Rep.-elect Frederica Wilson -- whose departure from the state Senate has set off a flurry of politicking -- is joining the ACLU in calling on President Barack Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to scrap plans to deport Haitian nationals with criminal records who have completed their sentences.
The group calls it wrong to deport Haitians while the country is still undergoing a cholera epidemic. Read the letter here.
"Current conditions in Haiti are simply too dangerous to allow for the safe return of Haitian nationals with final removal orders," said the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office Director Laura Murphy. "If this administration resumes deportations to Haiti in mid-January, this administration will not only jeopardize the lives and safety of Haitian deportees, but will also violate international human rights and refugee laws."
Wilson -- who in January will assume the seat formerly held by Rep. Kendrick Meek -- noted her district has the largest Haitan population in the U.S.
"I am keenly aware of the devastation and the impact the present situation has on the constituents in my district and on their families in Haiti," Wilson said. "The trauma and heartbreak is tremendously catastrophic."
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