Your tax dollars:
Last night two more food stamp fraud cases involving immigrants popped up in my alerts.
In the Detroit case, immigrant owners of a “party store” (whatever that is!) plead guilty to getting reimbursement from the federal government for $900,000 after giving cash to customers with food stamps for half that amount.
Then in New Haven, CT, the former immigrant owners of a convenience store plead guilty to ripping off the US taxpayer for $328,000 in the same kind of scheme. What happens is that customers with food stamps want cash instead of food so they are willing to sell their food stamps for 50 cents on the dollar. Then the store owners turn the stamps in to the federal government for the full dollar.
We aren’t talking chump change and small rip-offs in these cases! An issue that puzzles me greatly is, who taught all these immigrants to purchase convenience stores and small gas stations and then set up these scams?
If you are a regular reader of RRW, you know that this is a favorite subject of mine—actually any kind of welfare fraud—medicare, food stamps, etc.
How did the food stamp program get started anyway?
Before I get to that, whenever someone says to you that we are a nation of immigrants and that we took hundreds of thousands in the late 1800’s and very early 1900’s, one of the huge differences is that we did not have a welfare state. Immigrants had to sink or swim in society from shear hard work and will. Many who didn’t make it returned to their homeland. A country cannot survive for long with an extensive welfare system and uncontrolled immigration.
The modern food stamp program which is growing by leaps and bounds only came into existence in 1962! This program hasn’t been around forever. There was a little one during the World War II years, but for 18 years after that, there was none. Check out this lengthy wikipedia article for the full history.
Where are ORR’s annual reports to Congress?
Awhile back I told you that refugee use of food stamps was rising rapidly—way back in 2006! But, it surely has grown even more today, since by many accounts only 20% of refugees are finding work. So, I just now went to see if the Office of Refugee Resettlement had submitted any more reports to Congress which are required by law. Look at this, they haven’t reported since 2006! That is outrageous. I can see bureaucrats being a year behind but we have actually already finished FY2009! ORR, what are you hiding?
Note to SRA International which has been contracted to sniff out food stamp fraud: Don’t go after the small fries buying junk food with their stamps, but begin in “welcoming” cities with large immigrant populations and set up undercover operations in every immigrant-owned convenience store and small gas station. Based on the reports I see weekly, just by googling, you should hit the jackpot!
Next, go abroad and see what you can find out about who trains and sets up these immigrants to come here and set up these scams. You might also want to investigate the E-2 Treaty Investors program.
Oh, SRA International and anyone else interested in more food stamp fraud cases, use our search function for ‘food stamp fraud’ and you will soon see a pattern.