Thread: Immigrant Aid Group Must Close, Repay

Published: Saturday, November 10, 2007
Immigrant Aid Group Must Close, Repay
Florida attorney general says it was using questionable practices.
By MONICA DAVEY
NYT REGIONAL MEDIA GROUP

A Florida organization that assisted hundreds of illegal immigrants in fleeing to Canada must close and return thousands of dollars it collected from the immigrants, who thought they would be given legal status in that country, Florida's attorney general said Friday.

Complaining of stepped-up sweeps by U.S. immigration officials, about 450 people made their way from Florida to Canada in recent months with guidance from the organization, the Jerusalem Haitian Community Center, of Naples. Mostly Mexicans and Haitians, they presented themselves as refugees seeking asylum. Many are still waiting for hearings.

"While the State Attorney General's Office cannot enforce federal immigration law in this case, my office can investigate potentially misleading or deceptive practices, and I believe this organization was engaging in questionable practices," said Bill McCollum, the state attorney general. Many of the immigrants paid "donations" to the center of as much as $400, his office found.

The authorities in Windsor, on the Canadian side of the border at Detroit, complained that they could not afford the costs of social services if the arrivals continued. Most of all, advocates for refugees in Canada warned that the odds of such immigrants being granted asylum were poor.

To win refugee status in Canada, immigrants must show a reasonable fear of persecution connected to their race, religion, nationality or political background.

Immigration lawyers say Haitians are far more likely to be allowed to stay in Canada as refugees than Mexicans are. Even Haitians rejected for refugee status will not be returned to Haiti for now. The government has put a temporary freeze on deportations there, given Haiti's turmoil.

No such moratorium exists for Mexico.

Under an agreement with McCollum's office, Jacques Sinjuste, the center's founder, must dissolve the center within four months and return some $170,000 he had collected for the trips.

In a telephone interview, Sinjuste, a Haitian immigrant who founded the center in 2000, said he has stopped offering all immigration-related help and is preparing to close the center. But he said he will move forward with plans for day care and after-school programs.

"The immigration thing does not represent all of what I do," said Sinjuste, 58. "I have no regret, nothing at all. My big thing for my community is to look after the minorities, and I'm still doing the same thing."

While $32,000 has already been refunded, officials are uncertain how they will find hundreds of other people owed money.
http://www.theledger.com/article/200711 ... 00426/1374

NAPLES
Center must close, return $170,000 paid by migrants
The Florida attorney general ordered a Naples group to shut down after concluding it misled Haitian and Mexican migrants about gaining asylum in Canada.

Posted on Sat, Nov. 10, 2007Digg del.icio.us AIM reprint print email
BY ALFONSO CHARDY
achardy@MiamiHerald.com

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum said Friday that a Naples group will ''dissolve'' within four months and it has two years to return up to $170,000 in ''donations'' paid by hundreds of Haitian and Mexican migrants seeking help to legally cross into Canada.

Jacques Sinjuste, director of the Naples-based Jerusalem Haitian Community Center, confirmed that a settlement was reached with McCollum's office during negotiations over the past two months.

But Sinjuste told The Miami Herald in a telephone interview that the accord has not been ''finalized'' and that he only plans to shut down the center's immigration program.

Sinjuste said the center will continue running a literacy program and press ahead with plans to operate a 24-hour daycare center and an after-school program for troubled youths.

UNUSUAL ACTIVITY

The agreement announced by McCollum's office capped one of the most bizarre episodes involving undocumented immigrants in South Florida.

It came to light earlier this year when Cheryl Little, executive director of Miami-based Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, got a call from a Vermont immigrant rights activist who noticed unusual numbers of Haitian and Mexican migrants carrying Canadian asylum forms filled out by the Naples group.

Little alerted McCollum's office.

''That's very good news and we're grateful the attorney general so quickly investigated the matter,'' Little said.

``Unfortunately there are numerous other organizations taking advantage of desperate immigrants, and we will be requesting additional investigations.''

Sinjuste has said his group did nothing illegal. He said it obtained the Canadian form by downloading it from the website of Freedom House Detroit, across the border from Windsor, Ontario. He said his group also downloaded a briefing paper explaining which immigrants are eligible for possible refugee status in Canada. Freedom House Detroit, a respected human rights group, subsequently issued a press release denying any connection to the Naples center.

NEWFOUND HOPE

Undocumented Haitians and Mexicans flocked to the Naples program because Canada's immigration policies seemed to offer them hope.

Under an agreement signed with the United States in 2004, Canada allows nationals from certain countries who meet specific requirements to apply for refugee status. Nationals from Haiti and Mexico arriving to Canada from the United States by land may apply but immigrants from countries in Central and South America may not.

$400 PAYMENTS

McCollum's office said investigators believe that about 450 people paid the Naples group up to $400 per person over the last two or three years, ``with as much as $170,000 potentially collected.''

Though Sinjuste said his group only asked for donations to cover the cost of filling out the form, McCollum said center ''representatives'' allegedly claimed ``they could assist immigrants with gaining entry into Canada and establishing legal residence.''

Investigators from the economic crimes division ''determined that these assertions were flawed and potentially deceptive,'' McCollum said.

The center already has refunded about $32,000 ''to affected individuals,'' the statement said.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida ... 02606.html

"The authorities in Windsor, on the Canadian side of the border at Detroit, complained that they could not afford the costs of social services if the arrivals continued. Most of all, advocates for refugees in Canada warned that the odds of such immigrants being granted asylum were poor."

It sounds like the "liberal" Canadians have a lot more sense than many Americans.

these people are screaming for help and they have only a few hundred to a thousand...

Try it with upto 38 million Maple Leafs.... the Tidal wave is coming your way, I suggest you boot your politicians in the back side

Or the Illegals are going to be singing I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK in Spanish

Monty Python- I'm a lumberjack THE BEST VERSION

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clPYfaTvHT0

A Florida organization that assisted hundreds of illegal immigrants in fleeing to Canada must close and return thousands of dollars it collected from the immigrants

Here's a better idea: Give that money to the Canadians who are now going to have to foot the bill to deport hundreds (if not thousands) of "asylum seekers" back to Mexico.

Jacques Sinjuste should be appointed to head ICE.

No government can help the destinies of people who insist in putting sectional and class consciousness ahead of general weal.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

450 people and they can not handle the social service cost!! I wonder if any of them have any compassion for what Americans have been dealing with.

Well if your government wants you to become part of the North American Union, this is only the beginning, so you better wake up and start fighting now before it is to late!!