Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 13, 1991 TAG: 9102130492
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MELANIE S. HATTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The reunions have been delayed many times as the men tried to comply with U.S. immigration regulations and provide proper documentation and applications.
Najuge Joseph and Verna Alexis came to America as migrant workers in camps in Miami and Southwest Virginia before moving to Roanoke in 1981, returning home for visits twice in the past few years. Souvenance Syrilien spent six years working in Miami before coming to Roanoke in 1986.
Joseph was reunited three weeks ago with his wife, Luciana, and 8-month-old daughter, Rosemary. But three of their children were caught in the immigration bureaucracy.
Joseph, 37, had been told he needed to file only one application to bring his family to this country, but the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Arlington kept asking for more.
It wasn't until Luciana was ready to leave Haiti about a month ago that the Josephs discovered they had been given incorrect information and that each child did need a separate application. Luciana left her other children with their grandmother until the paper work could be straightened out.
Syrilien's wife, Yolette, also had to leave a daughter behind. Two days before she was ready to leave, she was told her 22-month-old daughter's paper work was insufficient.
Yolette waited eight months. Her visa to come to the United States almost had expired. Rather than lose her chance, she left her daughter with grandparents. Yolette arrived in October, but Chounan Emily still waits in Haiti for permission from the INS to join her parents.
Syrilien, 30, filed a petition to bring his wife to the United States after they were married in June 1988. That was the first they had seen each other since he left Haiti in 1980.
Their daughter was born nine months after their marriage. A month after her birth, Syrilien earned his citizenship. He told the INS of his change of status from resident alien to citizen and filed a new petition for his wife and baby.
"I know myself the baby was approved with my wife," he said.
In November 1989, the INS returned the petition, asking for a copy of their marriage certificate. In February 1990, immigration asked for a separate petition for the baby.
"There's so much frustration," Syrilien said. "I've been here 11 years and I'm a U.S. citizen. . . . There's so much red tape and they won't give you an explanation.
"Even when we become a U.S. citizen, we still have no respect. A U.S. citizen is a U.S. citizen."
A major problem in getting proper documentation is in locating the originals from the Haitian National Archives, which is backlogged by about a year, said Sister Rose Gallagher of the Sisters of the Holy Names in Albany, N.Y. She has helped Joseph and others settle and file petitions to bring their families.
Gallagher visited Haiti last year to observe elections. While there, she tried to speed the petitions. But even with help from the office of U.S. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., she said, she could not get an appointment with the U.S. consulate.
The INS is "so incredibly ineffective. It seems the fewer Haitians [to come to the United States], the better," she said. "If the works are gummed up and papers are lost, that is all right."
When Joseph and Alexis came to the United States in 1980, they intended to stay two or three years and then return to their families. But they liked the life here and decided to stay.
They traveled the East Coast with a group of migrant workers for a year and ended up at a migrant camp near Chilhowie, picking apples. There, they met Gallagher, who was teaching English to the workers.
Gallagher and members of Our Lady of Nazareth church on Virginia 419 in Southwest Roanoke County were instrumental in bringing eight of the workers to Roanoke and finding them jobs.
In Roanoke, Joseph and Alexis made friends who taught them English. They were given work that paid regularly. As a rice farmer in Haiti, Joseph was lucky to get paid every six months, he said. Joseph now works as custodian at Our Lady of Nazareth. Alexis works with Trees Inc.
Here, they were free of the Duvalier family dictatorship that reigned in Haiti for 28 years until 1986. And they were rid of Haiti's poverty and unemployment. In the United States, their children could get a good education, Joseph said.
For eight years, Joseph sent photographs, letters and cassette tapes to remind his children who their father was - and to tell his wife he still loved her.
In 1989, Joseph became an American citizen after struggling to pass the immigration exams administered to determine his knowledge of U.S. government and his ability to speak, read and write English.
"I still no speak," he said. "But I learn to speak one day."
Verna Alexis has yet to gain citizenship because of a learning impediment that prevents him from reading. He has asked for a waiver of part of the test so he can gain his citizenship. But, his wife and three children are allowed to come to the United States. Alexis' wife, Rosette, is to bring the Josephs' children to the United States today.
Syrilien came to Roanoke in 1986 through a friend's suggestion. He worked for a textile company, but was laid off in November.
The Syriliens pray that when Rosette arrives, their daughter also will be with them.
by CNB