On February 26, 2010, the Columbia Human Rights Clinic, in collaboration with the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti (IJDH), Ira Kurzban, and community advocates in Miami, submitted a memo to Roxana Bacon, Chief Counsel of US Customs and Immigration
Service arguing for a generous humanitarian parole policy toward Haitians in the wake of the earthquake.
The memo argues that: "In light of the biblical magnitude of this tragedy, we urge the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services to exercise its lawful discretion to generously grant humanitarian parole for Haitian victims of the earthquake under 8 U.S.C. 1182(d)(5). Such action is within the legal discretion of the Attorney General of the United States. It is consistent with U.S. obligations under international human rights law. The U.S. has exercised such authority in the past to assist victims of other tragedies; and doing so now would be consistent with traditional American ideals of generosity."
