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Florida official defends sending Mexicans to Windsor

Thursday, September 27, 2007

The man at the centre of the flood of Mexicans arriving in Windsor from Florida in recent weeks to make refugee claims is in Windsor pleading his innocence.

Jacques Sinjuste, director of the Jerusalem Haitian Community Centre (JHCC) in Naples, Fla., is scheduled to meet with Mayor Eddie Francis this morning and spent Thursday speaking with the media to present his case, largely contained in a file of documents, letters and news clippings 42 pages thick.

"I hope the media can clear my name," he said Thursday during an interview in a downtown hotel lobby. "I do not deserve this. People who know me are more offended than me at what they are saying.... I welcome a police investigation. There is no wrongdoing in my office."

Based on reports from Canadian and U.S. immigration officials, the Collier County Sherrif's office has launched an investigation into Sinjuste and the JHCC.

He showed letters and printouts of e-mails between his non-profit group and Detroit Freedom House, an organization that counsels people on refugee issues, to establish that the JHCC has had a long relationship with the Michigan group in helping 300 Haitian refugees come legitimately to apply for refugee status in Canada in the past two years.

But Sinjuste denied that his group is responsible for the sudden flood this month of more than 300 refugee claimants, including hundreds of Mexican illegal aliens who had been living for years in Florida and fled north following an immigration crackdown. They crossed the border at Windsor and are now overloading the city's social services system. The bill for taking care of the sudden influx of claimants is now more than $300,000.

Sinjuste said allegations that his group is behind the Mexican exodus from southeast Florida are wrong. He acknowledged that, following a news report on a Florida Latino television station in which one of his staffers was interviewed in Spanish, a group of "less than 50" Mexicans came to the office looking for information.

He said the illegal immigrant population was in a panic over reports that Naples and Collier County was the target of a immigration sweep and that illegals were being arrested and sent back to their countries of origin. He acknowledged that he helped the original group of Mexicans with the forms they would need to seek refugee status in Canada. He said he does not know how the hundreds of other Mexicans may have come by the information.

"People came to my office and said there is no hope now," he recalled. "I said 'There's nothing I can do, I have not the authority.' I only helped with the paperwork."

For helping with that paperwork Sinjuste said he accepted donations, in come cases as much as $400, from those who could afford to give. But, he added, much of that was plowed back to others seeking the group's services who needed money to travel.

"In my office we do not have a special charge," he said. "People receive service according to what they can give. If they pay nothing, they still receive service. We will help a whole family and do not take one penny. Instead, if they have problems we give them money. We do not take advantage of the poor."

He denied allegations that he furnished misleading information to the Mexicans - that Canada would welcome their refugee claims and that they could count on legal status here. He said he would never presume to interpret Canada's refugee and immigration laws to anyone.

"It's not my duty," he said. "To explain what to expect in Canada ... I have no expertise in that matter. It's Freedom House's job, not my job."

He suggested the misleading information may have come from the Spanish interview given by a Spanish-speaking staffer named Adrian Alpendre, conducted in the office without his permission. He added the man, of the group's legal and public relations department, has since been dismissed.

However, Sinjuste added, because he cannot speak Spanish, he could not confirm for certain that the misleading information came from that interview.

Sinjuste would not say what he intended to discuss with Mayor Francis. But he said it is important that local officials understand the "positive" nature of his organization.

In addition to helping those with serious immigration problems, including Haitians who fled rampant violence and political turmoil in their native country only to face deportation in the U.S. back to Haiti, Sinjuste's group has funded school and literacy programs, helped clients deal with local social agencies and has provided legal services.

Officials at Freedom House, who have repeatedly denied any involvement in the sudden northward migration of the Florida Mexicans, could not be reached for comment on Thursday.