ECUMENICAL LEADERS VISIT DETENTION CENTER
AND SPEAK OUT FOR IMPRISONED REFUGEES

Press briefing: 3pm, Monday, April 30
Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society
333 Seventh Avenue (at 28th Street), 17th Floor

NEW YORK, April 25, 2001 – On April 30, a diverse group of religious leaders and Congressional staff will visit the Wackenhut Detention Center near JFK Airport, where the Immigration and Naturalization Service detains people who come to the United States seeking safety and protection.

The tour takes place just days before the Senate immigration subcommittee’s scheduled May 3 oversight hearing on “expedited removal” at our airports and the detention of asylum seekers.

The tour brings together Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist leaders, whose traditions share a call to welcome the newcomer and a deep concern for the “welcome” our country offers to people seeking asylum. Instead of finding freedom in the United States – in a country founded by refugees – people who have suffered torture or persecution in their homelands find themselves behind bars. A press briefing at the offices of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, 333 Seventh Avenue, 17th  Floor, will follow the tour.

“Many of our ancestors fled religious and other persecution and were welcomed here,” says The Rev. Dr. Stephen P. Bouman, Bishop of the Metropolitan New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. “Yet today it is a different story entirely. Women, men and children guilty of no crime – who have suffered torture and imprisonment, witnessed the murder of their families and destruction of their homes, and endured long and dangerous journeys to reach freedom – find themselves behind bars in America. We can – must – do better.”

Mekabou Fofana, a high school student in Manhattan, will speak first-hand about his experiences as a child detainee. He was a child when he fled Liberia, where his father was murdered and his family threatened. He was not even 16 when he arrived at JFK Airport, where harsh treatment from airport officials landed him the hospital. Then INS sent him to the Wackenhut Detention Center, and later to other adult county jails, where he remained behind bars for a year and half until he won his asylum claim, with help from Human Rights First. INS could have paroled him to his family members in New York City, but did not. Mr. Fofana asks, “Is this what America is like?”

High-level religious leaders will share their reactions from their visit to the facility, and Mr. Fofana will share his story, describing what it’s really like to be detained in Wackenhut and county jails. Policy experts will describe how laws passed in 1996 created these problems.

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society are organizing the tour and briefing in collaboration with Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc., Church World Service, Episcopal Migration Ministries, Jesuit Refugee Service, Human Rights First, the National Council of Churches, and the United Methodist Committee on Relief.

Participants in the April 30 Detention Tour and Briefing.

Mr. Gideon Aronoff, Washington Representative, HIAS - Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society

T   The Rev. Dr. Stephen P. Bouman, Bishop of the Metropolitan New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

The Most Rev. Ignatius Catanello, Bishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brooklyn

Ms. Doris Chang, Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu-Chi Foundation

Mr. Ralston H. Deffenbaugh, Jr., President, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service

Imam Salihou Djabi, Timbuktu Interfaith Center

Esther Ebrahimian, Assistant Director for Asylum Concerns, LIRS

The Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ

Ms. Carol Fouke-Mpoyo, Chair, Riverside Church Sojourners Ministry with Detained Immigrants

Mr. Leonard Glickman, President, HIAS - Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society

The Rev. Nathaniel T. Grady, Public Relations Officer to the Episcopal Office, New York Area, of the United Methodist Church

Ms. Mala Kadar, Ilankai Tamil Sangam, Tri-State Area (an association of American Tamils)

Ms. Karen Kaminsky, Consultant to the Fund for New Citizens of the New York Community Trust

Archdeacon Michael Kendall, Episcopal Archdiocese of New York

Mr. Frank Lipiner, Managing Attorney, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society

The Rev. Dr. John McCollough, Executive Director, Church World Service

Ms. Sharon Payt, Legislative Assistant to Senator Sam Brownback, Chairman, Immigration Subcommittee

Rabbi Dan Polish, Director of the Social Action Committee for Reform Judaism

Ms. Lilah Pomerance, Legislative Assistant to Senator Charles Schumer

Rabbi Arthur Schneier, Park East Synagogue, President of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation, and board member, HIAS Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society

The Right Rev. Orris G. Walker Jr., Bishop of Episcopal Diocese of Long Island

Ms. Abigail Wen, Legislative Aide to Senator Mike DeWine

                                      For recent articles about imprisoned asylum-seekers, and other victims of the 1996 laws,contact:
                                                                                                        Liz Vladeck, 212-845-5259, vladecke@humanrightsfirst.org

Press briefing: 3pm, Monday, April 30Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society333 Seventh Avenue (at 28th Street), 17th Floor