Michelle Karshan and staff and participants of Alternative Chance/Chans Altenativ in Haiti
 
ALTERNATIVE CHANCE/CHANS ALTENATIV
A self-help, advocacy program for criminal deportees in Haiti
 
 
CONTACT US
Phone, Whats App, Email
 
 
Mission and Partners
Mission & Partners
 
 
Attorneys & Clients
Helpful info
 
 
Media Coverage
Articles, television, etc.
 
 
Brochure in plain format
Brochure
 
 
Annual Awards & Benefit Dinner
November 22, 2008 benefit
 
 
How You Can Help.
Your help is vital to our work.
 
 
June 2006 Note on Our Work
Background
 
 
Photos & Photo Credits
Photos of Alternative Chance and life in Haiti for criminal deportees
 
 
LINKS
Links for resources, analysis and legal resources
 
 
Job Readiness
Links to resources
 
 
Women Criminal Deportees in Haiti
International Women's Day and Women Criminal Deportees in Haiti
 
 
New life is no life for U.S. ex-cons in Haiti
Chicago Tribune article about criminal deportees in Haiti
 
 
Continue to Suspend Deportation to Haiti by Michelle Karshan
Sun Sentinel article by Michelle Karshan
 
 
Alternative Chance documents conditions and human rights concerns on behalf of criminal deportees in 2009 in letter to UNHCR
Alternative Chance list of concerns re conditions of criminal deportees in Haiti. Addressed to UNHCR in 2009
 
 
Being Deported to Post Earthquake Haiti by Michelle Karshan, Alternative Chance
Alternative Chance warns of life threatening conditions and death by cholera if people are deported to Haiti
 
 

Media Coverage


Imprisoned upon arrival to Haiti

Photo by Jennifer Cheek-Pantaleon (copyright)

Please also check articles on the ATTORNEYS/CLIENTS' page

Aftershocks: The Human Impact of U.S. Deportations to Post-Earthquake Haiti by University of Miami School of Law Immigration Clinic, University of Miami School of Law Human Rights Clinic, University/ of Chicago Law School International Human Rights Clinic. Key Collaborators: Alternative Chance/Michelle Karshan, Americans for Immigrant Justice, Haitian Women of Miami (FANM), The Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti (IJDH)

Convicted ‘Liberty City’ terrorist deported, jailed in Haiti by Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald, September 30, 2014

Va. judges revisit noncitizens' convictions, sentences to prevent deportation (WashPost, Dec. 29, 2010)

ICE Should Not Resume Deportations to Haiti (Huffington Post, Dec. 28, 2010) Note: The U.S. announced it would resume deportations of Haitians with serious criminal convictions

Gov. Paterson Grants 24 Pardons To Immigrants (NY Daily News, Dec. 24, 2010) Link to list of pardons at bottom of article.

Being Deported to Post-Earthquake Haiti? Alternative Chance statement on Prison Watch International

More on Haiti's Raging Cholera, Electoral Fraud and Deportations

Center for Constitutional Rights, Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, and Alternative Chance press release denouncing U.S. resuming deportations to Haiti (December 2010)

No Mercy: Haitian Criminal Deportees by Amy Bracken, NACLA

New life is no life for U.S. ex-cons in Haiti , by Gary Marx, Chicago Tribune

Influx of deportees stirs anger in Haiti by Amy Bracken, Boston Globe

We Must Also Stand for the Rights of Women Criminal Deportees Sent to Haiti from the United States by Michelle Karshan, Alternative Chance

For Haitian deportees, American-style 'grills' mark them as targets for violence, hate, by Ruth Morris, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, December 29, 2006

HAITI: Mysterious Prison Ailment Traced to U.S. Rice

Boston Globe 2000 article re Alternative Chance and Criminal Deportees expose police racket extorting money from Criminal Deportees in exchange for their release from prison/jails in Haiti! (LINK NO LONGER GOOD. WILL UPLOAD COPY OF ARTICLE SHORTLY)

Haitians Facing Deportation Seek Special Visa by Daniela Gerson, New York Sun

The "Invisible Crisis" - Soaring Deportations Cause Pain Around the World -- and here at CUNY by David Leong

Haiti's Desperate Deportees by Andy Kershaw (BBC)

The Panos Institute: Briefing on Haiti: CRIMINAL DEPORTEES AND RETURNED TEENS by Privat Precil

Claudette Etienne died four days after being deported to Haiti. Haiti Progres’ investigative journalism tells the story in the September 27, 2000 story entitled Mother of two, deported to Haiti, dies in Haitian jail by Mara Delt.

Criminal Aliens and Immigration: Taking Stock and Looking Ahead Conference Summary from February 10, 1999, Washington, D.C., Co-sponsored by The International Migration Policy Program of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Fundacao Luso-Americana para o Desenvolvimento. Includes recommendations.

The US Deportees in Haiti by Guy S. Antoine

Deportees from the US struggling to cope with life in Haiti (Haiti Support Group Briefing Newsletter)

Prolonged Pretrial Detention in Haiti by Vera Institute for Criminal Justice (IN ENGLISH AND FRENCH)

Deported or Dumped in Haiti? by Claude Adams (Saturday Night Magazine)

Democracy and Human Rights in Haiti 2004 by Andrew Reding ( World Policy Reports) (give it time to load!)

Losing the American dream - Deportees reflect on life in Haiti by Yves Colon (Miami Herald)

Haitian-Born Fredeline Dauphin Released From INS Custody after more than 2 Years by Proving that Deportees From The United States face Torture in Haiti's Jails (Press Release from law offices of Mitchell J. Cohen)

IN RE J-E-: DIVIDED BIA DENIES CAT PROTECTION TO CRIMINAL DEPORTEE FEARING TORTURE (Immigrants' Rights Update, Vol. 16, No. 3, May 30, 2002)

U.S. to Caribbean: criminal deportees law “a fact of life.” U.S. rules out changes that would ease pain on immigrant families by Tony Best (New York Carib News)

DOUBLE JEOPARDY - Haitians Are Jailed in Haiti after Serving Sentence in the U.S. by Anna Wardenburg-Ferdinand (The Haitian Times)

Deportados y Desplazados: Un fenómeno migratorio, un problema social by Privat Precil (Panos Institute Briefing)

Man deported by mistake dies of heart attack by Yves Colon (Miami Herald)

Deported "home" to Haiti by Donna DeCesare (NACLA)

Rebellious young Tommy Sylvian couldn't escape his heritage by Yves Colon (Miami Herald)

Deportation Case Focuses on Definition of Torture by Nina Bernstein (New York Times)

Rights Agency Urges U.S. Not to Deport AIDS Patient by Nina Bernstein (New York Times)

Desperate Passage by Michael Finkel (New York Times Magazine)

Forced to Go Home Again by Bryan Lonegan (New York Times)

Banned in the U.S.A. by Celeste Fremon (www.streetgangs.com)

How Often Is The Aggravated Felony Statute Used? TRAC Immigration

Land of the Detained by Dan Frosch (AlterNet)

JUSTICE DETAINED - The effects of deportation on immigrant families - a report by Aypal

The Disappearing Federal Courts by Ira J. Kurzban (www.kkwtlaw.com)

18 With a Bullet - gangs in El Salvador (Wide Angle-PBS) (includes deportees)

Haiti: Giving Hope a Second Chance by Donna DeCesare (APF Reporter Vol.19 #3 Index)

Shadow Dreams and New Youth Visions: Gangs and Violence Prevention in the Americas by Donna DeCesare (Fifty Crows, Social Change Photography)

Black Immigrants are Prime Targets for Deportation by Tamara Kil Ja Kim Nopper (The Black Commentator)

Haitian government announces it will imprison Criminal Deportees upon arirval to Haiti, August 16, 2006

Preliminary Report by Michelle Karshan on Police Executions & Torture of Criminal Deportees in Haiti 2004-2006

Deepa Fernandes discusses her new book Targeted followed by presentations by community organizers: Aarti Shahani of Families for Freedom, Michelle Karshan of Alternative Chance and Fahad & Mother of Martin Siraj of DRUM

Continue to Suspend Deportation to Haiti by Michelle Karshan Sun Sentinel article by Michelle Karshan

Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Our Outcast Youth
by David Belle, Produced by Crowing Rooster Arts, Inc.

Produced by Crowing Rooster Arts, Inc.
1998
12 minutes


Deported for life! Recent immigration laws in the United States have caused tens of thousands of American youth to be deported to their home countries after finishing their sentences in U.S. prisons or probation. For the first time, hear three young men talk about their experiences of growing up Haitian in the United States and being deported to Haiti by the U.S. government, and in one case, by his parents.

Special guest Cheryl Little, Haitian refugee rights attorney, explains the changes in the laws that created this “virtual life sentence of banishment.”

These young men are participants of the Alternative Chance program in Haiti, a self-help, peer counseling program which advocates on behalf of criminal deportees and youth sent to live in Haiti against their will. Alternative Chance provides a wide range of services including an orientation to Haiti, emergency services, advocacy on behalf of criminal deportees detained in prison in Haiti upon their arrival, counseling, wrongful deportation screening, etc.

Renal D., who is featured in this film, spent three nightmarish years in Haiti as one of Haiti’s dreaded criminal deportees before his attorney proved that he was a U.S. citizen. Renal now lives and works in Florida with his family, finally reunited with his young daughter.

This excellent and provocative educational tool is available at $20 each plus $3 shipping/handling.

Please contact us at altchance@aol.com to inquire about how you can order a copy of this video.

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