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Would you believe that...Senator Bennett's Agriculture Provision for FY 2006 provides a blanket exemption for harboring illegal aliens by religious organizations…

TANCREDO BLASTS SHIELD FOR RELIGIOUS GROUPS … … A new law that insulates religious groups from prosecution if they use illegal immigrants as volunteers drew outrage Monday from U.S. Rep. Tom TANCREDO, who said it will protect terrorists and that he'll work to repeal it. "This provision opens a hole in our immigration system so big, a terrorist could drive a truck bomb through it. Terrorists in the United States have used religious organizations as fronts before. This provides legal cover for any church, synagogue, mosque or group that calls itself a religion to aid and abet ILLEGALS who may pose a national security threat." Written by Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, the provision shields religious groups from a federal law against knowingly transporting, concealing, harboring or shielding an ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT. Bennett added the language to a funding bill for the Agriculture Department. It was signed into law Thursday by President Bush. Bennett wrote the provision at the behest of attorneys for the Mormon Church, which, according to Bennett, uses the largest number of volunteers of any U.S. religious group. TANCREDO's spokesman, Will Adams, said that while Bennett might intend for the law to apply only to soup- kitchen volunteers or missionaries, it will give shelter to those working with terrorists. While previously the Department of Justice could charge a religious group with immigration violations while it investigated alleged terrorist activities, it no longer can under the new law, said Adams, who previously worked as a Justice Department spokesman. He said a large number of terrorism cases are first brought as IMMIGRATION violations and that religious groups have been charged with sheltering terrorists in the past.

http://tancredo.house.gov/irc/WYB.2005.11.16.html