I really, really wish I were joking about this but I’m not.
The 12-person contingent from Hamilton's Rehoboth United Reformed Church was traveling by road on the morning of Saturday, March 11, to New Jersey.
Erik Hoeksema, the church's outreach director who was traveling with the group, said the group intended to spend March break cleaning up and rehabilitating neighbourhoods affected by Hurricane Sandy.
When they got to the border they were told they needed a letter from the Church they were going to assist, which they were able to produce once they contacted the Church. A few hours later the letter was declared to vague. A 2nd letter didn’t help. They were tuned away because they feared they were stealing US Jobs.
This isn’t the first time this group has gone!
On this occasion, however, the group was told that, as foreigners, they would be taking American jobs, and that there was no pressing need for relief work anyway this long after Hurricane Sandy hit the region in 2012.
The pastor from New Jersey said it best:
"If you can't get a church van with 12 white folks through [the border], how much worse is it for any person of colour, any person born somewhere else, any person whose name sounds foreign to an [Immigration, Customs and Enforcement] officer, or any refugee?"
CBC
BTW, if this makes you sad this will make you cry. Today the Girl Guides of Canada announced they were suspending all travel to the US because they could not guarantee that all their girls would be allowed in and they truly believe in the idea of No Child Left Behind.
CBC Girl Guides story