Somali brothers rip off US taxpayers in another food stamp scam

08/29/2010 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I meant to post this awhile back but haven’t had time. Earlier in the month Somali brothers in Michigan were indicted in yet another food stamp scam and this time were also charged with sending your tax dollars (meant to feed poor Americans) back to Africa. I’m guessing they aren’t feeding the Somali poor but feeding the terrorists!

The feds apprehended Mohamed, but Omar escaped to Africa.

From the Grand Rapids Press:

GRAND RAPIDS — For federal officials, the sales figures at Halal Express didn’t add up.

But receipts from the Somali food and clothing store, once located at 650 28th St. SW in Wyoming, showing $126,350 in gross sales in 2006 and $141,329 of food stamps redeemed, did equal federal criminal charges against owners and brothers, Mohamed and Omar Sufi.

The government alleges the Sufis conspired to commit food stamp fraud, operate an unlicensed money transmitting business that sent money to African and Middle Eastern countries, and structured financial transactions to evade federal reporting requirements.

Indictments filed Thursday against the brothers lay out a three-year trail of deceit that ultimately led to Mohamed Sufi’s arrest this week, about two months after Omar Sufi fled to Africa.

Authorities allege the men swiped $381,467 through illegal transactions involving the Department of Agriculture’s food stamp program, court records show.

I’ve written dozens of posts on Food Stamp Scams ever since I wrote the first one in December 2007 where another Mohammad’s store was raided in my county seat. Search RRW for ‘food stamp scams’ or ‘food stamp fraud’ for more information. If I had known it would be such a common story—immigrant food stamp fraud—I would have made an entire category for it.

For new readers: We have admitted well over 100,000 Somali refugees to the US. To check out the numbers visit this post, probably our most widely read post over the last few years.

Bosnian refugee who lied to get into US will likely be deported

08/29/2010 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

But, he was not given any prison time. From AP:

PORTLAND, Ore. — The father of a former Miss Oregon who lied about his army service during the Bosnian civil war when he applied for asylum in the United States has been sentenced to one year of probation.

Milenko Krstic, 53, of Beaverton, who pleaded guilty nearly two months ago, received the most lenient federal sentence for a felony crime on Friday. Immigration officials, however, will likely seek to deport him and possibly his wife and two daughters.

Krstic, who had more than 100 supporters at the hearing, acknowledged failing to disclose he had lived for five years in Zvornik, Bosnia-Herzegovina, where he was a member of a Serb army brigade that reportedly took part in the slaughter of unarmed Muslim prisoners.

No evidence was ever uncovered that Krstic, who served as a clerk, took part in the massacre, and he was not charged with war crimes.

There is more, read on.

He joins the Rwandans who have recently been exposed for lying on their refugee applications, here.

Start your own blog!

08/29/2010 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is a message to all those whose comments we aren’t posting—from one end of the spectrum to the other. (Readers if you saw the comments and know us, you would have to laugh!) Please write your own blog! You can call it Refugee Resettlement Watch Watch if you want and vent all you wish, but we have no obligation to post any further personal attacks on us, why should we? If you have legitimate policy arguments with us and can articulate those well, please comment, otherwise do the hard work of starting your own blog where you can express your opinions to your hearts content and we will continue expressing ours here.

Obama State Department: No Iraqi refugee airlift anticipated

08/29/2010 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We told you way back in January of 2009 that the “progressives” at John Podesta’s Center for American Progress (George Soros) began pushing the Obama team to commit to airlifting Iraqis to the US in the tens of thousands before they had even taken office.

Now, as the US draw down has begun, Eric Schwartz, Asst. Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration told Maryland Senator Ben Cardin (among others) that the refugee program was so successful there would be no need to airlift Iraqis who helped the US. (See also Schwartz connection to George Soros, here.) Hat tip: Friends of Refugees blog here. By the way, since I’ve been busy elsewhere, read FOR for all the latest on refugees being left in the lurch by their federally contracted resettlement agencies.

From the Washington Post:

At a recent hearing, Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin warned the State Department’s top refugee official that Iraqis who had worked for the U.S. military would be in increasing jeopardy during the American drawdown.

“Let me just remind you that in 1996, we had an airlift of Iraqis” involved with U.S. organizations, when their security was threatened, said Cardin (D-Md.).

“You don’t have to remind me” about the airlift, replied the official, Eric P. Schwartz. “Because I managed it at the National Security Council.”

Fourteen years after that dramatic operation, Schwartz is again grappling with the resettlement of Iraqis – this time, as assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration.

During the first several years of the Iraq conflict, the administration of George W. Bush was intensely criticized for accepting only a trickle of the 3 million or more Iraqis who had fled their homes.

But the flow of Iraqis to the United States has dramatically expanded, to 18,000 last year.

It is now the largest refugee resettlement program in the world.

Read it all.

Note to Senator Cardin, maybe you should look into all the cases of Iraqi refugees who have been brought to the US and are profoundly unhappy with their resettlement—some have even returned to the Middle East. Or, maybe hop on over to Senator Lugar’s office and learn more about how the refugee program is working on the ground in overburdened cities like Ft. Wayne, IN.

Check the numbers here. The fiscal year ends on September 30th. The Obama refugee resettlement goal was 80,000 for this year. They have now resettled 60,566 as of July 31st. 14,836 are Iraqis (the largest single group of refugees admitted, with Burmese coming in a close second).