Alternative Chance does not charge any fees for re-integration orientation and counseling in Haiti. Based in Haiti, Alternative Chance is a self-help peer counseling program founded in 1996 by Michelle Karshan together with criminal deportees. The program advocates on their behalf prior to deportation, while incarcerated upon their arrival in Haiti, and during their integration into Haitian societ
y. Alternative Chance also challenges the injustices of US immigration policies. We work on legal issues such as fighting deportation, conditions of deportation and post-deportation remedies. Alternative Chance provides services to the newly deported while they are detained in Haiti's police station holding cells, and once they are released. We offer limited re-entry services including peer counseling and referrals to available services; social media basics to all new arrivals so they can stay connected with their families, friends and attorneys back home; resources, resume writing assistance, job counseling, information and advocacy re medical and psychological care, mediation with family of person deported, able to provide some resources for job development and training; assists in obtaining urgent medical care and other services difficult to access. As Co-Petitioner to the Urgent Precautionary Measures Petition to the IACHR/OAS we perform legal interviews on behalf of co-petitioner human rights clinics and organizations to strengthen the mobilization against criminal deportation to Haiti during the current humanitarian crisis in Haiti. Starting in summer 2011, as part of our work advocating for post-deportation remedies, we will be conducting screenings of criminal deportees in Haiti, at the request of the Boston Law College Post-Deportation Project, so their attorneys can identify cases that may be able to be reopened with the goal of the deported person returning to the U.S. Background. Every year hundreds of Haitians are deported to Haiti due to criminal convictions in the U.S. or Canada, and after having finished serving their sentences. In 1996 the U.S. passed an anti-terrorist act which dramatically increased these deportations. Many of these young men and women grew up in the U.S. as legal residents but because they never became U.S. citizens they became deportable once they had a conviction. Their convictions range from misdemeanors to felonies, are first-time offenders or repeat offenders, the majority relating to street-level drug sales. Many of these young adults don't know Haiti's history and culture. Most don't know French and some barely speak Creole. Most of those born in the Bahamas have never been to Haiti before. They are discriminated against in Haiti and face enormous obstacles integrating into its society.