Thread: Windsor (Canada) braces for refugee tide

ASYLUM SEEKERS: 'IF YOU GET JUST 5 PER CENT ... THAT WOULD BE 400,000 PEOPLE'

Windsor braces for refugee tide
Scores of illegals are fleeing north from the United States; Mexico's ambassador warns thousands more could follow

PAUL WALDIE and ALAN FREEMAN AND TARA PERKINS
http://www.theglobeandmail.com:80/servl ... l/Ontario/
Jessica Rafuse, Special to the Globe and Mail

September 22, 2007

TORONTO, OTTAWA and WINDSOR -- A sudden flood of Mexican refugee claimants pouring into Windsor has left local officials scrambling and raised fears about how many more may be on their way.

Mexico's ambassador to Canada echoed that concern yesterday, conjuring the spectre of hundreds of thousands heading north to escape rising anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States.

"If you think that in the U.S. there are perhaps eight million illegals, if you get just 5 per cent of the people who don't feel secure in the U.S. who want to come to Canada as refugees, that would be 400,000 people," Emilio Goicoechea told The Globe and Mail.

The ambassador said he fears that if the influx turns into a flood, Ottawa will slap visa restrictions on all Mexican citizens visiting Canada.

"We're really concerned about it. We have a visa-free status we'd like to keep."

In the last three weeks, 220 people, most of them Mexican, have shown up at Windsor's border crossings and applied for refugee status. Many had driven with their families from Florida, where they had been living illegally for years. Nearly all the claimants arrived with Canadian refugee application forms already completed, many containing the same wording. Several said they paid up to $400 (U.S.) to have the form completed by a Florida-based immigration agency.

"There's no way that we can cope with this," Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis said yesterday after 20 more applicants arrived.

"I just don't have the infrastructure or the resources."

The mayor wrote to Ottawa earlier this week pleading for financial help.

"When there is a possibility of adding thousands to the local social assistance system as a result of refugee claimants crossing the border into Windsor, we will become overwhelmed and our current resources will not suffice," Mr. Francis wrote to Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Wednesday.

Mr. Francis said yesterday he is afraid that word has spread across the United States, where anti-immigrant sentiment is running high, that illegal immigrants should head to Canada, where they can get free health care and social assistance.

"The message we are trying to get out is that the promises that are being made are false promises."

In Ottawa, a spokesman for Immigration Minister Diane Finley said the government is monitoring the situation closely. "We're taking the issue seriously," he said.

A spokeswoman for the department noted that Canadian officials had met with refugee organizations in the United States that had been spreading the idea that there was automatic entry to Canada.

"There is no special program for these people," Karen Shadd-Evelyn said. "Nobody is automatically accepted for refugee status or permanent residence."

Last year, 3,419 Mexicans claimed refugee status in Canada, but their success rate was low: Only 13 per cent of claimants who had hearings in the first six months of this year were accepted as legitimate refugees, according to Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board.

The recent arrivals in Windsor have been put up at the YMCA, Salvation Army facilities and hotels across the city.

One young man, who said he was 18, came from Florida by bus a few weeks ago. He spent two years there, illegally working in construction, before heading to Canada with two of his brothers, one of whom came on the bus with him and one of whom followed later. He said he arrived at the border with his refugee forms filled out.

Major Wilfred Harbin of the Salvation Army said five more individuals and six families arrived at the centre last night. Single men are able to stay, while women and families are sent on to hotels.

"This has been unreal," he said. Many of the migrants have already left for other parts of Ontario, although he's not sure where. "They seem to have gone their own way," he said, estimating that at least 30 have done so.

John Rokakis, a local immigration lawyer, has been trying to help some of the claimants, but he said many have the wrong impression about the refugee process. "A lot of them think by saying 'I'm working' or 'I'm going to work' they'll be fine," he said. "But that's not what the refugee board has to decide."

No one is sure what prompted the sudden influx. Many officials in Windsor are blaming a Naples-based organization called Jerusalem Haitian Community Center, or JHCC, for encouraging the exodus.

Jacques Sinjuste, who founded the centre in 2000, said his outfit is not at fault. "We do not tell the Mexicans to apply to go to Canada," Mr. Sinjuste said. "They have to look where the problem is. Don't look on my organization."

Mr. Sinjuste, a Haitian immigrant, said he recently fired a senior employee who promoted Canada's refugee system on the centre's website and through interviews with local Spanish-language TV stations. He said JHCC helps people fill out all kinds of forms and he acknowledged charging a fee for completing the Canadian refugee application. But he said part of the fee went to the Detroit office of Freedom House, a non-profit group that works with refugees.

Mr. Sinjuste said an organization from Windsor had been in Florida recently encouraging immigrants to come to Canada. He declined to name the outfit but said he plans to travel to Windsor this week and "release names."

Pegg Roberts, executive director of Freedom House, said the agency has no ties to JHCC and she sent a letter to the Florida Attorney-General's Office yesterday requesting an investigation into JHCC's activities.

"I am flabbergasted that he would use our name," Ms. Roberts said yesterday. She said she sent JHCC a letter last year asking that it stop promoting connections to Freedom House on its website. Ms. Roberts said Freedom House does help legitimate refugee claimants file applications in Canada, but the group does not charge a fee and it checks out the claims.

At the Windsor YMCA yesterday, Jacquie Rumiel said she has seen groups ranging from single men to extended families. They largely came from around Naples and are predominantly Mexican or Haitian, she said. The claimants heard about the YMCA through word of mouth.

Carline, a Haitian who had been living in Fort Myers, arrived in Windsor this week with her two children. She fled Florida after her husband was arrested in June and spent two months in prison before being deported to Haiti, where he remains. She's hoping he will join her in Canada at some point.

"We pray to God that Canada gives us a good life," she said, after describing an existence in Florida that was filled with dread and fear.

APPLYING FOR REFUGEE STATUS

Individuals seeking refugee status must apply from within Canada at Citizenship and Immigration offices or from their point of entry into the country.

To be granted refugee status in Canada, applicants need to prove they have a well-founded fear of persecution or death if they return to their country.

Applicants who fear persecution on the basis of race, religion, political opinion, nationality or a social group, such as one's sexual orientation, are considered to be "convention refugees," in reference to the Geneva Convention that requires the protection of people who have legitimate claims for asylum.

Those whose lives are at risk and those who will be tortured or subjected to unusual treatment or punishment if they return to their country apply for refugee status as a person in need of protection.

If the initial criteria are met, claims are sent to the Refugee Protection Division in the Immigration and Refugee Board where they are assessed on a case by case basis.

On average, this process takes about 13 months, says Melissa Anderson, spokesperson for the IRB, but it can take six months to years, depending on the complexity of the case.

If the Immigration Appeal Division dismisses the appeal, an individual can ask the Federal Court of Justice for a judicial review of the decision, and remain in the country during this time.

Jessica Rafuse - Special to The Globe and Mail

Fear, hope prompted migration
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/natio ... ea9ced9e7c
Don Lajoie
Windsor Star
Saturday, September 22, 2007

Fear, rumour and hope make up the volatile mix fuelling the northward migration of possibly thousands of illegal Mexican immigrants and refugee claimants to Canada from South Florida.

Carina Gonzalez, 26, who arrived with her family at the Windsor-Detroit border the morning of Sept. 4, in one of the first waves of hundreds of Mexicans seeking refuge in Canada after living illegally in the U.S. for years, said anxiety hung in the air in Naples, Fla., in the days leading to her decision to leave.

"In my situation it started two months ago," she said, standing outside Windsor's downtown YMCA where she had gone for information on how to file a refugee claim. "It was the first time I'd heard strong rumours there was going to be an immigration sweep to deport Mexicans. It was like a ghost town. People were afraid to go outside, the streets were empty. Everyone was afraid, staying out of sight."

She estimated about half the migrant Mexican population in her neighbourhood were illegals, dreading immigration authorities and the threat of immediate deportation. After living in constant anxiety since she first crossed the U.S. border in Arizona as a 16-year-old 10 years ago, she said the latest panic was all she could take.

Speaking in a Spanish accent blunted by years living in the southern U.S., she said there was a second rumour floating in Naples. An acquaintance passed along information that Canada was welcoming refugee claimants and people were headed north.

Despite the rumour's tenuous reliability, she said staying was increasingly risky. At the very least, she believed her husband and two daughters, four and two years old, would have to flee Florida and look for a new hiding place in the U.S.

She feared for the status of her American-born children. Would they be deported too or kept behind as U.S. citizens? She believed they would have no citizenship rights until they turned 18 or 21.

The hope the Canada rumour offered, that her young family would be able to finally live free in the open, proved too potent to dismiss. They used family savings to buy a used car, load it with whatever possessions they could carry, fill it with gas and headed north on I-75.

They drove straight through, 20 to 24 hours, stopping as infrequently as possible, taking care not to attract police attention. Her nerves, she said, were similar to those she felt when she paid $2,500 to smugglers in 1997 to be brought from Pueblo, Mexico to the U.S. frontier, only to run across the border.

"We went to Arizona, then Georgia for two years, then Florida. It was hard in Florida, very hard. We tried to find a place to live but you had to have work. If you had no job, no apartment. It took me about a month to find a job. But at that time we were never really secure. As illegal immigrant you're never really secure."

She said her husband worked itinerant jobs as a construction worker, paid under the table, for $8 an hour. She worked several jobs, finally landing a more secure position in "customer relations for the Sweet Bay Store."

But that was all behind them as they drove north and started to believe they just might make it.

They crossed the northern border at the Ambassador Bridge without incident and arrived at Canadian customs and immigration at about 11 a.m. They spent 11 hours waiting, answering questions, receiving information on where to go and who to see. Then they were released.

"When we made it to Canada I took a deep breath," she said. "I felt free... Canada feels totally different I don't feel like I'm being chased...Everywhere I go people want to help."

With the aid of the YMCA, Gonzalez found accommodation and is now seeking work. In the meantime there is a refugee claim to file, a process she knows could take months. Gonzalez is asked if she believes she really has a chance. As a so-called economic refugee, she does not fit the definition of a UN convention refugee, fleeing her country due to war, political, ethnic or religious persecution.

She replies her father and uncle were kidnapped and held for ransom by Mexican criminals, that a cousin was attacked and killed "in front of his kids" by a gang. She insists her family would not be safe if returned to Mexico.

When asked if she realizes she may have to go back to Mexico if her application is denied and if she understood that risk when she left Florida, she replies it was a chance worth taking.

"I will try to get a work permit. Get my kids in school. My husband will work. We want to be good for the community. I will take whatever i can get. Any job I can do I will do, but legally."

READERS REACT

Here is what some readers wrote to windsorstar.com when we asked you to Soundoff:

I don't think we should allow all of these refugees in our country when they were kicked out of another country because they were illegal. We have enough jobless Canadians struggling every day with all the plant and company closures today. Canadians are having enough of a hard time without adding the extra burden of people who have not taken the legal measures to come into a country and then sneaking into another country illegally. -- Angie, LaSalle

I live in downtown Windsor and see all the immigrants around the Salvation Army. It is a bad situation getting worse. So they come to Canada because the U.S. is finally backing up some of their laws. Now run to Canada and ask the taxpayers to pick up the tab? I don't think so. This is crazy. Stop the craziness before it gets worse.

-- Dave, Windsor

If we don't help those less fortunate than ourselves, what does that say about us as 1. human beings and 2 as Canadians?

-- Terry, Windsor

It is amazing how narrow-minded most people are submitting comments. This is a concern for the country, not just Windsor,...look beyond your situation. If you are willing to go work in the agriculture industry then say no and go work in the greenhouses. If you are not ... shut up! We need workers in this country period.

Develop a program to move them where they are needed and they will contribute to Canada instead of coming here and working for six months and sending all their earnings home to family.

I just don't see typical Canadians working in the fields...or greenhouses...that says a whole lot!

-- Dave, Windsor

These Mexicans are not being persecuted in their own country, so they should be returned there, or turned back at the border. We pay high enough taxes in this country without supporting every alien that chooses to come here.

-- Steve, Windsor

Windsor asks for help as Mexican refugees pour in

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story ... c7&k=85064
Dave Battagello, CanWest News Service
Published: Saturday, September 22, 2007 Article tools

WINDSOR, Ont. - Illegal immigrants from the Sunshine State claiming refugee status keep pouring over the Windsor border while federal immigration authorities were in Naples, Fla., attempting to stop the flow.

Another 20 Mexican claimants have been counted bringing the official number Friday to 220, although several more - including Haitians - were still continuing to arrive throughout the day, said Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis.

"It¹s an issue where we are trying to do the best we can. We just don¹t have the capacity to deal with it," said Francis.

After firing off a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Wednesday pleading for help, the mayor finally received a response from the chief of staff for Immigration Minister Diane Finley.

Francis made three requests - expedited hearings on the refugee claims to be staged immediately in Windsor, financial assistance to help with skyrocketing lodging costs and a search of other Ontario cities for available capacity to relocate many of the incoming refugees.

The normal refugee claimant hearing process can take up to a year to complete.

In Naples, Canadian and U.S. immigration officials met on Friday with leaders of the Jerusalem Haitian Community Center - the organization which first fueled refugee claimants with the notion Canada would grant them asylum, said a spokesman for Finley.

"Efforts are being made to indicate in the U.S. that there is no special program for Haitians, Mexicans and persons of any other nationality to immigrate to Canada," said Mike Fraser. "Nobody is automatically accepted for refugee status."

A notice on the Citizenship and Immigration Canada website echoed Fraser's sentiments. "People should be wary of all organizations or individuals who make such claims," the release said. A Spanish translation was posted as well.

He would not commit on Francis's request for expedited hearings or added federal financial assistance for the city.

"The province is responsible for social assistance," Fraser said. "An increase of the number of people, including refugee claimants, are factored into social transfers from federal government to provinces." Down south, Rev. Louis Telcy described how the last few weeks have been "sad and frustrating" as he has watched his Haitian parishioners and long-time Mexican friends fleeing in panic or being nabbed and sent home "in chains" by U.S. Immigration officials who have launched a crackdown to remove illegal aliens from southwest Florida.

With the Sunshine State's housing construction in a full swoon, Mexican and Haitian immigrants from Florida showing up on Windsor's doorstep may simply be connected to jobs, suggested a vice-president of the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce.

"We are undergoing a significant economic downturn," said Steve Hart.

"Residential construction has slowed significantly and a lot of people are suffering. A lot of people are finding it very difficult going these days in Florida."

Windsor Star