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Group Will Shut Down Refugee Assistance

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By MONICA DAVEY, The New York Times

Published: November 10, 2007

A Florida organization that assisted hundreds of illegal immigrants in fleeing to Canada must close and return thousands of dollars it collected from the immigrants, who thought they would be given legal status in that country, Florida's attorney general said Friday.

Complaining of stepped-up sweeps by U.S. immigration officials, about 450 people made their way from Florida to Canada in recent months with guidance from the Jerusalem Haitian Community Center of Naples. Mostly Mexicans and Haitians, they presented themselves as refugees seeking asylum. Many still are waiting for hearings.

"While the state attorney general's office cannot enforce federal immigration law in this case, my office can investigate potentially misleading or deceptive practices, and I believe this organization was engaging in questionable practices," said Bill McCollum, the state attorney general. Many of the immigrants paid "donations" to the center of as much as $400, his office found.

The authorities in Windsor complained they could not afford the costs of social services if the arrivals continued. Advocates for refugees in Canada warned that the odds of such immigrants being granted asylum were poor.

Under an agreement with McCollum's office, Jacques Sinjuste, the center's founder, must dissolve the center within four months and return $170,000 he had collected.

Sinjuste, a Haitian immigrant who founded the center in 2000, said he has stopped offering immigration-related help and is preparing to close the center. But he will move forward with plans for day care and after-school programs.

"The immigration thing does not represent all of what I do," said Sinjuste, 58. "I have no regret, nothing at all. My big thing for my community is to look after the minorities, and I'm still doing the same thing."

While $32,000 already has been refunded, officials are uncertain how they will find hundreds of other people owed money.

Janet Dench, the executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees, said she was relieved that the Florida center soon would be shuttered. "Still, it's very difficult for the people who have been exploited," she said. "Getting that $400 back may be trivial compared to the situation they now find themselves in."

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