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Professional Responsibility & Ethics Program
CLE Ethics Training hosted by the
University of Miami School of Law will be held for the staff of
Catholic Legal Services, Archdiocese of Miami at its offices on
October 6, 2011 at 150 SE 2nd Avenue, Suite 200, Miami, Florida
33131, Tel. 305-373-1073.
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Catholic Legal Services (FL): Statement
Concerning the Devastating Earthquake in Haiti
 Randolph
McGrorty, Executive Director of Catholic Legal Services, Archdiocese
of Miami, writes:
I believe deeply and whole-heartedly in the efficacy and power of
prayer. At this early stage, prayer is an appropriate and
necessary response to the tragedy of Haiti’s earthquake. Haiti, its
multitudes of casualties, and all those affected by this tragedy,
desperately need our prayers. This is especially true of those
in our South Florida Haitian community who cry out in fear for their
loved ones trapped in the midst of chaos. But in the coming
hours, days and weeks, the sincerity of our prayers will be carefully
measured by specific actions– actions taken to assist in the rescue
and recovery of the victims; to provide relief from the horror of
this devastation, and to rebuild Haiti so that it will never again be
mortally prone to such calamity.
An essential element in these efforts must include the designation of
Haitians in the United States for Temporary Protected Status. TPS is
an immigration status that allows individuals from designated
countries to remain in the US for a temporary period because they are
unable to safely return home due to ongoing armed conflict, the
temporary effects of a natural disaster, or other extraordinary
conditions.
When famine threatened Sudan and Somalia, the US granted TPS to
nationals of those countries; when civil strife ripped through
Liberia and Sierra Leone, they were granted TPS. When Hurricanes
afflicted Nicaragua and Honduras, TPS was given. When an earthquake
hit El Salvador, it received TPS. Haiti contends with all of these
tragedies simultaneously. It was for this precise situation that the
law of TPS was enacted. Not to grant TPS to Haiti ignores the rule
of law and defies the will of Congress. And, as President Bush
stated when granting TPS to Salvadorans after its earthquake: “The
havoc caused by these earthquakes makes it extremely difficult for
Salvadorans to return home safely at this time … granting them
temporary protected status is the prudent and humane thing to do.”
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The immediate designation of Haiti for TPS accomplishes the
following:
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Allows Haitian nationals already in the United States to work, pay
U.S. taxes and send money back to relatives in Haiti. Haitians in the
US already send $1billion in remittances to Haiti, representing a
critical form of disaster relief at no cost to the US taxpayer;
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Ensures the orderly flow of migration and decreases the risk of mass
migration by reducing potential social burdens and maintaining
remittances;
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Provides Haiti with much needed time to concentrate on rescue,
recovery and disaster relief without the added stress posed by
additional homeless, hungry and jobless migrants returning to a
chaotic situation;
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Comforts an already traumatized expatriate Haitian community who fear
repatriation to a land of devastation;
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Protects US families. Many Haitians facing repatriation have US
citizen spouses and children whose return to Haiti threatens to break
apart these families;
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Restores US commitment to ethe Rule of Law by extending legal
protection to Haitians denied them but granted to others in similar
situations;
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Protects those Haitians in the US who have no place to safely return;
And it is the prudent and humane thing to do!!!
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2010 Luncheon Welcoming Archbishop Thomas Wenski by Catholic Legal Services
 MIAMI
— The band was Polish. The dancers were Haitian. The host’s grandmother
hailed from Ireland.
Preaching what it practices, Catholic Legal Services hosted a fundraising
luncheon and awards ceremony Nov. 11 to honor members of the south Florida
community who help in “renewing hope” and “seeking justice” for the area’s
immigrant and undocumented population.
In his remarks to the group, Randolph McGrorty, executive director of
Catholic Legal Services, told of a “boat person” from another century: a
pregnant woman who could barely read and write when she arrived in America
without a visa or other documentation.That undocumented immigrant was his Irish grandmother who came in through
Ellis Island, McGrorty said, and in rejecting immigrants like her today “we
deny America.”
“It is the mission of Catholic Legal Services to welcome the new ones among
us, to give them hope,” said McGrorty.
His agency sees about 1,000 people a month who are seeking help with family
reunification, political asylum, residency and citizenship applications. With
a staff of 35 — 10 of them attorneys — Catholic Legal Services accounts for
nearly 10 percent of all the successful Haitian petitions for asylum brought
before U.S. immigration courts. The agency also represented 10 percent of all
the Haitians in Florida who filed for temporary protected status this year.
In allowing Haitians to gain legal status and find employment, the U.S. is
not only helping itself and staying true to its traditions, McGrorty said. It
is also providing relief to a devastated nation. “The families here are
sending money there so that their loved ones can survive.”
“This is the surest, safest and cheapest form of earthquake relief,” he
added, noting that of the billions in aid pledged worldwide for Haiti relief,
only two percent has actually been spent.
The luncheon also was a “welcome home” for Archbishop Thomas Wenski, whose
keynote speech touched upon Catholic social teaching as it relates to
immigration issues.“We can sum up all the teachings of our Catholic social encyclicals in one
simple phrase: No man is a problem. No human being should ever be considered
a problem,” Archbishop Wenski said.
“The immigrant also should never be reduced to being a problem. The
immigrants are not problems. The problem is our broken immigration system,”
the archbishop said.
He stressed that “the immigrants that have come here have not been a problem
to us. South Florida has been able to absorb hundreds of thousands of
immigrants over the past 50 years.”
 Similarly, the Catholic Church in the U.S. owes its vitality to wave after
wave of immigrants, he said, noting that the number of Catholics grew from
30,000 about 220 years ago to 65 million today.“The story of the Church in the United States is also the story of
immigration,” Archbishop Wenski said. “Immigrants renew America. They renew
America because they still believe in the American dream. They bring to us
new energy, new vitality. If America were to close the door (to immigrants),
as some advocate, America would suffer for that.”
He praised the work of Catholic Legal Services as “an expression of what the
Catholic Church should be about, an expression of the witness of the Church
to the dignity of every human being.”
Catholic agency in Miami helps Haitians apply for protected status
MIAMI (CNS) --
Massenat Pierre, 56, was thankful that Catholic Legal Services in the Miami
Archdiocese helped her apply for temporary protected status to stay in the
United States. "She's happy because she has no place to go," said her son,
Massenat Jean-Claude, who came to the United States in 1984 and became a
citizen in 1996. His mother arrived Sept. 18 for a visit. Now, she has no
home to return to. "Her house in the Clercine section of Port-au-Prince was
destroyed in the earthquake," Jean-Claude said as he helped his mother at the
Catholic Legal Services outreach center set up at Notre Dame d'Haiti Church
in Miami. Like Pierre, hundreds of other Haitians have come to the church
seeking help with their application for temporary protected status, known as
TPS. On Jan. 15 Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that
the government would grant the status to Haitians already in this country,
because of their home country's fragile situation. It will allow them to stay
in the U.S. legally and work for at least 18 months. Randy McGrorty, chief
executive officer of Catholic Legal Services, and Myriam Mezadieu, the
agency's administrator, supervised the volunteers and the agency's staff on
the second floor of the building that was once Notre Dame Academy for girls.
"It's been really hectic here," McGrorty told the Florida Catholic, newspaper
of the Miami Archdiocese. "We knew there would be a tremendous need for legal
services. And we knew there would be scam artists out there ready to take
advantage of Haitians seeking TPS."
Paralegals Help Haitians Seeking TPS
The legal
profession needs more publicity like this and the public needs to know more
about the good works members of the legal profession do. Unfortunately, this
story appeared on Law.com where it is not likely to be read by the general
public. Perhaps it has been, or will be, reported in other media.
Because of the earthquake in Haiti, the Obama administration is granting
temporary protected status to Haitian living here. This has led to a tsunami
of TPS application, mostly by people too poor to pay for legal services. But
the legal community in South Florida has come together to help Haitians apply
for TPS pro bono. FIAC and Catholic Legal Services of the
Archdiocese of Miami are the most active. CCLS holds free
Friday walk-in clinics at the Notre Dame church and consults with Haitians
daily at its Wilton Manors office in Broward County.
Catholic Charities has signed up more than 1,500 applicants, said Myriam
Mezadieu, chief administrative officer for Catholic Legal Services. Many lack
money for the application fees and leave to try to scrounge up the money from
relatives before returning to complete the forms.
Still, “TPS was a wonderful thing for us,” Mezadieu said. “It was time they
did it. Deporting somebody wouldn’t be a good idea at this time. I’m grateful
to the administration.”
At the Notre Dame church, Mezadieu and two paralegals sit at desks in a large
room, meeting with a constant stream of Haitians. Paralegal Cassy Pierre is a
Creole-speaking volunteer. Paralegal Damaris Gil works for Catholic Charities
but does not speak Creole. “They usually send me the people who speak
English,” she said.
For the first two weeks, the line was out the door into the parking lot, and
the paralegals worked until midnight, the paralegals said.
Stacks of applications are taken back to the main Catholic Legal Services offices,
where lawyers review the applications and file them with the government.
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