Hillary Clinton Visits Catholic Group That Counsels Illegal Immigrants

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton is visiting with a group that counsels illegal immigrants on how to get legal status.

Clinton is set to tour the Crossroads campus of the Catholic Charities of Northern Nevada in Reno on Monday afternoon, 12:30 PM local time, in an event that will be closed to the public and open to only some reporters.

The Northern Nevada chapter of Catholic Charities USA, like its Virginia-based parent organization, is a major advocate for illegal immigrants.

The chapter has an immigration program manager named Kyle Edgerton, who helps illegal immigrants seeking amnesty and citizenship. Edgerton recently opened almost 500 cases in one year for illegal immigrants trying for amnesty.

“We have these very harsh penalties – the most common one being ten years – of essentially, exile,” Edgerton said last year, referring to policies that apply to illegal immigrants who get caught.

“The chances of deportation are higher now but just not in as newsworthy of a way. You used to have to worry about ICE coming to your place of work, but now red and blue lights flashing in the rearview are a sign you could be in a bad situation,” Edgerton told a Reno-based blog, referring to the Obama administration’s deportation policies.

“It’s undermining trust between immigrant community and law enforcement,” Edgerton continued.

If there’s one community vulnerable to crime, it’s the illegal immigrant community. It doesn’t set up a good dynamic. I think the new approach has more promise but it’s not being implemented very well. You’d be hard-pressed to show me someone who is here illegally and creating harm to the community who shouldn’t be on the first plane out of here, but 3/5ths to 4/5ths are not self-evidently these types of individuals.

The Catholic Charities of Northern Nevada did not provide comment for this report by press time.

Here’s a video about Catholic Charities’ work for illegal immigrants, produced by one of the group’s Kansas-based affiliates.