Florida Senate - 2012                                    SM 1528
       
       
       
       By Senator Siplin
       
       
       
       
       19-01534-12                                           20121528__
    1                           Senate Memorial                         
    2         A memorial to Secretary of Homeland Security Janet
    3         Napolitano, urging the Department of Homeland Security
    4         to create the Haitian Family Reunification Parole
    5         Program.
    6  
    7         WHEREAS, on January 12, 2010, Haiti experienced a 7.0
    8  magnitude earthquake, which killed 250,000 people and left over
    9  1 million homeless, injured, and with limited access to potable
   10  water and food, and
   11         WHEREAS, Haitians that live in the United States,
   12  particularly in Florida, were devastated by the news and were
   13  concerned for the well-being of family members still living in
   14  Haiti, and
   15         WHEREAS, President Obama issued an executive order to grant
   16  temporary protected status to eligible citizens of Haiti, and,
   17  on May 17, 2011, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano
   18  announced the extension of the temporary protect status for
   19  eligible Haitians for another 18 months, and
   20         WHEREAS, human rights advocates have called upon the
   21  Department of Homeland Security to use the Immigration and
   22  Nationality Act’s humanitarian parole authority to allow
   23  Haitians that have approved visas to immigrate to the United
   24  States without waiting extending periods of time, and
   25         WHEREAS, the United States Citizenship and Immigration
   26  Services approved family-based immigration petitioners to wait
   27  in the United States rather than in Haiti for their visa
   28  priority dates to become current, and
   29         WHEREAS, there is currently a Cuban Family Reunification
   30  Program in aid of Cuban applicants for immigration to join their
   31  families in this country, and the purpose of this memorial is to
   32  call for the establishment of a similar program in support of
   33  Haitian applicants for immigration to join their families in
   34  this country due to the current circumstances in Haiti, and
   35         WHEREAS, the purpose of the Haitian Family Reunification
   36  Parole Program will be to hasten the reunification of families
   37  and discourage Haitian citizens from resorting to illegal and
   38  dangerous means of migration into the United States, and
   39         WHEREAS, support for the Haitian Family Reunification
   40  Parole Program is supported by the City of Philadelphia,
   41  Pennsylvania; the Conference of Mayors; the United States House
   42  Committee on Foreign Affairs; and six United States Senators,
   43  NOW, THEREFORE,
   44  
   45  Be It Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   46  
   47         That Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and
   48  the Department of Homeland Security are urged to create the
   49  Haitian Family Reunification Parole Program for the reasons and
   50  purposes provided in this memorial.
   51         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
   52  dispatched to the President of the United States, to the
   53  President of the United States Senate, to the Speaker of the
   54  United States House of Representatives, to each member of the
   55  Florida delegation to the United States Congress, and to
   56  Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.