Priests Charged with Fleecing Immigrants in Green Card Scam

AlterNet. Posted June 17, 2009.

Pastors accused of fleecing the faithful are nothing new.

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New York Times:

Word of the deal spread swiftly among Ecuadorean immigrants, along a robust grapevine from New York City out to Long Island and into Westchester County. In Peekskill, N.Y., a gas station worker named Henry León heard about it through a friend of his wife’s: The pastors of a storefront Pentecostal church in Corona, Queens, had the inside track on a special allotment of green cards the government had earmarked for church congregations.

Mr. León and his wife made the two-hour trip by train and subway to Corona to meet with one of the two pastors, Gregorio Gonzalez. He told them that all they had to do was to fill out a form and provide $8,000 each in cash and some personal identification documents, Mr. León recalled. The green cards would be ready in a month.

It seemed too good to be true. And it was, according to prosecutors in the Queens district attorney’s office.

Read the entire article here.

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Title is Misleading... [Report this comment] Posted by: miafeliz on Jun 17, 2009 7:21 PM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] It is shameful that this is happening to these immigrants, but these are not Priests who are fleecing these immigrants. I think the Pentecostal pastors would be highly offended to even be called priests in the title. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] Priests and Pastors are two different things [Report this comment] Posted by: wayhip on Jun 17, 2009 8:20 PM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] I expect more of AlterNet. The header on this article imples priest have been charged when that is not the case. In fact, the one priest mentioned in the article actually assists immigrants, not take advantage of them. Let's get the facts straight. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] FBI [Report this comment] Posted by: DrBrian on Jun 17, 2009 8:35 PM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] Another faith-based initiative, I guess. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] Religious organizations bring in cheap labor [Report this comment] Posted by: Mrs. Jefferson on Jun 19, 2009 6:34 AM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] immigrants for their own hospitals, facilities, etc. profit. They also want to pack the country with their religious group. We have whole church groups in my town full of one immigrant group (Chinese, etc.). They probably get Faith Based funding to buy the churches...build new ones and bring in cheap immigrant labor. In the past churches had many types of groups. Now like corporations they use our money for their benefit. It is not a new concept that immigrants would be used and abused. That's why we have immigration laws since the last great flow of immigrants to America. Church organizations are just as wealthy as many other corporations. They get tax exemption and abuse it. America was supposed to be different. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

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