Thread: Pastor's visa expiring; he's leaving U.S.

Pastor's visa expiring; he's leaving U.S.
As government cracks down on fraud, Richmond minister doesn't have papers to stay

Tuesday, May 27, 2008 - 12:09 AM

By JUAN ANTONIO LIZAMA
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
After living in the Richmond area for five years on a religious visa, Baptist minister Louis Orsatti and several family members are packing to go back to Mexico.

He hopes the move will be temporary. His visa expires Monday, and he said an application that he submitted a year ago for a green card has yet to be resolved. Because the outcome is uncertain, he bid farewell to his congregation Sunday in an emotional service at the Iglesia Bautista Monte Calvario in South Richmond.

"It is not goodbye, because we believe you will be back," a tearful MarÃ*a Fernanda Pe?a, a church member, told Orsatti and his family. "But only God knows what really is going to happen."

Orsatti's case is an example of the effect on churches and clergy of increased government scrutiny of religious workers from outside the country after the discovery of a visa fraud scheme.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency arrested 33 people in eight states and the District of Columbia in 2006 in a scheme in which petitioners were paid to file false claims on behalf of a large number of illegal immigrants, primarily from Pakistan, according to the agency. Harrisonburg was among the places where the arrests were made; the others were in larger cities outside Virginia.

The Religious Worker Program allows immigrants with religious training to obtain work visas and then green cards if an organization such as a church in the U.S. sponsors them. But the federal agency said some of the people arrested were not working in churches or in scholarly activities but as gas-station attendants, truck drivers and in factories.

"The fraud itself resulted in stepped-up reviews and site visits to eliminate fraud in the process," said U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokeswoman Chris Rhatigan.

After the fraud was discovered, the agency also suspended the 15-day fast-track processing service for religious workers' visas. The suspension was extended until this July.

"I don't think that innocents [should] have to pay for the sinners," said Julio Avila, pastor of Iglesia Bautista El Refugio in western Henrico County.

Avila and his family came from Uruguay on a religious visa. Four years ago, he applied for a green card, he said. He is still waiting. He received a work permit that he has to renew every year, and his driver's license has the same expiration date as the permit. He said police issued him a ticket for driving without a license last month because the government renewed his permit late.

"You are seen as the aggressor when you are the victim of the government's administrative mess," he said.

But Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Washington-based Federation for American Immigration Reform, which supports limits on immigration and crackdowns on those who are in the country illegally, said the religious visas have been misused in many ways.

"It's poorly policed," he said of the program. "Unfortunately, what started out to be a very, very small number of situations has been turned into something that was not intended to be."

Mehlman said he does not support people using temporary visas to obtain permanent residency in the country.

"They're very often seen as the foot in the door to a permanent visa," he said. "Temporary ought to be temporary."

Rais Ahmed, president of the Islamic Center of Virginia, said mosques in Richmond and across the country are being affected by delays in handling religious workers' applications.

"It limits our inventory of qualified imams," he said. "I know a lot of mosques that are having problems because there aren't that many qualified imams."

But Ahmed said he understands the government's concerns in thoroughly scrutinizing applicants.

"Checking backgrounds is good for everybody to make sure that the right people are coming in," he said.

Margaret Perron, director of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network's Division of Religious Immigration Services, said applications such as Orsatti's that used to be resolved in six to eight months are taking years.

The Washington-based network, which provides legal services for church workers, is handling a little more than 1,000 religious-visa cases across the country, she said.

Perron said several religious-visa holders who were trying to gain permanent residency have had to go back to their home countries and wait, to avoid running afoul of the law.

Evelyn Horner, chairwoman of the Latin American Mission Project for Virginia Baptists, which employs Orsatti, said it was hard to tell him he has to go.

"He's living God's law, and he has to live man's law," she said. "And until we resolve his immigration situation, he has to be [a good] example."

Orsatti told his congregation that he has faith that he will see them again soon.

"We are going on vacation," he said. "That's how we're taking it. We will keep on walking to where God wants us to go."

Contact Juan Antonio Lizama at (804) 649-6513 or jlizama@ timesdispatch.com.

http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.apx. ... -0119.html

Is the United States in need of foreign missionaries?

"I don't think that innocents [should] have to pay for the sinners," said Julio Avila, pastor of Iglesia Bautista El Refugio in western Henrico County



Oh? In much the same way as innocent Americans and legal immigrants, as well as those patiently waiting to immigrate here legally, have been forced to pay the price of the illegal alien "sinners" who have chosen to invade our country and bleed us dry?

It seems that hypiocrisy goes hand in hand with religion more and more each day, si Pastor?


You are seen as the aggressor when you are the victim of the government's administrative mess," he said.

Yes, by all means, please continue to blame the government of the United States.

That would be the same government gracious enough to put a system in place allowing people to come here on religious visa only to have it thrown back in our face, used and abused to commit fraud left and right.

Seems there is no one to blame but the criminals themselves, if you ask me, but go ahead Pastor....defend them and turn the government into the criminal. I'm absolutely sure that's exactly What Jesus Would Do




Margaret Perron, director of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network's Division of Religious Immigration Services, said applications such as Orsatti's that used to be resolved in six to eight months are taking years



Wow, just when it looks like our government is doing nothing, they surprise us once again

I guess they have been working on how to deal with our being invaded by all of the "churches" working for Mexico and Islam.