During the hearing, which according to Dominguez was held online due to “security concerns,” Farquharson claimed that the nonprofit’s refusal to comply with the order to turn over documents relating to its operations “demonstrates concealment, harboring, and shielding” of illegal activity.
He also claimed that Annunciation House has been violating the Emergency Food and Shelter Act’s requirement to keep daily logs of the migrants they serve.
This is really the essential matter. There are no whistle-blowers or trafficking victims or criminals in custody.
This is a paperwork issue (like Trump's pay-off after a tryst with a porn hooker 20 years ago) that got blown up into felonies due to their refusal to comply with an information request (unlike Trump's case, which saw misdemeanor charges inflated and felonies fabricated by a corrupt DA).
Assumption House could have 'fessed up about their lack of records, invited Texas to come and inspect their operations, and promised to be sharper in their record-keeping.
Instead, AH filed a lawsuit insisting that Texas had no right to demand or review their records. So it looks like maybe they are covering up criminal activity.
All we have are clues to a possible cover-up. Not a smoking gun.... just smoke.
Title: Texas Bishop Speaks Out About Fight With Greg Abbott
Source: Newsweek
Link: newsweek DOT com/greg-abbott-texas-bishop-mark-seitz-christians-border-migrants-1912313
The Money-Quotes:
As the broader national immigration debate has hit a boiling point, the bishop has felt it imperative to speak out on migrants' behalf. He has criticized Abbott and other Texas lawmakers for attempting to expand the state's authority over immigration through legislative efforts — such as Senate Bill 4, which would allow law enforcement and the Texas National Guard to arrest, detain and deport migrants suspected of being in the country illegally. The legislation remains pending because of a lower-court ruling.
"I really try to frame whatever I say as policies and not persons," Seitz told Newsweek via phone. "That's really the concern that we have, and we don't seek to make issues personal as such. But if it challenges a person, then fine."
[…]
"Annunciation House is being completely mischaracterized," Seitz said. "If there's any bulwark against human trafficking of these vulnerable immigrants, if there's anything to prevent child trafficking and the like, it's the existence of an NGO like Annunciation House."
The presence of the NGO, which has been part of the community for almost 50 years, also prevents street releases of unidentified migrants, the bishop said, adding, "If we didn't have Annunciation House, we'd see human trafficking at levels we never imagined."
Jun 20, 2024 — A California Catholic charity has been struggling for weeks to deal with ongoing security risks amid claims that the organization is illegally sheltering and trafficking migrants.
Catholic Charities Diocese of San Diego CEO Vino Pajanor told CNA that the ongoing chaos, which includes protests and harassing messages, has been a shock even to workers who have served at the organization for decades.
“They have never seen something like this,” he said.
The difficulties began earlier this year after activist–journalist James O’Keefe reported on what he described as an “illegal immigrant compound” at a Ramada Suites in San Diego. In the video, O’Keefe suggests the facility is involved in the trafficking of illegal immigrants.
[…]
“More of [O’Keefe’s] followers” have been demonstrating, he said, “thinking that we are harboring undocumented ‘illegal’ individuals, and that we are smuggling kids and trafficking kids.”
“Protesters have come to our buildings,” he said. “Over the weekend they protested in front of our migrant shelter, blocking our driveway for about an hour, until the local police came by.”
There is no truth, Pajanor said, to the suggestion that the charity is participating in a smuggling scheme.
“None at all,” he said. “None at all.”
O’Keefe did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
‘Exactly what Jesus calls us to do’
For years, San Diego Catholic Charities has offered immigrant services in the Diocese of San Diego. The charity group’s main headquarters is fewer than two dozen miles from the U.S.–Mexico border.
On its website Catholic Charities Diocese of San Diego says it aspires to be “the premier nonprofit provider of immigration services in San Diego and Imperial Counties.” It offers immigrants help with applications and other services with the aim to “enable eligible immigrants to obtain legal immigrant or citizenship status.”
Pajanor said the organization began operating migrant shelters in April 2021 amid a surge of illegal immigration to the U.S. “We’ve always been open about what we’re doing,” he said.
The organization shared material with CNA showing that it has assisted more than 245,000 individuals since the shelters opened — many from Colombia, Ecuador, and Brazil. About 25% have been children.
“Every one of these individuals are processed by [the U.S. Border Patrol],” Pajanor said. “Every one of them has a notice to appear in a court of law. Once they get that notice, Border Patrol releases them to us.”
“When they come to Catholic Charities, every one of them has a document,” he said. “They’re all documented individuals in the United States. Not a single one is undocumented.”
“There’s nothing illegal about what Catholic Charities is doing,” he said. “What we are doing is a humanitarian service.”
The CEO said the group has been forced to deal with a logistical headache of security in the months since O’Keefe made his allegations.
“It made us add more security,” he said, saying the process involves both “unnecessary costs and unnecessary fear for our team members and clients and guests coming to our location.”
“This has cost us unnecessary work and unnecessary expenses while we’re taking care of the people coming to ask us for help,” he said.
Pajanor said the security process is a “constant pain.”
“Every time that a sporadic group wants to protest, we have to add security,” he said. “Either we add security ahead of time or we add it afterwards until it dies down.”
Amid successive years of record illegal immigration, San Diego has lately been at the center of illegal border crossings. U.S. government data show that the city’s border enforcement has encountered more than 220,000 illegal immigrants fiscal year-to-date, seconded only by Tucson.
Pajanor argued that the immigrant facilities run by the San Diego charity group are addressing both a humanitarian crisis and the local civic emergency of rising homeless populations.
“We’re preventing them from being homeless in the streets,” he said. “If we’re not involved with Border Patrol to bring them to migrant shelters, those hundreds of individuals every day would end up on the streets of San Diego and add to the homeless population.”
The CEO expressed disappointment over the negative response to its migrant work.
“Matthew 25 calls us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, and visit prisoners,” he said. “That’s our faith and that’s our belief. And we are doing exactly what Jesus calls us to do.”
“We are here to serve the community,” he said. “Why are they targeting us?”
Catholic Charities have long failed to keep their noses clean, so faithful Catholics aren't coming to their aid as we do when pregnancy care centers are attacked.
Last week, there was a story out of New Jersey, in which a Catholic Charities branch partnered with New Jersey State Division of Family Services and a local library to feature a series of LGBT children's books for a pride-month-long display and a drag queen story hour event.
Parents rightly protested the Catholic association with this (although a protest of state involvement seems even more appropriate). As Chesterton noted, "The world pays its highest compliment to the Catholic Church by condemning vices within the Church which are widely tolerated everywhere else." (He probably said it better than that, but that's how I remember it.)
All the same, it is a scandal against the Body of Christ. And it leads people to believe accusations of other vices within Catholic Charities. This is what marked them as a target for O'Keefe, in the first place.
Last edited by Del on 24 Jun 2024, 22:40, edited 3 times in total.
Hovannes wrote: 24 Jun 2024, 15:13
The Local Catholic Charities focuses on providing food to distressed families, no questions asked, as it should be.
I suspect that there is a lot of autonomy in the various branches and sub-branches of Catholic Charities. They are not well-controlled, unless the local bishop takes an interest in overseeing them. Too easy for grifters and frauds and ideologues to take over a local branch to skim or scandal or both.
I won't donate to Catholic Charities as I do not have time to vet them properly, and there are so many worthy charities that I want to support already.
Did I mention that we are opening a Chesterton Academy this fall?
Hovannes wrote: 24 Jun 2024, 15:13
The Local Catholic Charities focuses on providing food to distressed families, no questions asked, as it should be.
I suspect that there is a lot of autonomy in the various branches and sub-branches of Catholic Charities. They are not well-controlled, unless the local bishop takes an interest in overseeing them. Too easy for grifters and frauds and ideologues to take over a local branch to skim or scandal or both.
I won't donate to Catholic Charities as I do not have time to vet them properly, and there are so many worthy charities that I want to support already.
Did I mention that we are opening a Chesterton Academy this fall?
NGOs along the Border are making a killing off the crisis, collecting $$ to offer "humanitarian aid" which goes into their pockets.
I wouldn't be surprised if many pose as being church affiliated,
Much like our politicians who lobby for aid to third world countries and collect kickbacks
"Prov'dence don't fire no blank ca'tridges, boys."
--- Mark Twain in Roughing It
Jun 26, 2024 — Gov. Jeff Landry cut $1 million in state funding from the largest homeless shelter in Lafayette because of the help its operator, Catholic Charities of Acadiana, provides to immigrants.
“Part of Catholic Charities mission is to support the influx of illegal aliens into our country. Taxpayers should never foot the bill for nonprofits who are contributing to the illegal immigration crisis our nation is facing,” Landry said in a written statement Wednesday. “I don’t believe the majority of our legislators would support this either.”
Landry removed the money for the organization after state lawmakers overwhelmingly voted to include it earlier this month. The funding was not intended for the group’s immigrant services. It would have helped pay for an emergency homeless shelter serving eight parishes in Acadiana.
Catholic Charities is now scrambling for a new source of support to help keep its shelter open just a few days before its new budget cycle starts July 1. Spokesman Ben Broussard said the cut will have a “crippling impact” on the largest shelter for homeless people in the Lafayette region.
The facility overwhelmingly serves Louisiana citizens. More than 80% of the people who used it last year came from the Acadiana area, and over 90% were state residents. In total, it housed 410 people last year and has 87 people under its roof currently, Broussard said.
Landry, who is a Catholic and a Lafayette Parish resident, said he wasn’t convinced the charity should receive government support.
“I look forward to understanding in greater detail why Catholic Charities needs taxpayers dollars and how they would use that money,” he said.
[…]
Locally, Catholic Charities of Acadiana offers legal services to immigrants, including help with seeking citizenship, protected status and work authorization. The group also works with people who qualify for federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which prevents deportation of immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children.
Catholic Charities of Acadiana lists these programs on its website, but the webpage for immigrant programs disappeared from public view for a few hours Wednesday after Landry vetoed the group’s shelter funding. After a reporter asked for more information about the services, the page came back.
Broussard declined to comment on the changes to the website or to provide more information about the group’s immigration outreach.
The Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops, which represents the church and charity organizations statewide, has clashed with Landry on other immigration policies.
The bishops opposed two new laws Landry backed. The first empowers local law enforcement officials to arrest people they suspect of entering the country illegally. The second is a so-called anti-sanctuary city provision, meant to force cities, such as New Orleans, to police immigrants aggressively if they are undocumented.
“[Help for] immigrants and refugees has been a core service of the Catholic Church forever,” said Tom Costanza, the chief state lobbyist for the Catholic Church in Louisiana.
The governor might have targeted Catholic Charities of Acadiana for a cut, but he didn’t remove all the money in the state budget for the organization. The group is still slated to receive $2.7 million in public funding to purchase generators for its buildings, including its shelter facility and soup kitchen that serves free, hot meals to people experiencing hunger.
