Haitian community launches campaign for teen’s return

Boston’s Haitian community and its supporters have begun a campaign to allow Boston teenager Jenny Ulysse to return home from Haiti and for the right of all U.S. permanent residents to return to their homes. They are also calling for medical treatment or evacuation for all in need of critical medical attention.

Jenny Ulysse

Jenny Ulysse is a young community organizer who received a commendation plaque from Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner for her dedication as an intern in his district office. She is the main breadwinner for her household, which includes her mother and brother.

Ulysse is currently employed by the Union of Minority Neighborhoods organizing for their campaign for Juvenile CORI (criminal records access) reform and is also an activist with the Bail Out the People Movement.

Ulysse has faced challenges growing up in Boston. Through the support of members of her community she is now enrolled at the Adult Technical Academy and confidently envisions a future as a college graduate and professional writer and poet.

On Jan. 12 Ulysse and her twin brother Jerry were in Haiti visiting their stepmother and numerous siblings. When the earthquake hit, Ulysse, her beloved stepmother, Yolanda, and friends were in the family hair salon in Port-au-Prince. Immediately a nearby five-story building collapsed on the salon. Ulysse was miraculously recovered from the rubble, sustaining a leg injury, cuts and bruises. Her stepmother sustained mortal injuries and died.

In the wake of the disastrous earthquake, Jenny, Jerry and Valentine, their oldest sibling in Haiti, have been burdened with the responsibility of caring for 18 members of their family, including a 10-month-old baby and an elderly grandmother. Their situation is not unlike that of many of their fellow countrymen and women who have lost family, friends and the little they had to this natural disaster. Having survived the earthquake, the next step is seeking humanitarian aid and medical assistance.

Over 2 million people in Haiti are in need of food, water and/or medical assistance, but thus far assistance has only reached 500,000. While 12,000 nurses from the National Nurses United union have volunteered for service in Haiti, instead 12,000 soldiers have been sent. The U.S. response has been a military occupation and a blatantly racist naval blockade of 25 ships surrounding Haiti to make sure desperate Haitians do not make it to U.S. shores. U.S. military control of the Port-Au-Prince airport has prevented medical aid and volunteers from reaching Haiti, creating a two-way blockade, while filling the country with U.S. troops.

Medical assistance must be gotten to all who need it or they should be allowed to obtain it in the U.S. To date Ulysse’s injured and swollen foot has received no medical attention or been X-rayed. She has been to the U.S. Embassy three times in an effort to return home to her family in Boston and to get the medical care she needs.

Although her documentation was lost in the rubble of the earthquake, Ulysse knows her green card number and her social security number. United Minority Neighborhoods and the office of Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley prevailed on John Kerry’s office to fax her documents to the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince. Yet she was sent away because she was not a U.S. citizen, even though she is a legal resident with the right to be in the U.S.

Boston activists and the International Action Center have launched a campaign demanding that Ulysse and all legal U.S. residents in Haiti be allowed back to the U.S. immediately. There is an online petition at www.iacenter.org/haiti/jennyreturn. There are plans for a Boston City Council resolution seeking Ulysse’s return, as well as a planned campaign in support of Ulysse in the Boston public schools.

Labor unions, including United Steelworkers Local 8751, Boston School Bus Drivers, and community groups, including the Bail Out the People Movement, are getting behind the campaign.

Reached in Haiti by Workers World, Ulysse said, “I wish to express my thanks to all of those who are supporting me and my right to return home. I could easily have been killed by the heavy beams that fell on me. Everyone must unite to get the aid to the people who need it and to see that everyone is able to return home to the United States regardless of citizenship status.”

Jonathan Regis is a Haitian-American leader in Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST) in Boston.