Some Houston charities are asking whether children are in the country legally before giving them toys.
The Houston Chronicle reports that several programs in the country’s fourth largest city require at least one member of the household to be a U.S. citizen.
The Salvation Army and a charity affiliated with the Houston Fire Department are among those that request birth certificates or Social Security cards for the children, according to the Chronicle. There are about 400,000 illegal immigrants in greater Houston.
Lorugene Young of Outreach Program Inc., which distributes toys collected by firefighters, said the point isn’t to punish the children but to ensure that their parents are either citizens, legal immigrants, or working to become legal residents.
Immigration activists called the idea of a charity turning away children because of decisions made by their parents “disturbing.”
“Usually, people target the adults because the adults made the decision to migrate, where the children are just brought through no fault of their own,” said Cesar Espinoza, executive director of America for All, a Houston-based advocacy group.
I asked Jim Price of the Salvation Army of Greater Charlotte if they were conducting any similar checks. He said that while the local chapter must check if residents actually live here in the community, the agency does not check immigration status.
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32 comments:
BUT THEY SHOULD BE
This is really an outrage.
They should check their status, if illegal GIVE THEM A TOY and a free ride back across the frick'n border!
2 free gifts, tis the season.
"There are about 400,000 illegal immigrants in greater Houston."
1st of all if they are consuming resources meant for U.S. citizens, who cares? I mean it's not like there is not a way to become a citizen legally, the lazy illegal alien parents should be ashamed even asking for handouts.
second @ a head count of 400k,
why are they still there?
This is just terrible, you should move to Houston and investigate!
tiger woods should give all these illegal kids a toy.
there you go: two problems solved.
tiger has his angelic status back and the hungry masses of illegals have toys to play with while they go about sucking this country dry of anything we have left.
Honestly -- I am SO sick of hearing from our 'beloved' journalists (who preach they have no agenda and are unbiased (yeah, right!)) about the wrongful plight of our illegal invaders to this country.
Now it's gotten so silly as to infer that if you're an illegal, those citizens who believe that our borders and sovereignty of our nation are being attacked, are now the evil 'grinches' who will deny a child of a gift.
Give me a friggin' break!
It's not the kids fault if they are in the US illegally.
For illegals in Houston, it's just a short hop back over the border to get whatever their little hearts desire...
Gosh, if there are 400,000 illegal immigrants all in one place, why can't THEY take up a collection for their kids?
Sorry, no sympathy from me.
What is “disturbing” is that schools, hospitals and welfare offices don’t do the same.
What a great idea!! Maybe we should check the parents immigration status too!! And then send them home as a family.
Depression, unemployment, politicans........ Change is hell and the anger grows.
"They should check their status, if illegal GIVE THEM A TOY and a free ride back across the frick'n border!"
Now...End of story!
Raymone, you need to change your name, they may come looking for you. May I suggest, Bob?
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If, as the article states, they're only checking birth certificates or social securtiy cards for the children, they're not identifying whether the parents are here legally or not.
Why do we give gifts at Christmas? We might want to remember Galatians 3:28 "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (NASB).
While I recognize this is not a Christian nation, I would have assumed that the Salvation Army had a higher standard than nationalism.
I am vetting all charities I give to this year. I asked a particular church if they checked status and they said they did! Said they didn't before but had to change cause the illegals abused the system so much there was no more left for the Americans in the community. They make sure all recipients have valid drivers license w/photo and matching SS card or passport. I am sorry, illegals chose to come here. Americans must take care of their own first. Believe me, the folks in Dafur are more needy than the illegals here in the USA. They font have it THAT bad.
I'm you brought this to the local chapter. Hopefully they will make the same policy changes here.
So now that you've posted this story, do you plan to post the followup story, also in the Chronicle, that explains that the previous story is INACCURATE and the charities are NOT actually checking for immigration status?
HERE IN PHOENIX WE ARE SIMPLY LOADED WITH ILLEGALS, AND THE KIND OF POLITICIANS WHO BEND OVER JUST LIKE OBAMA. THE ILLEGALS HERE WILL TELL YOU THEY WILL STOP COMING WHEN THINGS ARE AS BAD HERE AS THEY ARE IN FABULOUS MEXXXICO. BESIDES "WHO" IS GOING TO STOP THEM? WE GOT A GREAT SHERIFF IN JOE ARPAIO BUT THE POLITICANS MAKE HIS JOB IMPOSSIBLE! P.S. HIS POPULARITY AMOUNG THE VOTERS IS OVERWHELMING!
In a free-market spirit, I think it is fine for charities to decide their own policies, and for people to decide whether to donate to a given charity based in part on those policies. Give to the group who represents your values.
It does look sleazy for a Christian organization to appear to politicize their giving, but maybe it is a necessity due to limited resources to exclude a lot of kids for one reason or another. Over 20% of the children there live in poverty, so I'm sure they can't help them all.
From what I listened to in a news report, it doesn't match up with what Ordonez claims in this article. Someone is misstating the facts. That is the problem with most writers. They will slant things to match their own biases.
Franco...you post these stories knowing that they are going to generate strong feelings. Grow a backbone. The comments are indicative of most Americans feelings. We welcome legal, law abiding citizens. You just do not seem to get the issue with ILLEGALS.
All about greed and money which leads back to Big Business and PAC funds and biased media.
What if, perhaps all 400,000 Illegal's in Houston were deported - would there be a drop in unemployment? Would Hospitals stop loosing money from non-paying Illegal's? Would crime go down? Would the State have less debt? Would the school systems be improved learning institutions? Would there be less drugs imported and on the streets? Would you still have to press 1 for English?
Safe to say "yes" to all these and more e.g. increased wages, decreased unemployment, decreased crime, decreased non-paid hospital bills etc. etc.
The media keeps saying that 60% of all Americans are for legal immigration - I had no idea there were that many yard maintenance companies, oh that's right, they work for the Government also..
Thanks to a tip from Anon 4:59, post has been updated.
Salvation Army stops checking SS#s for toy drive
http://obsthisland.blogspot.com/2009/12/salvation-army-of-houston-will-no.html
Neither political party will address the illegal alien issue, why?
The bloody Mexicans have overrun East Charlotte and are now targeting other areas of the city. We now have them living all up and down our street, with up to 15-17 in one small 2 bedroom house. They will quickly tell you that they are here for 'a better life' and 'there not one damn thing that we can do amout it'. They are also extremely quick to let you know that they have multiple children as they will be US citizens as soon as they are born here. They also say 'there's nothing you can do about it'. Now they say there is no work so they rely on government aid that goes to the babies.
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