INS Targets Human Rights Abusers

MIAMI (APBnews.com) -- The United States has often provided unwitting sanctuary for war crimes suspects and torturers from around the world, but a new government crackdown could signal an end to that practice, officials said.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service on Thursday arrested for deportation 14 illegal immigrants in south Florida that officials describe as typical of these "special cases" -- people living to escape justice overseas.

Human rights groups estimate there are literally thousands of immigrants in the United States who are believed to be among the most nefarious persecutors in their native countries.

"Operation Home Run" is believed to be the largest INS sweep of its kind to date, officials said, but agents failed to nab at least 11 of 25 sought. The agency is continuing its hunt and is seeking to deport all of the detainees now in custody or still wanted.

Those arrested by INS were from Peru, Honduras and Angola. Haitians suspected of being members of the infamous TonTon Macoutes, the secret police under the decades-long Duvalier regimes, also were apprehended.

Persecutors live 'everywhere'

In Washington, INS spokeswoman Karen Kraushaar said the south Florida sweep is part of an ongoing effort to weed out criminals from the influx of immigrants. INS tracks war criminals and others believed to have been responsible for heinous crimes, she said.

"This country has a long tradition of protecting people who are fleeing torture and persecution around the world," she said. "We've always been involved in trying to protect people from the bad guys."

Finding them is another thing, however.

Kraushaar said these persecutors live "everywhere" in this country and are often undocumented aliens or living under false identities, and are often successful at "flying in below the radar" of immigration authorities.

Group: Deportation not enough

But finding suspects is not enough, said Amnesty International program director Vienna Colucci.

"If the purpose of the sweep is just to deport those individuals," she said, "all it is doing is removing the problem."

In 1994, the United States signed a United Nations convention outlawing torture, but the government has a long way to go to meet its obligations, which, Colucci said, should include investigating and prosecuting those accused of war crimes and persecution.

"The question is, What are we doing to bring these people to justice?" Colucci said.

Senator calls for tough measures

Legislation introduced last year by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., would give the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) at the Justice Department increased authority to hunt war criminals other than Nazis from World War II. The bill passed the Senate but got bogged down in the House of Representatives in a dispute over whether OSI or the INS should handle such investigations.

Leahy said today that the United States should no longer be a safe haven for those who had used their official positions in foreign countries to terrorize, rape and torture innocent civilians.

"For too long we have unwittingly sheltered the oppressors along with the oppressed," he said. "We should close our doors to these people before they ever get to our shores and, if they are already here, we should show them the way out."

The senator said he planned to reintroduce the Anti-Atrocity Alien Deportation Act next year and said the bill has already had the effect of focusing INS attention to the problem, "and their recent actions are an example of that."

Part of community

In the Florida sweep, the six suspects detained on Thursday were already in violation of final orders for deportation. They were listed as Gilnor Castor, 40; Buteau Avril, 49; Jean Bruno Joseph, 41; Windzor Edouard, 42; Guerlaine Fleurvil Georges, 30; and Augustin Pierre, 45.

Eight others still have a chance to avoid being deported by INS. They are: Simao M. Sebastiao, 31; Rafael Alberto Romero, 54; Michelet Charles, 31; Joanis Jackson, 42; Erick Cazeau, 24; Maxo Provence, 30; Yolandus Yolande, 49; and Fanfan Baptiste, 26.

INS Miami office spokeswoman Patricia Mancha said the suspects collared in the operation were found living among other immigrants in south Florida, where the tormentors occasionally bumped into shocked victims.

"These people can blend in easily with their own ethnic community," Mancha said. "Meeting their persecutors on the streets is not something we want."

By James Gordon Meek, an APBnews.com editor.