WINDSOR, Can — With city shelters filled and a surge of further refugee claimants expected to flood into Windsor, Mayor Eddie Francis is pleading for financial help from Ottawa. ‘When there is a possibility of adding thousands to the local social assistance system as a result of refugee claimants crossing the border into Windsor, we will become overwhelmed and our current resources will not suffice,’ Francis wrote in a letter sent Wednesday to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Over the past three weeks, 45 families and 31 individuals — approximately 200 people — entered Canada at the Detroit River crossings and applied in Windsor for shelter and social assistance after filing refugee claims with the Canada Border Services Agency. Municipal agencies dealing with the sudden influx of mainly Mexican refugee applicants are renting out hotel rooms and bracing for predicted thousands more to come. Concepcion Montiel and her daughter Perla, 2, arrived in Windsor Monday by bus with two other families. Montie said a lack of jobs in Florida, the fear of deportation and the perceived opportunities promised in Canada persuaded her to move her family north. Concepcion Montiel and her daughter Perla, 2, arrived in Windsor […]