A Jamaican nurse went to Haiti last week with a church group

[malaise]

from the United States to assist with volunteer work. She is a permanent resident of the US and has a green card. When it was time to leave on Friday last, she and the rest of the group headed for the airport. US immigration at the Port-au-Prince airport told her only American citizens were going to be allowed on the aircraft. The rest of her group were all American citizens and they left her in Haiti on her own. The frightened lady didn't want to be on her own on the streets of Haiti, so she contacted her sister in Jamaica who suggested that she find the Jamaica Defense Force volunteers. They took her in, gave her food and a place to sleep and arranged for her to return to Jamaica by boat this morning. She returns to the US tonight.

Seriously, what kid of crap is going on at the airport in Port-au-Prince?

sp

[Cleita]

1. Bigoted white American KKKrap.

I so sorry about that good and generous nurse being treated like that and am glad that she was able to find shelter and a way home.

[malaise]

2. Thankfully TVJ showed all her documents

so there is no doubt about the discrimination meted out to her.

[sabrina 1]

3. I hope she sues them. As a legal resident of the U.S. she should

have been allowed to return. Sounds like a case the ACLU might be interested. Civil Rights abuse of a humanitarian worker in the middle of a disaster. And people think we should not be concerned about the U.S. military presence in Haiti.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. Wrong, there is no case really

that is one of the problems with a green card, I had one for years. You have no automatic entry into the US.

And if the ACLU takes it, not knowing immigration law, I will be shocked.

Not justifying it, just pointing this little factoid people do not know.

[malaise]

13. She also had a permanent resident's card

She arrived in Haiti from the US.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Yes but INS can prevent entry to permanent residents

on a whim... they really do not need a reason.

That is why it was scary to travel with a green card... they can plain out take it away at a port of entry and send you home.

[WolverineDG]

16. Did she have a card that allowed re-entry?

Some do, some don't. Hope this gets straightened out for her, since she shouldn't be penalized for doing a good deed.

dg

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. A green card allows for reentry

But as I said above, INS can pretty much say NO on any excuse, and preventing movement of people across international borders after a disaster is pretty much standard, unfortunately.

[Warpy]

4. Bureaucratic martinets

will fuck up any system they ever have contact with. Put them in charge and you're asking for insults like this poor lady got.

Please apologize to her from me. She didn't deserve this and the martinet who denied her space on the plane returning home should be thrown into the brig for stupidity bordering on criminality.

She needs to file a formal complaint when she gets back to the US. The policy needs to be US citizens and permanent resident aliens. There are a lot of nurses here who started elsewhere and it needs to be recognized that a lot of them are on disaster teams.

[niyad]

6. jackboots was the word I was thinking--you are far kinder.

[niyad]

5. I am wondering what in the hell was wrong with her co-workers. had I been one, I certainly would

have been raising hell.

thank goodness she was taken care of, and is back safely. welcome to the land of the (formerly) free.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

7. Not one of those fellow "christian" group members

would volunteer to stay with her? This is beyond shameful.
No, I don't know all the details, but I know I would never leave
a fellow traveler alone in a frightening situation under any
circumstances.

[malaise]

9. You know I said to hubby that her Xtian group leaving her

on her own was worse than the immigration bureaucratic fugg up.

[blondeatlast]

15. This Christian had the same thoughts you did. WTF? nt

[Junkdrawer]

8. "What kind of crap is going on at the airport in Port-au-Prince?"....

Good question. I suspect that, more than we'll ever hear, the protection of wealth and privilege is overshadowing relief to the poor and desperate,

[suffragette]

10. 100 kinds of wrong

with the U.S. seeming more concerned with keeping Haitians out of the U.S then with responding properly.

Found this article with more info:
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20100124/news/ne...

A Jamaican nurse practitioner was yesterday denied passage to the United States when she attempted to leave Haiti.

Melissa Marballie, who has been the holder of a US green card since 2005, was turned back by US immigration
when she attempted to return to the States where she has lived since 2000.

She had been in Haiti since last Sunday, arriving with a group of medical volunteers in the aftermath of the disaster.

"I was trying to go back to the States with the group but the United States won't allow me. They say that they have so many American citizens to evacuate and they don't have space for me," Marballie told The Sunday Gleaner.

She said that Haitians with US green cards were also turned back.

I wonder if getting this to Rachel Maddow might help. It needs a big spotlight shone on it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. The standard crap that goes in any disaster

to avoid the movement of people's across borders

This is not the US... this is international policy... see UNHCR... not kidding.

[WolverineDG]

17. This is what happens when

you get people riled up about "illegals" coming to the US & "stealing" jobs...ICE gets hyperactive about abiding by the rules.

to her group for leaving her alone though. Bad form.

dg