On October 1 we reported that an American refugee worker had been arrested in Canada for smuggling undocumented Haitians across the border of the US into Canada.    Now, church leaders in Canada are crying foul maintaining that Canada’s new law on refugees and immigrants does not apply to faith-based smugglers acting with humanitarian intent.   So it seems there is good trafficking in humans and bad trafficking and its all about motive.  Whahhh?

Section 117 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act passed in June 2002 states that “No person shall knowingly organize, induce, aid or abet the coming into Canada of one or more persons who are not in possession of a visa, passport or other document required by this Act.”

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“We are deeply concerned that this provision is now being applied to a faith-based refugee worker,” said Wiebe [Mennonite Central Committee Canada]. “While we deplore the smuggling of human beings in all forms, this is not smuggling,” he said, explaining numerous organizations based in the US and Canada have been bringing refugees to the border in cooperation with the border services agency.

This is what is wrong with the whole immigration issue.  There are those who believe that if one’s motives are pure and faith-based, the law should not apply to them.

Church World Service sure is making the news these days, and must have had a busy press office over the weekend.   First, its subcontractor Virginia Council of Churches makes news right here in our county when it is forced to close its doors.   And,  then on Saturday the New York Times reported that the director of another of its subcontractors, Prime-Ecumenical Commitment to Refugees, is arrested in Canada for immigrant trafficking.  According to the Institute for Cultural Partnerships, “PRIME operates through funding from Church World Service.”

An American refugee aid worker accompanying Haitians seeking asylum in Canada was charged by Canadian authorities this week with immigrant trafficking.

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…..she said that her group had made 19 trips to the Canadian border in the last five months, taking immigrants, primarily Haitians, who had despaired of obtaining legal status in the United States and feared deportation.

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Ms. Hinshaw-Thomas said that during her first trip, on Aug. 22, a Canadian immigration officer warned her that she could be prosecuted for trafficking if she was making any profit from the refugee trips. She said she told the officer that she collected fees, about $250 per family, to defray travel expenses. Mr. Paradis, the Border Services Agency spokesman, confirmed the warnings. “If a person has been notified that this method of working is illegal and they continue, we’re going to take action,” he said.

Ms. Hinshaw-Thomas’ agency is in Lancaster, PA.   At the recent Refugee Resettlement Forum in Hagerstown we were informed that for some unexplained reason a Church World Service subcontractor was suspended in Lancaster.   The Russian Turks originally destined for Lancaster were brought to Hagerstown instead setting in motion the events that ended on Friday with the closing of the VCC office here.   Hum……any connection? 

Note:  If PRIME is no longer receiving federal funding through Church World Service and the U.S. State Department please let us know and we will report that information.

Its hard to track the millions going to non-profit  groups to resettle refugees, but Gringo Malo’s Blog  http://gringomalosblog.blogspot.com/  has done some original research in “Refugees, the welfare state and you.”  Many of these groups receiving millions  from the government (tax payers) are church groups, so where is the ACLU when you really need them?   Here is an interesting table from this article, but you might want to read the whole post at Gringo Malo’s Blog , June 20,2007.

The table below summarizes the figures given above in order by the amount of government contributions.

Organization	Private Funding	Gov’t Funding	Total Funding	%Gov’t Funded	Source
International Rescue Committee	108,219,613	88,346,729	196,566,342	44.9%	2004 Form 990
USCCB MRS	4,767,870	39,221,971	43,989,841	89.2%	2005 Annual Report
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service	2,457,136	20,845,300	23,302,436	89.5%	2004 Annual Report
Church World Service	64,859,356	24,172,542	89,031,898	27.2%	2005 Form 990
U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants	1,446,688	16,905,312	18,352,000	92.1%	2005 Form 990
American Refugee Committee	10,127,694	16,413,492	26,541,186	61.8%	2005 Form 990
Shelter for Life International	1,060,736	11,155,077	12,215,813	91.3%	2004 Form 990
New York Association for New Americans	4,225,478	7,416,611	11,642,089	63.7%	2004 Form 990
HIAS Inc.	6,560,917	7,069,318	13,630,235	51.9%	2005 Form 990
Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc.	1,650,045	1,914,320	3,564,365	53.7%	2004 Form 990 & AR
Ecumenical Refugee Services, Inc.	27,501	1,147,967	1,175,468	97.7%	2004 Form 990
Refugee Women’s Network, Inc.	116,726	558,153	674,879	82.7%	2004 Form 990

 

Here are the total numbers for the cost of refugee resettlement available from the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) for 2006.

Yup thats right …. the bottom line is $815 million not including welfare costs. 

Table VIII
Estimated Costs of Refugee Processing, Movement, and Resettlement

FY 2005 Estimate and FY 2006 Budget Request ($ Millions)

Agency	Estimated Funding FY 2005 (by Activity)		Estimated Funding FY 2006 (by Activity)
Department of Homeland Security United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
Refugee Processing	20.3	21.5
Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugee, and Migration
Refugee Admissions	171.8*	223.0
Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families, Office of Refugee Resettlement
Refugee Resettlement	484.4**	571.1**
TOTAL	676.5	815.6

* Includes FY 2004 carry forward of $4.3 million and $3.9 million in recoveries.

** Does not include costs associated with the Transitional Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Medicaid, or SSI programs. ORR’s refugee benefits and services are provided to Asylees, Cuban and Haitian Entrants, certain Amerasians from Vietnam, victims of a severe form of trafficking who have received certification or eligibility letters from ORR, and certain family members who are accompanying or following to join victims of severe forms of trafficking, and some victims of torture. None of these additional groups is included in the refugee admissions ceiling