Just Ffolkes

Joseph Dantica, 81-year-old pastor of Church of the Redeemer in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, requested asylum in the U.S. last month after local gangs threatened to retaliate for an incident in which police and UN peacekeepers used the upper floors of his church to fire on gang members. Upon arrival, he was detained by the Department of Homeland Security. While undergoing a "credible fear" interview, Dantica (whose blood pressure medication, family members say, had been taken away) fell ill and was taken to a Miami hospital, where family members were not allowed to visit him. There he died. The story might not have attracted any attention at all but that Dantica's niece is the award-winning novelist Edwidge Danticat. The fimmaker Jonathan Demme, the popular writer Walter Mosley, and the family's local member of congress are all demanding an investigation.

It's certainly possible that Rev. Dantica's time would have come whether he was detained or not, but a couple of morals already attach themselves to this story:

1. It's better to cheat your way into the United States. Dantica had a valid visitor's visa which he could have used to enter the country and disappear into the interior, but since he suspected he might never return to Haiti, he did the right thing by requesting asylum, and got burned.

2. The U.S. needs a reasonable policy on Haitian immigrants, who are fleeing a country that makes Cuba look like Switzerland and have more political reasons for asylum than there are politicians.

3. Apparently the DHS has added to its many other tasks the job of enforcing AMA and FDA standards on medical treatment. The St. Petersburg Times, which has the best story on the incident, includes this judgment from a department expert:

Homeland Security said Dantica was carrying "no legitimate prescribed medicine." All he had in his possession was a "folk remedy," which the department described as some kind of "poultice" or dressing.

4. Alberto Gonzales will have to work pretty hard to be more pathetic than John Ashcroft:

U.S. officials have gone as far as arguing that the Haitians represent a national security threat; Attorney General John Ashcroft recently cited intelligence reports that Muslim terrorists were trying to use Haiti to infiltrate the United States.

Comments

[Ken Shultz]

"U.S. officials have gone as far as arguing that the Haitians represent a national security threat; Attorney General John Ashcroft recently cited intelligence reports that Muslim terrorists were trying to use Haiti to infiltrate the United States."

Nice to know that the DHS is there to protect us from terrorist cocoons like Hati. I understand that terrorists once tried to enter by way of Canada too; I hope they're keeping an eye on that situation. In fact, I think the terrorist in question was trying to come in by way of Washington State; I'm scared!

...Does the DHS have the authority to regulate interstate commerce?

[Daniel Carver]

The DHS can do anything (they're the Feds, remember?)

I just wonder if the new guy's gonna remove the drapes from the Spirit of Justice's tits....Sigh. There used to be a first amendment in this country.

The best part about the tit-shields is Jonah Goldberg's whine about the media showing that hypocrite in front of bare tits while he tries to censor bare tits. Newsflash, Jonah: If you don't wanna look like a hypocrite, the best course of action is to stop BEING a hypocrite! If you whine about it instead, we just laugh at your dumb ass. 🙂
Not-Daniel

[madpad]

"Attorney General John Ashcroft recently cited intelligence reports that Muslim terrorists were trying to use Haiti to infiltrate the United States."

Isn't that a little like trying to use Cuba to infiltrate Mexico?

[Jimmy Carter]

I thought Clinton's nation-building had made Haiti into the Switzerland of the Carribbean.
What happened?

[Douglas Fletcher]

I think Clinton actually said "Swaziland", it's just he was having one of those allergy attacks & he was down South so he was playing up his Arkansas accent a little, it wasn't very clear when it came out.