ASU Students Earn College Credit for Helping Illegal Immigrants at Charity Accused of Aiding Border Crossings

University of Arizona faculty volunteers at Casa Alitas

Students at Arizona State University (ASU) have the ability to enroll in a program that allows them to provide support services to illegal immigrants serviced by a Catholic Charities organization in exchange for school credit.

A university website reveals that any student enrolled in an ASU Health Sciences program and some students from the ASU School of Social Work are eligible to “provide aid to migrants looking for a better life” at Casa Alitas in what the university calls the MILAGRO Collaborative.

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Federal Budget Includes Money for Groups Accused of Aiding Illegal Immigrants in Arizona

Catholic Community Services

The new federal budget signed by President Joe Biden on Saturday includes funding to continue providing shelter to illegal immigrants in Arizona, even as many were reducing operations or preparing to close after Republicans defeated a controversial immigration and foreign aid bill.

Lawmakers approved a $1.2 trillion budget to avoid a government shutdown despite opposition in the U.S. House, where the funding bill proposed by Speaker Mike Johnson received the support of 101 Republicans. A total of 112 Republicans and 22 Democrats voted against the spending bill in the House.

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Catholic Charity Aiding Illegal Immigrants in Arizona Fires Staff After Republicans Rebuke Border Bill

Illegal Immigrants

An Arizona affiliate of Catholic Charities USA has reportedly notified 30 of its employees that they will be terminated on March 30 after Republicans in the U.S. Senate successfully blocked a controversial border bill.

News that Catholic Community Services (CCS) of Southern Arizona now plans to reduce its apparent “temporary sheltering and transportation assistance” of illegal immigrants who were released into the United States by government officials surfaced through a memorandum written by Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher to the Board of Supervisors on February 16.

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Catholic Charity Can Remain Open After Court Found Michigan Violated First Amendment

Catholic Charities West Michigan will remain open after state officials agreed under court order to pay the nonprofit’s attorney’s fees and acknowledged that taking actions against the charity for its beliefs would violate the First Amendment.

Catholic Charities prioritizes placing children up for adoption or in foster care with a married mother and father. The group filed a lawsuit with the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) after Michigan officials gave the nonprofit the ultimatum to either close its adoption and foster care ministry or change its policy prioritizing a married mother and father to receive a child.

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Florida Officials Meet with ‘Pedro Pan’ Refugees to Discuss Border Crisis

The Biden administration is advancing immigration policies that are harming children, Gov. Ron DeSantis, Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez, and Attorney General Ashley Moody say.

The statewide elected officials met Monday with Cuban Americans who came to Miami as children as part of the 1960-62 era humanitarian operation Peter Pan (“Pedro Pan”). Over a two-year period, more than 14,000 Cuban youths arrived alone in the U.S. in what was at the time the largest recorded exodus of unaccompanied minors in the Western Hemisphere fleeing from the communist dictatorship of Fidel Castro.

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Federally Funded Non-Profits Are Running Illegal Immigrant Processing Centers in Nice Hotels, Helping Migrants Avoid Arrest

The Biden administration has deputized non-profit groups to move illegal migrants across the nation, allowing the charities to put them up in nice hotels and give them instructions on how to avoid capture.

Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas) said Monday that a whistleblower told him about an ongoing operation in San Diego, and decided to go there to see for himself what is going on.

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Tennessee Officials Say TANF-Funded Social Service Program Does Not Support Refugees or Illegal Immigrants

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and members of the state’s Department of Human Services last year granted millions of dollars for social services, and on Monday TDHS officials said they won’t give any to refugees or illegal immigrants. The Nashville-based Catholic Charities of Tennessee last year received $7.3 million in state grant funds to expand social services to 10 Middle Tennessee counties. Part of the organization’s model is based on liberal services performed in Nashville.

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Virginia House Passes Repeal of Adoption Conscience Clause

The House of Delegates approved Delegate Mark Levine’s (D-Arlington) HB 1932 on Wednesday in a 53 to 43 vote. The bill would remove the child-placement conscience clause which protects child-placement agencies from being forced to place children where it would violate the agency’s moral or religious convictions. Supporters of the bill say it ends discrimination currently protected by the Commonwealth, but Catholic adoption agencies and Republican legislators warn that removing the protection could effectively eliminate thousands of potential homes for children in foster care and adoption programs. The bill is now in committee in the Senate.

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Catholic Charities Leader: ‘My Catholic Church and Catholic Charities Organization Is Racist’

In a video expressing solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement last week, the CEO of Catholic Charities of Eastern Washington denounced his own church and charitable organization as “racist.”

“In America, racism is no longer a question. But rather, it’s the toxic water in which we all swim,” said Rob McCann, president and CEO of the Spokane-based nonprofit. “My Catholic Church and my Catholic Charities organization is racist.”

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Legal Groups Sue ICE to Force Release of Illegal Immigrants in Ohio

A group of legal organizations has sued U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) seeking the release of illegal immigrants detained in Ohio.

The ACLU National Prison Project, the ACLU of Ohio, and the lam firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP announced Friday that they have filed a lawsuit against ICE “on behalf of immigrants detained in crowded facilities in Geauga and Seneca Counties.”

The lawsuit seeks the release of illegal immigrants who are in civil detention and at high risk of serious illness or death in the event that they contract COVID-19.

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Chattanooga’s Refugee Resettlement Contractor Likely to Close Office Under New State Department Guidance

Catholic Charities of Tennessee State Refugee Coordinator Holly Johnson has confirmed that the federal refugee resettlement contractor Bridge Refugee Services, may have to close its Chattanooga office due to new guidance from the U.S. State Department which reportedly informed voluntary agencies (VOLAGs) that any of their local offices expecting to resettle fewer than 100 refugees in 2018, “will no longer be authorized to resettle new arrivals.” Bridge’s resettlement numbers for Chattanooga were reported as likely to fall below the 100 mark for 2018. It is not known whether this will lead Bridge to concentrate all its efforts in Knoxville where their other office operates. Nine national voluntary agencies (VOLAGs) contract with the State Department to facilitate refugee resettlement through almost 300 local affiliated agencies across the U.S. which must first be authorized to receive new refugee arrivals. Refugee resettlement contractors have become dependent on federal funding to operate these local agencies even though the State Department contract states that the public money is only “intended to augment the private resources” the refugee contractor is supposed to contribute. The contractors are paid a fee for each individual refugee they resettle. Currently, the contractor keeps $1,000 of the $2125 refugee fee paid by the…

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Tennessee Sues Feds Over Costs Of Refugee Resettlement

Tennessee filed a lawsuit Monday suing the federal government over costs of the federal refugee resettlement program, becoming the first state in the nation to take such action. The lawsuit was filed by the Thomas More Law Center on behalf of the State of Tennessee, the Tennessee General Assembly and State Sen. John Stevens (R-Huntingdon) and State Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver (R-Lancaster). The suit challenges the constitutionality of the federal refugee resettlement program as it is currently operating in Tennessee, based on the 10th Amendment, which says that powers not delegated to the federal government are reserved to the states. The Thomas More Law Center is a national nonprofit public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, that defends and promotes America’s Judeo-Christian heritage and a strong national defense. The center filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee. “President Trump through executive action has reversed the overreaches of the Obama administration in numerous ways. I trust President Trump in this regard. However, he needs our help,” said Sen. Stevens in a news release issued by the Thomas More Law Center. Tennessee officially withdrew from the refugee resettlement program in 2007, but the federal…

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