By Christopher Alessi
More than 55 members of the 300 parishioners who worship at the First Haitian Church of the Brethren in East Flatbush lost family members as a result of the earthquake that decimated Haiti four weeks ago. Since the disaster, the Rev. Verel Montauban, who has been the pastor of the Flatbush Avenue church for more than 20 years, has provided constant counseling — sometimes late into the night — to his grieving congregants. Many of them are looking for ways to bring family members from Haiti to the United States, or at the least send home remittances to those that will not be able to obtain visas.
In addition to the sizable Haitian community in East Flatbush, the Haitian-American pastor has continued to minister to parishioners in Port-au-Prince, where he returns at least twice a year. His church there, Croix-des-Mission, was reportedly obliterated during the earthquake. “I was supposed to be over there at this time,” he said.
So not surprisingly, within days of the Jan. 12 disaster, Montauban established the Haiti Earthquake Family Support Center in a small room off the side of his church. It is a small operation. There are a few folding tables and chairs, two leather couches (next to a table with candies and bottled waters), and a large television permanently set to CNN. Since the disaster, the organization — with the support of New York Disaster Interfaith Services and the Red Cross — has been providing legal counseling and emotional support to Haitians in the Flatbush area and beyond.
“People are coming from all five boroughs, many to find out ways to bring their loved ones in Haiti to the U.S.,” Marilyn Montauban-Pierre, the pastor’s daughter and the support center’s unofficial administrative director, said Thursday morning.
At least once a week, Montauban-Pierre said, the center brings in lawyers who volunteer their time to help Haitian-American citizens fill out I-130 forms. These applications allow American citizens to petition for their “alien relatives,” who in this case are still living in Haiti, to be able to legally come to the United States. The lawyers also work with illegal Haitian immigrants, of which there are thought to be more than 100,000 living in the country, to file for Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
Immediately following the earthquake, the Department of Homeland Security granted the special status to undocumented Haitian immigrants who were already living in the United States. If their applications are approved, these illegal immigrants can work legally in the country and send remittances back to their families in Haiti. TPS — granted to illegal residents whose native countries are facing the consequences of natural disaster or armed conflict — last 18 months, but can be renewed, as they have been in the past for immigrants from Sudan, Somalia and El Salvador.
Montauban-Pierre, a college student, has spent hours behind the center’s makeshift front desk, from which she fields dozens of calls a day on both her BlackBerry and the landline. She schedules strict appointments — advising clients that they must be on time for their meetings, to ensure that the clinic runs on schedule. Since opening on Jan. 18, the organization has helped at least 300 people file applications, 60 of which were for TPS. Many illegal immigrants, though, have not come forward to register for TPS because, Ms. Montauban-Pierre says, they are afraid of providing their names. “They think this might be some kind of scam, but we are trying to assure people that it is OK,” she said.
Twenty people were scheduled to fill out forms for TPS on Thursday alone — one of the highest number of TPS appointments so far — though few had trickled through the front door by midafternoon. “We have 50 to 55 people in total on a daily basis, but because of the weather there are less today,” the pastor said, gesturing to the foot of snow piled up outside the glass window. He also had three less volunteers today because of the inclement weather. Montauban fears he will increasingly lose his committed volunteers as more time passes. “And, there is no financial help,” he said, lamenting the reality that the organization has no resources to maintain a paid staff.
Moreover, Montauban, who has four sisters and another congregation in Haiti, has been trying desperately, with no luck, to get a flight out of the United States. “I might have to go through the Dominican Republic,” he said, adding, “maybe before the end of this month.”
The pastor took a deep breath and then paused for a moment. “My presence is important there,” he said.
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