Bill Schmidt discusses his work with the Refugees, Immigrants and Migrants (RIM) committee of the St. Francis Xavier parish in Kansas City, Missouri. This is followed by a brief discussion of the evidence regarding the impact of immigrants on crime and the incomes of the host community. In brief, the research finds that on average immigrants benefit both the sending and receiving countries, and the major media routinely disseminate lies, especially by leading politicians, because challenging those lies would most likely increase their costs without a compensating increase in revenue.

St. Francis Xavier 

The RIM committee at St. Francis Xavier started in 2012 or 2013 and was further pushed by Father Rafael Garcia, who was their pastor then. RIM was also connected with the Migrant Farm Workers program in Lexington, Missouri.

RIM has three different activities: (1) Education, (2) action, and (3) collaboration with other organizations.

The RIM committee has been involved with the Encuentro project, which is linked with Father Garcia. That project arranges visits to El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico, which are really one metropolitan area split between Texas and Mexico. Those visits include visits to Annunciation House there, which greets immigrants at the border. Schmidt also mentioned Father Peter and Sister Betty, who have tracked people who have crossed the border and died, writing their names on a wall.

RIM has had training from Jewish Vocational Services (JVS) and Dell Lamb. RIM has worked with families from the Congo, Venezuela, and Nigeria. Healthy adults whom they have helped have gotten jobs, paid taxes including social security and are applying for US citizenship. Some have had family members killed and their homes destroyed before they decided to take the risks to come to the US.

They have also worked with Advocates for Immigrant Rights and Reconciliation (AIRR).

RIM is also affiliated with the Heartland Welcome and Support Coalition, a 501(c)(3) that is ecumenical, with affiliations with other communities beyond St. Francis Xavier.

RIM is also affiliated with Witness on Troost, which peacefully raises signs, voices, and prayers in solidarity with the marginalized and vulnerable. A leader in this group is Kim Meyer: [email protected].

Schmidt said he was not aware of any raids by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) in Kansas City, Missouri, but there have been such in Liberty, Missouri, and Johnson County, Kansas.

Schmidt is joined by Bill Clause and Spencer Graves.

Research on immigrants 

If you, dear reader, know of any honest evidence supporting President Trump's campaign against immigrants, please email your evidence to news at KKFI dot org. There is ample documentation that immigrants on average benefit both sending and receiving countries. Research on sanctuary jurisdictions including sanctuary cities has mixed results. Some find no difference between sanctuary cities and less immigrant-friendly jurisdictions. Others find that sanctuary cities on average have less crime and higher median incomes.1 If you are aware of any serious, credible research relating to this, please email citation(s) to news at KKFI dot org.

Research on dysfunctions in the major media

Much and likely all of the support for President Trump's campaign against immigrants comes from dysfunctions in the major media. This includes commercial Internet companies, especially social media like Facebook and X, that make money from clicks that herd humans into groups described as "echo chambers". Group members in so-called echo chambers reinforce each other's prejudices without realizing that what they are saying is often contradicted by evidence.

This problem is at its worst in news deserts -- communities without a local newspaper. However, it has been increasing worldwide as the growth of the Internet has been funded primarily from advertising revenue that had previously gone to newspapers. Journalists who often checked their facts have been laid off. And the massive consolidation of ownership of the media have reduced competition for audience, and journalists are allowed even less time to check facts. Moreover, the easiest and cheapest content often comes from politicians and other public officials including law enforcement. And public officials tend to be less cooperative with journalists and news outlets they do not like, dramatically increasing the cost of most reporting. This is a major problem documented in many previous episodes of Radio Active Magazine that have also been distributed as the fortnightly "Media & Democracy" series syndicated for the Pacifica Radio Network and available for moderate discussion on Wikiversity under "Category:Media reform to improve democracy".

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Links to research on immigrants are included in the description of the 2025-07-15 episode of Radio Active Magazine, which cites the Wikipedia articles on “Immigration and crime”, “Immigration”, and “Sanctuary city”, each of which include direct citations to research.

 

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