How sweet -- it only took a load of critical media reports and a public protest to convince the Salvation Army that screwing over children during the holiday's might be bad for business:
On Tuesday, the Houston Chronicle reported that a few charities in Houston — including the Salvation Army — were checking the immigration status of needy families before giving out gifts in its annual toy drive. The organization then disputed the report, claiming that it requires at least one family member to present a Social Security number to deter fraud, not to “discriminate.” Yesterday, however, the charity reversed course. After a few dozen immigrants protested outside of a Los Angeles Salvation Army branch, the charity said that it was changing its policy and will no longer be checking Social Security numbers.
Apparently they realized that no one was going to mistake their obviously racist policy for anything other than what it was, and that no one was buying their story about grifters tricking the red bucket brigade out of Barbie Dolls and Easy Bake Ovens.