Parish the Thought

The Church is asked to support the parishioners it wants to have the government support so they can support the church. Got that? m/r

Feds Ask Churches To Aid And House Migrant Families | The Daily Caller

Neil Munro 7-11-14

The Department of Homeland Security has asked Catholic churches in California to temporarily house and feed groups of Central American migrants until 2016, according to an official at the diocese of San Bernardino.

But any unpaid cooperation is legally questionable, because it may be intended to bypass Congress’ authority to fund — or to not fund — federal agencies’ new practice of distributing the flood of migrant families to homes across the country.

The department “has reached out to the diocese and the bishop, and asked us to shelter families in transition,” Maria Christina Mendez, at the Office of Hispanic Affairs, told The Daily Caller. The services would be needed for the next 18 months, “or longer,” she said.

In response, the diocese has offered to let family groups of migrants stay at its buildings for up to three days, while they are being relayed by federal immigration agencies to cities and towns where they want to live, she said.

“Some of them are going to the East Coast, some of them are going all the way up north,” she told The Daily Caller.

The illegal inflow includes at least 100,000 people since October. Many are in so-called “family units” of adults and children.

At least 50,000 migrants are unaccompanied youths and children, many of which are being sent by smugglers — dubbed “coyotes” — to their parents who are illegally living in the United States. Roughly half of the youths are males who say they are aged between 14 and 17. These youths and children are not being sent to the Catholic diocese.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/07/11/feds-ask-churches-to-house-migrant-families/#ixzz37GbvXclH