Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 9, 1994 TAG: 9406090049
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Details of why an exception was made in his case are sketchy.
Officials at the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the State Department confirmed Wednesday that Jean W. Bosue was given temporary legal alien status after it was determined that it was unsafe for him to return to his homeland.
They refused to comment on the potential persecution he would face or his background, citing his "privacy rights." They said any information released about him could be used against him in his homeland.
Bosue, 24, is accused of attempting to rape a Southwest Roanoke woman in her apartment early Tuesday. The woman shot him during the alleged attack. Bosue is recuperating in Roanoke Memorial Hospital.
Roanoke police said they had not interviewed the French-speaking Bosue as of late Wednesday but would arrest him on a charge of attempted rape when he is released.
Since May 1992, according to the State Department, 2,327 Haitians have been allowed into the United States as political refugees. During that time, U.S. policy has been to repatriate Haitians who are found at sea, although several boat people who needed medical treatment were taken by the Coast Guard to hospitals in the United States and later granted refugee status.
Exactly how the United States should grant asylum to Haitian boat people has been a troublesome issue for the Clinton administration. They are currently negotiating with the United Nations as to how the Haitians should be handled.
Bosue was on an eight-person boat that floated into international waters and was stopped by the Coast Guard on May 20, according to a State Department official. The Coast Guard brought the Haitians back to Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
In this case, there was concern for the safety of the eight when they reached Haiti. A State Department worker at the dock determined they should be sent to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for further interviews, the State Department official said.
Agents from the Immigration and Naturalization Service are no longer present in Guantanamo Bay, so an agent was sent to interview the refugees at the base, said Duke Austin, an INS senior spokesman. Austin said the agent determined that six of the eight boat people would be sent back to Haiti.
Bosue and another man were allowed entry to Miami on May 31. They are considered legal aliens but must petition the federal government for asylum within their first year in the United States.
On Friday, Bosue and the other man traveled to Roanoke, where they were resettled by the Refugee and Immigration Services Office, a branch of the Richmond Roman Catholic Diocese. According to Barbara Smith, director of the office, they arrived sooner then expected. She said an office caseworker offered his apartment, in the 2600 block of Westover Avenue Southwest, as a temporary place to stay.
It was at that apartment building that Bosue was shot and wounded Tuesday morning.
by CNB