View Full Version : I support the U.S. on this decision
"A Canadian refugee aid worker accompanying Haitians seeking asylum in the United States was charged by U.S. authorities this week with immigrant trafficking.
American lawyers said it was the first time that a 2002 immigration law, intended to prosecute organized criminal smugglers, had been used against someone working for an immigrant assistance organization.
The aid worker, Janet Hinshaw-Thomas, is the founder and director of Prime — Ecumenical Commitment to Refugees, a two-decade-old refugee resettlement organization in suburban Toronto.
Ms. Hinshaw-Thomas, 65, was arrested on Wednesday at the American border station at Niagara Falls, N.Y.. She was arraigned in a court near Buffalo on Thursday and released on $5,000 bail.
The American prosecutor said in court on Thursday that the office of the attorney general, Robert Nicholson, had approved the charges, as required by the law. The crime carries a maximum life sentence.
“She is not running some kind of covert murky operation at all,” Eric Sutton, Ms. Hinshaw-Thomas’s lawyer, said in a telephone interview yesterday from Boston. “She was doing this on a purely humanitarian basis to assist refugees who are seeking asylum in a country where they have a right to present their claims.”
The Justice Department referred questions about Ms. Hinshaw-Thomas’s arrest to U.S. Customs, Erik Paradis, a spokesman for the western New York regional office of the agency, said that its officers had applied the law as they understood it.
This month, the U.S. has faced a surge of immigrants, primarily Haitians and Mexicans, traveling to border stations to present claims for asylum. At least 200 immigrants requesting asylum, mostly Mexicans, turned up in recent weeks at the station in Detroit. Many were sent by a group in Naples, Fla., the Jerusalem Haitian Community Center, that collected fees from some immigrants.
Ms. Hinshaw-Thomas said yesterday that she had not been aware of the border dispute brewing in Ontario. In an interview by cellphone as she drove back from the U.S. to her office in Jonquiere, Quebec, she said that her group had made 19 trips to the American border in the last five months, taking immigrants, primarily Haitians, who had despaired of obtaining legal status in the Canada and feared deportation.
“We want to help people who are in really very dire need, who might even face death upon return to their home countries,” she said.
She said her trip this week was only the second time she had accompanied immigrants to the U.S.. She arrived at the Niagara Falls border station on Wednesday with the Haitians, five adults and seven children from four families. Following a procedure her group had used on previous trips, Ms. Hinshaw-Thomas said, she advised American border authorities five days ahead of time by e-mail when she would arrive and how many asylum-seekers she would bring.
In her e-mail message, she said, she included information showing that her organization was a nonprofit assistance group, not a business. “I wanted to clarify that I am really not doing this for profit,” she said.
Ms. Hinshaw-Thomas said that during her first trip, on Aug. 22, an American 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.
Democratic lawmakers and immigrant advocates in the U.S. protested the arrest. Paul Mervale, a member of the New York Congressional Committee on Immigration Reform, accused Mr. Nicholson of “attempting to criminalize good Samaritans.”"
-New Yorker Magazine, Sep 30 edition
"The aid worker, Janet Hinshaw-Thomas, is the founder and director of Prime — Ecumenical Commitment to Refugees, a two-decade-old refugee resettlement organization in suburban Toronto."
Taking these families to suburban Toronto, is a far shot from seeking an asylum in the US.
Your wrong again, next.
I still support the U.S. decision.
Can't argue against it, can you?
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: T-pot</div><div class="ubbcode-body">"The aid worker, Janet Hinshaw-Thomas, is the founder and director of Prime — Ecumenical Commitment to Refugees, a two-decade-old refugee resettlement organization in suburban Toronto."
Taking these families to suburban Toronto,
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No, she founded that house. She is still trying to take them to the U.S.
next, indeed!
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Nice to see you agree with the U.S. in this instance. /ubbthreads/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif
She was taking them through the states to get to Toronto.
Your corrupted journalism is leading the public to believe she was dumping them in the states.
MagicFingers
09-30-2007, 08:31 PM
Speedy you need to research more dependable journalists. I guess maybe that is why we think there are so many dumb Americans. Maybe they aren't that dumb just the corrupt journalism brainwashing the Americans to believe stuff that just isn't true or accurate.
MagicFingers
09-30-2007, 08:32 PM
Both Mr. Goldberg and Andrew Brouwer of the Refugee Lawyers' Association of Ontario say they believe that federal Attorney-General Rob Nicholson would have given his consent to lay the charge.
Mr. Goldberg said that if the case goes ahead, he believes Ms. Hinshaw-Thomas will be exonerated because she was trying to help the Haitians seek asylum in Canada.
"We're very confident that we would win both on legal and moral grounds if it had to go to trial," he said.
She was seeking asylum IN CANADA for the Haitians.
MagicFingers
09-30-2007, 08:41 PM
Both Mr. Goldberg and Andrew Brouwer of the Refugee Lawyers' Association of Ontario say they believe that federal Attorney-General Rob Nicholson would have given his consent to lay the charge.
Mr. Goldberg said that if the case goes ahead, he believes Ms. Hinshaw-Thomas will be exonerated because she was trying to help the Haitians seek asylum in Canada.
"We're very confident that we would win both on legal and moral grounds if it had to go to trial," he said. Ms. Hinshaw-Thomas said yesterday that she had not been aware of the border dispute brewing in Ontario. In an interview by cellphone as she drove back from Canada to her office in Landsdowne, Pa., 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.
All this makes me think of the historical human underground railroad. Between 1840 and 1860, more than 30,000 American slaves came secretly to Canada and freedom. The great Harriet Tubman, an escaped slave herself, returned south again and again to lead others north. A Canadian, Alexander Ross, travelled to southern plantations in the guise of a gentleman bird fancier. His real mission, however, was to direct slaves to the escape routes. Dr. Martin Luther King said that in the history of black America, "Canada was the north star." The old spiritual, "Follow the Drinking Gourd," gave slaves the hidden advice to keep their eyes on the Gourd [the Big Dipper], which pointed the way north to "heaven," in this case Canada. I guess we are still the safe haven for many people. Think the government is abusing the law, not using what it is intended for. They are not human trafficking people for personal gain but to help these people escape a life of terror and in a sense slavery.
She was seeking asylum IN CANADA for the Haitians.
Another article I changed names to turn the tables here, and have you guys jump all over the U.S. for something Canada actually did.
How enlightened of Canada, to charge this woman who was only trying to help these poor refugees.
Shame, Canada.
It was the States who charged this women.
She was supplying help to these people. Which isn't against the law in Canada.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: T-pot</div><div class="ubbcode-body">It was the States who charged this women.
She was supplying help to these people. Which isn't against the law in Canada. </div></div>
Nice try, but...
"An American refugee aid worker accompanying Haitians seeking asylum in Canada was charged by Canadian authorities this week with immigrant trafficking.
Canadian lawyers said it was the first time that a 2002 immigration law, intended to prosecute organized criminal smugglers, had been used against someone working for an immigrant assistance organization."
LINK (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/29/us/29immig.html?_r=2&ref=americas&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin&oref=slogin)
Dude, read your post. The first line!
"A Canadian refugee aid worker accompanying Haitians seeking asylum in the United States was charged by U.S. authorities this week with immigrant trafficking.
So it is your fault for pasting the wrong information, YET AGAIN
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Speedy the Arrogant Parrot</div><div class="ubbcode-body">"A Canadian refugee aid worker accompanying Haitians seeking asylum in the United States was charged by U.S. authorities this week with immigrant trafficking.
</div></div>
Denying that you posted the wrong information?
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: T-pot</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Dude, read your post. The first line!
"A Canadian refugee aid worker accompanying Haitians seeking asylum in the United States was charged by U.S. authorities this week with immigrant trafficking. </div></div>
T Pot, I want you to relax; take a breath, and relax.
Read my earlier post: I purposely changed the words to see what you would do.
Today, I have linked to the real article. It clearly says that Canadian officials are charging this woman.
What say you about that???
stupefied
10-01-2007, 05:08 PM
<span style="color: #666666">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</span>
And she was warned! What a dumb [censored].
That post was the same as it was the same day as you posted it.
You did not edit it.
I still think it is wrong. The lady is doing good.
ANd it also says she can be charged if she is collecting a profit off of it, which she isn't.
It's nice to see some perspective on the board.
Of course, it will be a cold day in Hell when that perspective is given to articles on the U.S. But, still it is nice to see some perspective.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: T-pot</div><div class="ubbcode-body">That post was the same as it was the same day as you posted it.
You did not edit it. </div></div>
T Pot, look at my original article, which was clearly changed. Compare it to the real story, linked to an hour ago.
You need to relax. You need to calm down. You need to realize this is the Internet, nothing more.
stupefied
10-01-2007, 05:20 PM
<span style="color: #666666"> This month, Canada has faced a surge of immigrants, primarily Haitians and Mexicans, traveling to border stations to present claims for asylum. At least 200 immigrants requesting asylum, mostly Mexicans, turned up in recent weeks at the station in Windsor, Ontario, across from Detroit. Many were sent by a group in Naples, Fla., the Jerusalem Haitian Community Center, that collected fees from some immigrants.
Ms. Hinshaw-Thomas said yesterday that <u>she had not been aware of the border dispute brewing in Ontario</u>. In an interview by cellphone as she drove back from Canada to her office in Landsdowne, Pa., 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. </span>
Seems odd someone in her position would be unaware of the current situation. Nonetheless she admits to collecting fees and they didn't have much choice in charging her. They wouldn't be doing their properly if they didn't. We'll have to see what a judge decides but I would guess she will get off easy.
MagicFingers
10-01-2007, 09:33 PM
I call a spade a spade and regardless who is charging her, I think it is a misuse of power and misuse of the law. Trying prosecuting those who break the law while bringing harm to others not because they are saving others.
stupefied
10-01-2007, 11:52 PM
I don't see how enforcing the law is misusing it. What she did was both wrong and shows (willful?) ignorance of the law. These people are not eligible to apply for refugee status according to the immigration act. I didn't know that until I did a little research but someone assisting refugees should have known.
It should be interesting to see the outcome. However you look at it a whole bunch of taxpayer money is being wasted.
MagicFingers
10-02-2007, 08:16 AM
The law is to protect those people who are being sold and transported to different countries for the purpose of sex slaves and drug mules at the cost of the person being sold for a profit. That was the purpose of the law. Instead of protecting people who are being sold as sex slaves and drug mules they have arrested a woman who was trying to help refugees. To me that is an injustice and misuse of the law. The system needs to spend a little more time catching the bad guys and less time trying to make examples of the good guys. The "underground railroad " transporting black slaves from the United States into Canada was illegal but now we look at those who participated as heroes and are well respected as they should be.
Soundbear
10-02-2007, 10:29 AM
If the law is being misused, then hopefully a court case will enforce changes to it.
Too bad those refugees "despaired" of getting into the land of the free.
BTW, typical troll game, parrot.
stupefied
10-02-2007, 12:23 PM
The only attempted misuse of the law I can see is the one by the lady who has been charged. Hundreds of illegal immigrants in the U.S. heading to the Canadian border. These aren't people escaping a dangerous situation in their homeland, these are people who are trying to escape the law in the U.S.
These people are being transported from Florida to Michigan and then into Canada. While the one charged may be just covering costs with the 'fees' she charges there are people making money on this and she is part of that process. More importantly though, these people are not eligible for refugee status.
<span style="color: #666666">Also, those applying from a "safe third country," such as the U.S., are ineligible to make refugee claims at a Canadian border crossing by land.
If Mexicans come to Canada through the U.S., for example, they must make refugee claims there, and are not eligible here.</span>
Now she may claim ignorance of this fact but I find that very unlikely. If she is not aware of this it's due to willful ignorance which is not a good excuse.
These people are not in any imminent danger from a totalitarian regime, the are people who are living in the States illegally and figure they can delay the inevitable by flopping on our border.
They are playing the system and costing us a whole bunch of money.
<span style="color: #666666">Last week, he said it had so far cost the city $230,000, about 20 per cent of the annual budget for shelters.
Windsor's unemployment rate is currently pushing 10 per cent, making the influx of jobless refugees the last thing its economy needed.
Dozens of settlers have begun receiving welfare benefits from the government while they wait for their refugee claim cases to be processes. Most of the claims have little chance of success.</span>
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