Category: Africa

Latest immigrant food stamp scam bust in Bradenton, Florida this time

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I have a whole bunch of stuff on food stamp fraud I will try to post tomorrow, but since this just happened, I’m getting it up right away.  Three indicted in food stamp rip off of $857,000 from taxpayers.

From Bradenton.com:

TAMPA — Three owners of a Bradenton convenience store defrauded the federal government out of $857,000 by exchanging cash for food stamp benefits, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tampa.

The three owners — Majdi A. Juma, 29; Hikmat A. Juma, 38; and Nidal Juma, 40 — have been indicted by a grand jury on food stamp fraud and wire fraud, a release from U.S. Attorney Robert E. O’Neill’s office said.

[….]

According to the indict- ment, the Jumas unlaw- fully purchased SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits from individual recipients … “in exchange for cash and for which SCFM charged the recipient a substantial commission or fee.”

The practice is common- ly known as “discounting” or “cash-back,” the news release said, and the Jumas charged a fee of about 50 percent.

All three Jumas face wire fraud charges and conspiracy to commit wire fraud and food stamp fraud charges.

[….]

If convicted of all charges they face between 130 and 155 years each in prison, the release said.

The article tells us ICE was involved in the bust, so there must be an immigration angle.  Based on their names, they are likely East Africans.  Guess they were sending money out of the country too.

Maybe it would be better just to deport them to Africa and forget about keeping them in jail for years at more taxpayer expense.

For more on food stamp fraud here at RRW use our search function and type in ‘food stamp fraud.’  You will see we have dozens of posts on the subject.

Homeland Security tracking Central American smugglers of east Africans

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

…..but why not start investigating right here in the USA!

I just discovered this blog which I plan to visit often (and will put on our blogroll).  It’s called “Asylumist”  and it’s about , what else, the other half of our refugee resettlement program, the asylum program.   People get confused all the time about the fraternal twin programs—both born of the same law and only differing slightly in their appearance, but not in the results.

A “refugee” is determined to be persecuted and is screened abroad and brought here with the  help of the United Nations and the US State Department (you pay the airfare).  An asylum seeker gets to our borders on his or her own steam and then asks for asylum by claiming he or she will be persecuted if returned to their home country.   And, let me say right here, a true asylum seeker is SUPPOSED to ask for asylum in the first country in which they land.  They are not supposed to make six stops before reaching our borders and then asking for asylum.

The number of asylum seekers is increasing by leaps and bounds.  In 1990 we granted asylum to 8,472 claimants and in 2009 that number had risen to 22,119.  For some perspective, the number of refugees admitted in 2009 was around 74,000.  Both groups are then eligible for most forms of public assistance, legal permanent residency (there used to be a cap on this number each year, but no longer) and ultimately citizenship.   But, here is a kicker.  If someone isn’t granted asylum they can just disappear into America—like the now famous Auntie Zeituni (Obama’s Kenyan aunt)—because no one is detained prior to the decision (or after the decision for that matter).  Up until this year asylum seekers were detained after coming across the border.

What do you know!  Homeland Security is concerned about Central American smugglers of Somalis!

From the Asylumist:

Many African asylum seekers enter the United States at the Mexican border. Their journey to the U.S. is long and circuitous. In East Africa (where some of my clients come from), people travel from Ethiopia, Eritrea or Somalia to Kenya. From there, they go to South Africa and Brazil using false passports, and then through South America (sometimes by boat up the Amazon River!), to Central America, and then Mexico and the U.S. Along the route, they are passed from one smuggler to the next. Its big business for the smugglers: I’ve heard the trip costs between $10,000.00 and $15,000.00, and sometimes more.

[….]

Now, if the rumor mill is to be believed, DHS and at least one Latin American government are planning to arrest some additional smugglers in Central America. DHS investigators have been interviewing smuggled aliens in the United States. They have asked the aliens to identify photos of several smugglers based in Central American. While most of the smugglers are from Latin America, at least one is African.

It seems that DHS’s central concern involves the Somalis, who have long been viewed as a potential threat to national security (I’ve blogged about this issue here), and apparently DHS’s interrogation of the smuggled aliens has focused on Somali migrants.

I suggest DHS start by asking some big American NGOs (and immigration lawyers) what they know about the Somalis coming across our border.  It strikes me as a bit far-fetched to assume that some poor Somali with no English language skills should be able to get half way around the world and know to ask for asylum on our Mexican border.   I wrote about my suspicions here earlier this month.

And tell me if this makes sense—poor Somali has $10,000-$15,000 just kicking around to pay for the journey to America in order to get a minimum wage job with a meatpacker.   Who is paying the asylum seeker or the smuggler?

Salt Lake City: A murder involving rival immigrant gangs perhaps?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is a story I missed last Sunday.  Two Sudanese refugee gang members were arrested for killing another former refugee Mohamed Hassan (name sounds Somali not Sudanese ).  So do we have Sudanese-on-Sudanese crime or Sudanese gangs fighting Somali gangs now?  If anyone learns more about this story, send it my way.

From Deseret News:

SOUTH SALT LAKE — Police have arrested two Sudanese refugees in connection with the fatal shooting of a Salt Lake City man late Friday.

There were several people in a white Dodge Durango eastbound on state Route 201 near 1100 West when Mohamed Hassan, 22, was shot in the head at point-blank range shortly before midnight following a dispute, according to Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Ted Tingey. Troopers questioned some occupants of the vehicle, but several others scattered, Tingey said.

One of those who fled the scene, Akol Gabriel Joker, 20, a Sudanese refugee living in Salt Lake City, was later arrested and booked into the Salt Lake County jail for investigation of murder and possession of a firearm by a restricted person. Tingey said he was believed to be the shooter and was well known to law enforcement.

A second suspect, Idrees Adam Idrees, 21, of Salt Lake City and also originally from Sudan, was arrested and booked for investigation of murder. Tingey did not specify his alleged role in the killing.

Hassan was also a Sudanese refugee, Tingey said.

We’ve written a lot about refugees in Salt Lake City, a major resettlement city.  To learn more about refugee problems in Salt Lake, use our search function.

Somalis storm UN office in South Africa

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It’s been awhile since I posted news from the Rainbow Nation, but here is a short one about an attack by Somali refugees on a United Nations office in Cape Town.   Funny how these type of stories never make the mainstream media.

From All Africa:

Belive — Hundreds of Somali people have stormed an office stationed by UN in South Africa’s Cape Town.

Moqtar Mohammed Mohamoud, a Somali refugee in Cape Town, told Shabelle that Somalis, who stormed the UN office, were trying to get ID cards to stay in that country peacefully. [you gotta wonder how stormed the office and peacefully go together!—ed]

Shortly after the incident, a large number of South African policemen have reached the office starting to use tear gas and big sticks to disperse the crowd of Somali refugees inside and around the office.

Somalis bring their clan squabbles to Kansas for all to see

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Honestly, I don’t want to re-name this blog Somali Refugee Watch but every day, every few hours! I get another story about some Somali problem somewhere in the US.  This one, from a reader in Kansas, draws us to a little publicized issue involving Somalis—they are tribal, and they are now bringing their clan squabbles to your town.

How would you like to take the kids to the park on Saturday morning in middle America and find Somali clans squabbling in the park?  

Sure looks like that is happening in Garden City, KS.  If you ever wondered why Somalis can’t govern themselves in Africa, this story from the Garden City Telegram will give you a hint!

Holding signs of protest and discussing leadership in Garden City, a group of Somalis on Saturday called for the closing of the center of Somalis of Southwest Kansas, saying the leaders cater only to certain groups and tribes of Somali people.

About 40 Somalis rallied Saturday in Stevens Park in downtown Garden City.

Organizers of the protest, Said Yousuf and Faysal Ahmed, said they felt some Somalis are welcome at the center, some are not. They said the problem is dividing the people. Ahmed said the reason for the divide is that the center isn’t welcoming those in certain tribes. The men don’t want to have to deal with that treatment because it’s what they escaped from in conflict-torn Somalia.

One group of protesters wants the present “community” center closed and a new one created.  

In order for all Somalis to be welcome at a community center, Ahmed and Yousuf called for the closing of the center organized by the Somalis of Southwest Kansas. They said it would be impossible to have an inclusive center without closing the current one.

I’ve written about these Ethnic Community Based Organizations (ECBOs)* on many previous occasions, I even wrote about this one in Garden City previously, here.  The federal government—the Office or Refugee Resettlement—is encouraging, with grant money, the growth of these litte ACORN-like ethnic groups.  It is part of the Far Left’s community organizing model.

In my view ECBOs create ethnic tension in cities when they selectively help THEIR PEOPLE get government goodies.  In this case the Somalis have taken the tension one step further by suggesting this likely taxpayer-funded group helps one clan over another.

Look at what the wimps at the “cultural relations board” have to say—we will help dialog, but we can’t judge who is right and wrong. Of course not—we can’t judge other cultures, and we all know that diversity is beautiful afterall.

“The city and its cultural relations board are aware of the disagreement in the Somali community. We have talked with those who are disgruntled with Somali community leaders. Their issues are interpersonal and not related to local governmental functions. Nonetheless, we are interested in helping the two groups resolve their problems. We have expressed to both sides our willingness to convene a meeting to improve the dialog. It wouldn’t be appropriate for us to identify who’s wrong or who’s right in this private matter. And even if it was, we don’t know enough about it to render that kind of opinion.”

Here is an idea—take away ALL PUBLIC FUNDING for groups like these.   Tell them this is America and they can form all the private groups their hearts desire, and they can work out their conflicts within the confines of the law and the US Constitution and they needn’t draw in the wusses at the “cultural relations board” to mediate.

* See our whole category on ECBOs, here.