Day: March 28, 2014

Minnesota government official: Somalis signing up for Medicaid in big numbers!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Jesson: We are successfully passing their care on to the federal taxpayer!

It’s just a short piece in Voice of Alexandria.

As the Obamacare deadline approaches (whenever that is!), Somalis are signing up in large numbers for Medicaid in Minnesota thus taking the burden of their healthcare off “welcoming” Minnesota and placing it on US taxpayers.

Mosque visits were successful.

(St. Paul, MN) — Officials say efforts to enroll Somali immigrants for health coverage via Medicaid in Minnesota have been largely successful. Human Services Commissioner Lucinda Jesson says with the help of the Somali Health Solutions group, enrollment expectations are being exceeded.

She says they had a goal of enrolling 500 before the end of march and have already enrolled over a thousand and many of them in public programs. Jesson says the outreach efforts have included events at mosques and community centers throughout the state.

She says the high numbers are especially encouraging, because a recent Minnesota Health Access Survey shows that people of color are more likely than whites to be uninsured.

How many Somalis in Minnesota?

For new readers, besides the hundreds/thousands?* of new refugees being resettled in Minnesota each year, in 2012 over 2000 secondary migrants (largely Somalis) went to live in Minnesota.

By the way, this 2011 post is still one of our top posts on most days—how did we get so many Somalis in Minneapolis?

*Until recently we could see the statistics at a US State Department contracted website about how many of which ethnic group were being resettled in every resettlement city and town in America, but the feds have removed from public view those website pages at WRAPSnet.  Heck, I can’t even get on the website anymore!   Your US Senator or Congressman can request those statistics, including the religions of the refugees resettled. 

 

Portland, OR: Lebanese family ripped-off US taxpayers, while some lived in Lebanon

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

These are apparently not “refugees” but some legal program allowed this family of crooks to live among us for years and steal from the taxpayers through social security, food stamp and healthcare fraud.

I’m bringing you this story for two reasons:  first the complexity of this immigrant ‘entrepreneur’ scam once again confirms that some immigrants are skilled (trained?) in how to tap into our welfare system, and secondly, every American should watch for such frauds in your home town and report them!  In this case, local pharmacy employees smelled a rat while the crooks made some dumb moves.

If an unemployed immigrant on welfare is driving a Mercedes like this one, it is a good tip-off for investigators!

From The Oregonian.  He applied for home health care for a mother who lived in Lebanon!    Hat tip: crime sleuth ‘pungentpeppers.’

Emphasis is mine:

An unemployed Southeast Portland man who reportedly wore lots of jewelry, flashed pictures of trips to Lebanon and owned a Mercedes was sentenced to six months of prison Wednesday for cashing disability checks for a sister who was living outside the United States.  [Only six months!—ed]

Jason I. Boutros, 49, must also pay nearly $221,000 in restitution to the Social Security Administration and the Oregon Department of Human Services, U.S. District Judge Michael Simon ordered.

Boutros was one of four family members who, prosecutors said, bilked federal and state agencies of disability, Medicaid and food-stamp benefits over several years, collecting payments even as some lived in Lebanon for long stretches, making them ineligible.

Investigators began looking into Boutros’ payments in 2009 when he submitted a request to DHS seeking payment for providing home-care services for his mother in March of that year, court filings say. But the state learned his mother had been out of the country in March 2009.

Pharmacy employees blew the whistle!

The lifestyle of the Boutros family had raised questions by employees at the pharmacy where the family would pick up prescriptions, a sentencing memorandum states. One said Boutros wore “lots of jewelry” and showed photos of trips to Lebanon and another said she had reported him to a fraud hotline.

And when agents searched Boutros’ Southeast Portland home in April 2013, they found a Mercedes in the garage and a tanning bed in another building on the property, according to Cooper’s sentencing memorandum.

Read it all!

This and many other stories like it may be found every day at the facebook page ‘Diversity’s Dark Side.’   Check it out!  Like it!

Seattle Mayor: refugees and immigrants need more taxpayer supplied services

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Get that Wyoming!  There is not enough federal money flowing to refugee resettlement hotspots, so Seattle Mayor Ed Murray is calling on the city’s taxpayers to pony-up more cash.

Seattle Mayor Murray: the City needs to find more money for our refugee overload.

And, the best part of this article in the Seattle Times comes near the end!

Calling the city’s efforts to help immigrants and refugees “understaffed and underfunded,” Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said Wednesday he’ll expand city services, with a goal of strengthening help for those communities.

Murray called on the City Council to approve $409,000 in new funding to double the size of the small Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs and begin work on an action plan that includes expanded access to English-language programs, support for immigrant-owned small businesses, improved relations with the Seattle Police Department and enhanced citizenship programs.

Local ethnic community organizers salivating for more $$$!

Murray said that Washington is the eighth-largest refugee-resettlement state in the nation and that almost 1 in 5 residents were born in another country.

And he said that while many think of refugees and immigrants as living primarily in Southeast Seattle, as many as 25 percent of residents in Northgate and Maple Leaf speak a language other than English.

The morning news conference was attended by many representatives of immigrant communities who said they welcomed increased city attention and resources.

Best part of a very informative article!  Immigrant entrepreneur myth busted!  This made me laugh out loud:

Aaliyah Gupta, interim director of the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, said the city knows that immigrant businesses close at a high rate but doesn’t know all the reasons why.

She said that between 2007 and 2013, 3,950 small businesses opened in Rainier Valley, while over the same period 2,390 closed. Many of those were owned by immigrants, she said.

David Lubell and his “Welcoming America” cohorts have been out peddling this notion that refugees/immigrants open more businesses than Americans do, but LOL!, I guess he is not reporting how many are closing!   The reality here for Ms. Gupta is that refugees get special deals from the federal government (via the contractors) when financing new businesses and simply can’t sustain the trinket shops etc. that they open.   The survivors are the convenience store owners tapping into the lucrative food stamp fraud racket.

Lubell is a contractor for the Office of Refugee Resettlement and he was hired to get your minds right about refugees!

The article ends with a discussion about getting the large number of single, poor, Muslim women together with women police officers to establish trust and cooperation.  Guess there is a problem that we are not being told. Of course, the ‘M’ word is not mentioned.