representatives, led by congressman Tom Tancredo, of Colorado, Rep. Owens said. But he added that a new bill, which he introduced at the end of last month, might be more popular in the wake of the Asian disaster.

“We hope that the approaching emergency situation plus the drama of the tsunami will help change some of the attitudes about this,” Rep. Owens said. “And some of the people who opposed this legislation on the basis that they opposed immigration, will see that it is not about immigration but about coming to the relief of people who have been victims of a natural disaster.”

Meanwhile, New York’s tiny Montserratian community must wait and hope. For those not fortunate enough to have married a US citizen or to have found an employer willing to sponsor them, the coming weeks are crucial.

Pearl Ryner, 40, a refugee who works as a medical technician at the King’s County Hospital in Brooklyn, said she refused to get married just so that she can stay in the United States. But she is a single mother with four children and she does not want to uproot her family and start over again.

“I worry. I cry. I am still hoping,” Ms. Ryner said. “What do I do? Where do I begin? How do I pick four kids up and take them away? If I buy a plane ticket, where do I go? These are questions that I do not have an answer for.”

The Department of Homeland Security has suggested that because Montserrat is a British overseas territory, Montserratians should go to the UK. But the refugees say they have no relatives or friends they can stay with in the UK, and that they have made homes and started careers and lives in the United States.

If the refugees are deported to Montserrat it will be to a 35 square-mile island, two-thirds of which is buried beneath volcanic rubble and ash. The capital, Plymouth, in the south east of the island has been abandoned, and there is a housing and employment shortage.

The Soufriere Hills Volcano erupted in 1995, but the British Foreign Office website warns that the volcano remains active. Heavy rain can cause mudflows, and people suffering from breathing problems risk airborne dust and volcanic ash. The collapse of a lava dome in 2001 spewed clouds of ash that affected Puerto Rico, a self-governing territory of the United States, 200 miles away.

Moreover continued volcanic activity is triggering landslides that have caused two tsunamis in Montserrat during the past ten years. The first, on December 26, 1997, created a wave three meters tall, which rolled northwards along the coast. The second, in July 2003, measured about four meters and traveled to Guadeloupe 30 miles away.

Sherry Coriette, 28, who works for a major retail company in New York, said that she still has not decided what to do. “I have a good job, I pay my bills,” Ms. Coriette said. “Eight years ago I left with nothing and now I am having to face starting all over again.”

Matthew Dunn, chairman of the New York Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said that as long as there was a potential for danger, the United Sates should offer the people of Montserrat a safe haven.

“I would argue that is what our country is all about: helping and protecting people,” Mr. Dunn said. “But the biggest shame in all of this is that because there is so few of them, they do not have a big enough voice.”

Sources

Additional FACTS:

Virgin Island Daily News:

Click headline to enlarge   Montserratians reluctantly heading home as temporary protected status in U.S. ends By PATRICK JOY Tuesday, March 1st 2005 ST. CROIX - Victor Sydney said goodbye to a family of friends Sunday, wishing them well on a journey they never intended nor wanted to make. Nearly a decade after a massive volcanic eruption buried two-thirds of their island in rock and ash, the U.S. government has told Montserrat refugees that it is time to go home, ending their temporary protected status. About two dozen of those refugees have been living in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Their protected status ran out Sunday, and many have spent recent days and weeks packing up their lives and preparing to return to an island with a waiting list for housing, the threat of further eruptions and a crippled economy. "We are saddened," said Sydney, a nationalized U.S. citizen from Montserrat and vice president of the Virgin Islands Montserrat Association. Sydney does not have to leave, but many of his fellow countrymen already have left. "We're advising people to abide by the authority," he said. "The majority will have to go. Our hearts go out to them." Sydney said that some will find homes on other islands, rather than returning to an island ravaged by the Soufriere Hills eruption of 1997. Britain has invited Montserrat residents to apply for permanent residency there, but the cost of relocation, finding a job and the foreign climate are sizable obstacles. Many residents have been residing in the Virgin Islands, Britain or on the mainland for the last eight years. The United States granted the refugees temporary protective status in the wake of the eruption and renewed it every year since 1997. The refugees have established jobs, homes and families. Some have children that are U.S. citizens. The volcano remains active and erupted as recently as last spring. It first rumbled in 1995, and a string of eruptions since has forced more than half the island's residents to leave. "It is still not safe for these people to return to Montserrat, and the option of moving to England is not realistic," said V.I. Delegate to Congress Donna Christensen in a prepared statement. Montserrat Association President Richard Blake, who also is naturalized, said there is little opportunity in his homeland. "They are going home to what?" he said. "There is nothing to go home to." Blake said there is already a waiting list for housing on the island, and people returning may be homeless. "These people are going to be at the bottom of the list," he said. "Most of the people I've spoken with hate to go back home, but they do not have a choice." Blake said almost all the Montserratians living under the temporary status in the territory have left. He said they were worried that if they disobeyed the order to leave, they would not be eligible to come back should the U.S. government change its mind. Christensen said she was disappointed that the U.S. Homeland Security Department did not extend the protective status granted since 1997. "This is very disappointing to me because my colleagues and I, including Congressman Charlie Rangel and Sen. Ted Kennedy, have been pressing President Bush and former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to reverse the order issued last July" that required the Montserratians to leave, Christensen said. "We have done everything we could." - Contact Patrick Joy at 774-8772 ext. 458 or e-mail pjoy@dailynews.vi.

Boston Globe Info: 2/22/05

Refugees face ouster, and some try to help

By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff  |  July 22, 2004

Immigration activists are trying to draw attention to a little-known decision by the Department of Homeland Security to send hundreds of Montserratians back to their Caribbean island, including a Whitman mother who fled Montserrat eight years ago.

Early this month, the federal agency revoked the ''temporary protected status" under which almost 300 Montserratians had lived in the United States since 1997, after an active volcano chased thousands from the island.

Because of the loss of status, Marsha Meade, 32, who fled in 1996 when she was pregnant with her daughter Enya, and 291 other Montserratians have until Feb. 27 to prepare for departure.

For Meade, that means settling car payments, hospital bills, the rent on her Whitman apartment, and Enya's school tuition to the Park School in Brookline.

But first she has to get used to the idea of leaving behind the life she's built in Massachusetts for a place where conditions remain unpredictable.

''At first, we were shocked and confused, and now I think the reaction is slowly coalescing into anger," said Meade, who has a cousin in New York who also will have to leave. ''No one is sure of what to do next."

According to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services website, Tom Ridge, the Homeland Security secretary, decided to revoke the temporary protection status of Montserratians because the volcanic activity on the island has not shown signs of abating.

''The Secretary of DHS has determined that the termination of the TPS designation of Montserrat is warranted because the volcanic activity causing the environmental disaster in Montserrat is not likely to cease in the foreseeable future," a statement on the website said. ''Therefore, it no longer constitutes a temporary disruption of living conditions that temporarily prevents Montserrat from adequately handling the return of its nationals."

Some advocates say the revocation of status, which affects only a small number of people, seems impractical, even cruel.

''This is a heartless decision," said Vera Weekes, assistant director of the Caribbean Research Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. ''America is not a cruel country. America has always opened its doors to human beings who are suffering. To ask [Montserratians] again to uproot is heartless and unwarranted."

Chris Bentley, spokesman for the Citizenship and Immigration Services component of the Department of Homeland Security, said the only way he could respond to the criticism of Ridge's decision is to highlight the process involved in changing the status.

''The process is such that the secretary makes a very detailed review and bases the decision on the findings of that review," Bentley said. ''Based on the determination, the decision was made that the temporary protected status for residents of Montserrat would be terminated."

Montserratians facing expulsions have options, the department says. Because the island is under British control, its nationals can apply for British citizenship or another immigration status.

But Meade, a single mother who works as an administrative assistant, said that moving to the United Kingdom, which she hardly knows, is not a viable alternative. ''It's just the uncertainty, the fact that you have to start from scratch all over again," she said.

Many of the 8,000 people who fled Montserrat found refuge in Britain. But Boston also attracted several Montserratians because of the city's Irish roots, Meade said.

Montserrat, known as the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean, was settled by Irish Catholics in the 17th century, celebrates St. Patrick's Day, and even boasts the shamrock as its national emblem.

When Meade left Montserrat, she moved to Dorchester, which felt like home, she said. Not only did her aunt live there, but the city also came to remind her of her native land.

''It's the little things," Meade said. ''The coolness of the morning. It just feels the same."

It makes sense that Montserratians like Meade would rather return to a familiar place, even if it is unstable, than move to a strange country, said Sister Lena Deevy, executive director of the Irish Immigration Center in Boston.

''You're talking about a group of people who have jobs, pay taxes, and are working very hard," she said. ''What I would like to see is them getting permanent status."

That change can be made only through legislation, Bentley said.

A bill introduced by US Representative Major R. Owens, Democrat of Brooklyn, would alter the status of those granted temporary protected status to permanent status. But the measure, which was reintroduced in February 2003, has languished in the House Judiciary Committee and its immigration, border security, and claims subcommittee.

''We haven't had any hearings thus far," said Larry Walker, Owens's legislative director. ''Things can be very contentious. Immigration is a hot button issue."

Deevy said she is doing what she can by providing information to affected Montserratians.

On Tuesday, the Irish Immigration Center will hold a free clinic at 6:30 p.m. at Dorchester House Multi-Service Center on Dorchester Avenue to explain immigration options.

Weekes said she recently visited Washington to lobby Congress for a change in US immigration policies.

''The real tragedy of this is, [Owens's] bill was originally introduced in 2001 and it fell right in the mouth of Sept. 11, [2001]," she said. ''Since then, everything is anti-immigrant. No one stops to see if there is a soul or a life involved."

Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.