A Florida institution must close for accepting donations from illegal immigrants in exchange for refuge to Canada. Hundreds of illegal immigrants were promised legal residence in Canada by the Jerusalem Haitian Community Center of Naples.
The Jerusalem Haitian Community Center was founded by Haitian refugee, Jacques Sinjuste, for immigrants presenting themselves as refugees seeking asylum. Immigration officials revealed that about 450 immigrants traveled from Florida to Canada with the help of this organization in the last few months.
Some immigrants donated as much as $400 to the center to facilitate their travel across Canadian borders. The immigrants, mostly Haitian and Mexican, were seeking asylum, but many are awaiting their hearings.
Florida State Attorney General, Bill McCollum, believes the organization was engaging in misleading practices. Only a fraction of the immigrants Sinjuste helped to transport to Canada would actually be eligible for refugee status. As a result of the current turmoil in Haiti, Haitian immigrants would be much more likely to achieve refugee status in Canada than Mexican immigrants.
Over $30,000 has already been refunded to immigrants who donated funds to the Jerusalem Haitian Community Center, but officials are unsure of how to find hundreds of other people who gave money to the center.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/10/us/10immig.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin
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