Today’s blog
Lynn Murphy Mark
One for the good guy!
The 1970’s and 1980’s were turbulent decades for the island nation of Haiti. Before these decades, in 1957, Papa Doc Duvalier ran as an advocate for Haiti’s poor and won the presidency. Before long he had declared himself president for life. To protect that declaration he created a Presidential Guard that surrounded him with strict security. In addition he established the National Security Volunteers who quickly became the secret police and who exerted power and influence over the Haitian people. They became known as the Tonton Macoute, named after a bogeyman in Haitian. The definition of “bogeyman” is “an imaginary evil character of supernatural powers, especially a mythical hobgoblin supposed to carry off naughty children”.
As the name implies, the Tonton Macoute were a terrifying force dedicated to the preservation of Duvalier’s reign, and they answered to him only. Soon the Haitian people gave them the nickname that stuck as long as they were in power. Before long, dissidents and seemingly ordinary people would simply disappear. Unknown numbers of murders and rapes in Haiti occurred, political opponents disappeared overnight. People were stoned and burned alive. It is estimated that between 30,000 and 60,000 Haitians were murdered.
With that much evil rampant in the small country, corruption grew among officials of the government and members of the secret police. The other influential factor was the link to powerful Voodoo practices, designed to inflict even more fear among the people.
In the 1980’s, specifically 1984 – 1986 there were demonstrations against the Duvalier regime, by now under the rule of “Baby Doc”, Papa Doc’s son. The demonstrations turned into some violent episodes, with protesters bravely handing out pamphlets expressing their dissatisfaction with nearly 30 years of a corrupt and powerful dictatorship. The Duvalier era came to an end in 1986, when Baby Doc fled to France.
Today’s blog is really about one young man who lived through the violence. He had joined a Christian Democratic group in protest of the Duvalier’s and their obvious wealth among one of the poorest countries in this part of the world. He was not a part of any violence, but he did join hundreds of other protestors, until he was singled out by the Tonton Macoute. Somehow the word reached him that he was a target. With barely any money and a few possessions and clothes he found a way to escape Haiti and get to Florida, where he immediately applied for asylum. His request was granted and he began life in the United States as a green card holder.
He worked in Florida. What kind of life he led there is lost in the fog of his mind today. He has had several mini-strokes in the last 20 years. How he got to St. Louis is a mystery. He also became homeless and lived on the streets, occasionally getting help from his church. While he had worked enough in his past to qualify for Social Security, he says his green card was stolen years ago. Without that proof of immigration status as a Lawful Permanent Resident, he could not access any benefits.
I met him in 2019, when my boss handed me his temporary file. He himself had only one frayed document that showed that he had been granted asylum, and some court paperwork from the 1980’s when an attorney was helping him get his green card. There is no proof that he ever actually received one, so the challenge was to help him qualify to apply for a change of status from “unclear” to “Lawful Permanent Resident”.
This case took four years due to a combination of US Immigration hoops to jump through and my inability to reach my client due to his homeless and sometimes phone-less status. He is connected to a medical clinic in the city with a great psychiatric social worker who has gotten him phones and places to live – which he promptly leaves, preferring the street. He calls me regularly, “Miss Lynn’” he always starts with, “God bless you. Any news on my case?”.
Well, yesterday there was GREAT NEWS. In Monday’s mail came an official announcement that his case has been approved and that his green card is on its way to my office, hopefully this week. This will open a number of doors for him. As grateful as I am to close his file, I will miss his weekly calls.