Posted on 11/04/2007 2:46:42 PM PST by sinanju
With city shelters filled and a surge of further refugee claimants expected to flood into Windsor, Mayor Eddie Francis is pleading for financial help from Ottawa.
"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," Francis wrote in a letter sent Wednesday to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Over the past three weeks, 45 families and 31 individuals -- approximately 200 people -- entered Canada at the Detroit River crossings and applied in Windsor for shelter and social assistance after filing refugee claims with the Canada Border Services Agency. Municipal agencies dealing with the sudden influx of mainly Mexican refugee applicants are renting out hotel rooms and bracing for predicted thousands more to come.
"We don't have the means, ability or capacity to deal with this additional cost. We are not able to deal with this potential crisis locally," Francis wrote Harper.
"I don't believe that Windsor's residents and taxpayers should have to foot the bill for U.S. immigration policy," Francis told The Star. He was referring to the suspected source of the problem -- a recently begun crackdown on illegal immigrants in economically struggling regions of the U.S. South.
(Excerpt) Read more at canada.com ...
"They ask, 'Is Canada an option?' and I say, 'Yes, it is an option,'" Jacques Sinjuste of the Jerusalem Haitian Community Center said in a phone interview Wednesday. For a US$300 "donation" (most of those interviewed in Windsor claim they paid US$400), JHCC staff download forms off the Internet, help applicants fill them out and give directions on how to get to the Canadian border.
Sinjuste said he's simply providing a "referral" service.
"Most of the time when the people come, they say they've heard something (about Canada). I say that I've heard the same thing," he said."
_________________________________________________________
What we've got here is a specifically Miami-based "snakehead" that's been ripping off illegals to the tune of $400 per to send them off to Canada with promises of refugee status, rather than a mass northward migration from all over the U.S. to "shake 'de Lion's paw" as our ancestors of the underground railroad put it (I've been reading about Harriet Tubman).
I know that Canada has a strict "point system" for determining the viability of immigrants but fatally generous refugee admissions criteria.
“I don’t believe that Windsor’s residents and taxpayers should have to foot the bill for U.S. immigration policy.”
Why don’t you lay the blame where it belongs. No taxpayers should have to foot the bill for Mexico’s inability to shape up and provide a decent place to live for its own citizens.
What an enterprise..., charge them $500-$1,000/head to smuggle them into the USA..., now $300-400/head to ship them to Canada!
This Canadian bureaucrat is complaining about American immigration policy. If he had a grip on the big picture, he would be complaining about Canadian immigration policy. But then, if he could see the big picture, he wouldn't be a bureaucrat. He would have quit long ago to work in the real world.
Did I miss anything?
Congressman Billybob
Municipal agencies dealing with the sudden influx of mainly Mexican refugee(s)...
"We don't have the means, ability or capacity to deal with this...potential crisis..."
And they're talking about 200 or so people so far? Well. I'm glad some politician somewhere has finally figured out what a drain his community is facing. Too bad it's a Canadian and not one of ours...say, the Mayors of Los Angeles or Phoenix, or any one of a hundred different US cities, for instance.
“I don’t believe that Windsor’s residents and taxpayers should have to foot the bill for U.S. immigration policy,”
Welcome to our world...
I wonder if the planned new bridge between Detroit and Windsor will have a walking lane.
Ping!
The problem might be blamed on American policy since it was lax to the point of non-existent for several years, but clearly it is going to get a lot worse since the crackdown has only begun. They refugees don't meet the minimum specs for refugee status anywhere except Windsor so they ought to be turned away.
We should have a train from the Mexican border to the Canadian border. Maybe our neighbors would like to help their less fortunate southern cousins. And to help the Mexicans, too.
If you let them in, keep them, and help them, then you are part of the problem.
If our state and local governments continue to wake up Canada should soon be overwhelmed with these “refugees” and when Canadians start to figure out that their economy is being redirected to Refugee Relief and the lefties start calling for all government programs and publications to be in Spanish, then maybe the Canadians will start to wake up , too, and the problem moves on to the semi-autonomous Eskimo and Cree jurisdictions.
Canada will eventually have to ship them to England where they will improve the immigrant mix there.
Just wait until the Francophiles figure out that Spanish is going to be the second largest language in Canada.
In a way, we do. Illegals can pick up Amtrak's Texas Eagle in El Paso and take it to Chicago, the hub of the national network. From there, they can take the Blue Water to Port Huron.
However, they will still need to walk or take a bus across the bridge at the border to Sarnia. From there, they can take a VIA train to anywhere in eastern Canada.
Complaining about illegals? They should be happy about how much the price of vegetables and lawn care has gone down!
I'd say that chances are pretty good that the U.S. will be sending aid to Canada to help them deal with this problem, while all the while telling us that illegals don't cost us a thing because they contribute so much to our economy and culture.
Geez, I have come to hate compassionate conservatism.
I am so jealous. Canada is going to have cheap lettuce. S/
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.