The Bush administration plans to deepen its collaboration with religious groups by recruiting the Roman Catholic Church and other organizations to help set up a mentoring program for new immigrants, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.
The program, to be launched on a pilot basis within six months, will pair new immigrants with host families that will help them better adapt to life in the United States.
But with funds in short supply to reach out to more than 1 million legal immigrants coming into the country each year, the government plans to look to outside entities for the implementation of the program.
"Our resources are limited," said Alfonso Aguilar, who heads the Office of Citizenship, part of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, formerly known as the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
"To get those programs running, even in a pilot form, we are going to have to establish strategic alliances with community organizations," he told Reuters in an interview.
The groups will include religious organizations "like the Catholic Church, which has an extraordinary network of services for immigrants."
About one in five new immigrants are Mexican, a vast majority of them Catholics.
The Bush administration wants religious charities to provide social services to compete for $28 billion in federal funds, which some opponents call an unconstitutional violation of the U.S. separation of church and state.
Proponents said the Department of State already uses religious groups to settle refugees. "It is consistent with the administration's position of working with faith-based organizations," said Daniel Kane, a spokesman for Citizenship and Immigration Services.
"It is important to note that faith-based organizations will be precluded from using any funding to promote religion."