Category: Asylum seekers

Fargo, ND: “Canadian” gets 18 years for major credit card scam

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

When I saw that title (or a similar one) about this story, I knew before reading further that it wouldn’t be somebody named Smith or Jones (or whatever the Canadian version is of ‘everyman’).  The convicted thief is Adekunle Adetiloye, a Nigerian who became a  Canadian citizen (although maybe he faked a passport too!).

I don’t know if he is a refugee originally granted asylum in Canada or what, but I do know that I had to laugh when I saw that the word ‘Nigerian’ was eliminated the second time it was mentioned in one mainstream media version of the story.

Here is USA Today on the story (one of the largest bank heists in US history!):

FARGO, N.D. – He was unemployed and receiving welfare, but Adekunle Adetiloye was somehow living lavishly, complete with a Range Rover, extended trips to England and an expensive condominium.

That alone piqued authorities’ interest, but then there were two credit cards tucked away in his wallet that seemed to confirm suspicions that Adetiloye, a Nigerian-born Canadian citizen, was up to something nefarious. The cards each bore different names — Donald Douglas and Vincent Andriole — and helped authorities prosecute a case they describe as one of the largest high-tech bank robberies in U.S. history.  [the ‘N-word’ is here—ed].

“Characterizing this fraud scheme as massive, if anything, is an understatement,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nick Chase of North Dakota said in court documents.

Adetiloye, 30, was sentenced Monday to nearly 18 years in prison on fraud charges. He was convicted of mail fraud, but authorities believe he masterminded a scheme to open nearly 600 fraudulent bank accounts and bilk 22 major banks out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Federal prosecutor Nick Chase said during the sentencing hearing in North Dakota that Adetiloye had an “insatiable hunger for other people’s money.”

Gee, that seems to apply to a lot of people these days—insatiable hunger for other people’s money!

Here is the paragraph at USA Today that I want you to look at:

Defense attorney Richard Henderson had asked for a sentence of fewer than 16 years. Henderson said any prison time for his client is more difficult than it would be for American citizens because he has no family in the United States.

Now, here is the same paragraph as originally written by AP and posted at Canadian Immigration Report where the reporter apparently wanted readers to not miss the fact that he was a Nigerian (not a native Canadian) by mentioning that fact twice.

Defence lawyer Richard Henderson had asked for a sentence of fewer than 16 years. Henderson said any prison time for his client, a native of Nigeria, is more difficult than it would be for American citizens because he has no family in the United States.

The phrase—a native of Nigeria—has been removed from the USA Today story (although it is mentioned once in the story).

And, by the way, why should anyone worry about this crook getting a lesser sentence then an American citizen just because he has no family in the US.  He surely wasn’t thinking about that when he was ruining the financial lives of hundreds of Americans.

With all the unrest in Nigeria (Muslims killing Christians), look for us to open up refugee resettlement from that country next!

If any of our Canadian readers know more about this guy, please comment.  It’s highly likely he wasn’t even a Canadian citizen, and Canada shouldn’t be the bad guy to all the American readers who skim only headlines and never read further.

Endnote:  As I have said many times, someone should write a blog just about fraud schemes by immigrants.  The food stamp fraud is especially egregious and the mainstream media is too squishy to report on it in any thorough way.

German arsonist denied refugee status in Canada before getting into US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The “German” arsonist arrested in the recent Los Angeles crime spree had previously been denied refugee status in Canada.  Here is the story from the Montreal Gazette:

The mother of a former Vancouver man facing charges in the U.S. for a multi-million-dollar arson spree at one time pleaded to Canadian immigration officials to allow her and her son to stay in this country.

Harry Burkhart, 24, was charged Wednesday with 37 counts of arson for deliberately setting at least 50 fires, torching cars, garages and homes in Los Angeles and reportedly causing about $3 million in damages.

Burkhart was arrested during a routine traffic stop while driving a minivan with British Columbia licence plates.

The story of how Dorothee Burkhart and her son ended up in L.A. begins with their arrival in Canada in September 2007.

According to Federal Court documents obtained by Postmedia News, the two fled Germany and applied for refugee status in Canada, claiming they feared they would be imprisoned, tortured and killed if they were sent back to their home country.

[….]

During the hearing, the minister of citizenship and immigration intervened. The minister requested Dorothee Burkhart be barred from refugee protection as she had committed a serious crime in Germany.

The refugee claim was denied in late 2009 and, upon review of the application in May 2010, the Federal Court agreed.

Then the question becomes—how the h*** did they get into the US?

Surely with a legal decision against them in Canada as recently as 2010, they should have been easily detected by ICE.

Blogger Debbie Schlussel asks the same question and then tells us more, here, about the Chechen-born Burkhart and his mama.

The mother of Harry Burkhart, the man who set several dozen arson fires in Hollywood last week, is exactly the kind of person who doesn’t belong in America and should be deported. And, after you read about both mother and son, you’ll wonder how either of them were able to get into the U.S. Well, we know how the son got on: a lax visa system, in which Customs and Border Protection and State Department employees use little scrutiny or time, before rushing through the rubber stamping of the golden ticket into the U.S., as I’ve been writing about for years, and as internal Homeland Security documents confirmed, earlier this week. Oh, and by the way, Burkhart was born in Muslim Chechnya. Hmmm . . . (Don’t worry, though. In the Hollywood movie, he’ll be a Christian from Texas.)

Read it all.

Arab activists ask for Temporary Protected Status for Syrians!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here we go again.   A couple of decades ago we granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Salvadorans, Hondurans and Liberians.  More recently it was granted to Haitians, but as Mark Krikorian at the Center for Immigration Studies famously said in 1999—there is nothing quite so permanent as temporary protected status.

Readers this is one more back channel way for foreign nationals to stay in the US beyond the limits of the visas that got them here in the first place.  A “crisis” happens at home and the US government says, oh, poor thing, we can’t send you back to a country in crisis.  So the alien stays and stays and stays (with a right to work) and eventually buys a home or a business and then the politicians say, we must extend TPS because heck they are all settled in!

The only thing these immigrants can’t do is vote (but you can bet they are figuring out how to do that too!).

Now we have James Zogby of the Arab American Institute (AAI) petitioning Obama to give TPS status to Syrians.   Well, using his logic Egyptians should stay, and Libyans, and Iranians, and Yeminis, and the list goes on.

Here is what AAI is reporting at its website:

Yesterday, the Arab American Institute, in a formal request to the Obama administration, asked for Temporary Protected Status privileges to be extended to Syrian citizens currently residing in the United States. Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is a procedure by which the Secretary of Homeland Security may provide temporary asylum to individuals who are in America and who cannot safely return to their home countries.

As the Syrian uprising nears its 10th month, the situation on the ground has grown increasingly dangerous for average Syrian citizens. Questions continue about the safety of Syrian nationals upon their return home from visits to the U.S. As a result, many Syrians currently in the U.S. are deeply concerned for their personal safety and the safety of their families if they return home.

If granted, TPS will allow Syrian citizens who are currently here – mostly as students and tourists – to stay in the U.S. until they can safely return home. It does not contribute to granting an immigrant permanent residence, and reverts the beneficiary to his or her previous immigration status as soon as the temporary protection ends.   [But, ahhhhhhh! it never ends!–ed]

Those original nearly 200,000 Salvadorans that live in the DC, Maryland and Virginia area have been here for two decades (growing their population) and are now looking for an extension of TPS AGAIN this March—a topic which I’ve extensively covered at Potomac Tea Party Report (here is one recent post).  Oh, and by the way, during their TPS they can figure out just how to make permanent asylum claims (or find a US citizen to marry!).


Iranian and Afghan asylum seekers drown trying to reach Australia

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

….”the boats will keep coming!”

Australia is in the same situation as the United States with illegal immigrants attempting to reach the country — the issue of how to deal with the onslaught has become one of the major battles between political parties.

Further inflaming the political debate, here is the news of the most recent deaths of perhaps as many as 200 illegals smuggled onto an unsafe vessel which subsequently sank drowning men, women and children off the coast of Java two days ago.

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

MORE than 200 asylum seekers are feared to have died after their boat sank off Java, victims of increasingly brazen syndicates that are funnelling people through Jakarta airport before packing them onto unsafe boats bound for Australia.

Just over a year after a disaster off Christmas Island in which 50 people died, a boat carrying about 250 asylum seekers sank off Prigi beach in eastern Java on Saturday.

There were conflicting reports last night about how many people survived. Indonesian officials said there were only 34 – contradicting Australia’s new Home Affairs Minister, Jason Clare, who said 87 asylum seekers had been rescued.

[….]

Survivors said about 40 of the 250 people on board were children. The boat had a normal capacity of about 100, according to Kelik Enggar Purwanto, of the local search and rescue team. It was unlikely any more survivors would be found, he said.

[….]

Many of the asylum seekers had flown from Dubai to Jakarta, where Indonesian officials are said to have charged them $500 each to pass through the airport without visas. They were then taken in four buses to an unknown location on the south coast of Java.   [Looks like its Indonesia that needs to be brought under control here—ed]

The case highlights the increased confidence of people-smuggling networks and the huge demand for their services. In recent months, the regularity of vessels attempting to cross to Australia has increased, as has the size of their human cargo.

Meanwhile the issue of immigration continues to be a thorn in the side of the present Gillard government.  Conservatives led by Tony Abbott (who this author predicts will defeat Gillard in the next election) want to make it less “welcoming” for asylum seekers when they arrive in Australia by holding them in detention as a deterrent.  (Australian readers, am I getting this right?—ed)

Below is an excerpt from an opinion piece in which the author, Dilan Thampapillai , says no matter who is prime minister the boats will continue to come.   Read his whole thesis here.

No matter what Prime Minister Julia Gillard or Chris Bowen say or do, no matter which foot Cory Bernardi decides to place in his mouth, Tony Abbott will still win the next election. And the boats will keep coming.

It would take something spectacular, well beyond Keating’s ‘true believer’s’ election win in 1993, for Julia Gillard to defeat Tony Abbott. Even if that miracle did happen the boats would still keep coming.

Yet, a lot of our political rhetoric and policy action centers on stopping boats. As a proposed solution to a serious problem it is an exercise in denial.

As immigration and how to stop the flow of illegals has become a critical issue in the 2012 Presidential election in the US, so too is it apparently an animating issue in Australia.

As Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood becomes more powerful, look for more Coptic Christian refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Now who could have seen this coming?  JUST ABOUT ANYONE FOLLOWING THE RISE OF ISLAM IN AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST, THAT’S WHO!

Even the Leftist Los Angeles Times gets it now:

Muslims and Christians in Egypt made common cause in agitating for the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, but the alliance is fraying. A report by The Times’ Jeffrey Fleishman about the country’s Coptic Christians — 10% of the population — suggests that they are developing painful second thoughts about the “Arab Spring” now that Islamist parties are in the ascendance.

[….]

Clearly Egypt will have to resolve the tension that is already evident between electoral democracy and pluralism. Its international credibility will depend to some extent on the degree to which it abides by international norms of religious freedom. But it is also in Egypt’s domestic interest to protect Christians. Although many Egyptian Christians are impoverished, others — former United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali is an example — are highly educated and affluent and have played leading roles in Egypt’s political and commercial life. Egypt would be poorer without them.

Laws that further institutionalized Islam also would speed the departure from Egypt of those Copts who have the means to relocate. The exodus of Christians from the Middle East, the cradle of their religion, is a sadly familiar story. From the West Bank to Lebanon to Iraq, they have left because of political instability, violence or discrimination. Sometimes they are refugees within their own countries. In 2008 more than 1,300 Iraqi Christians fled the city of Mosul after 14 were killed. Even when Christians stay — as the vast majority of Copts most likely would — their influence and well-being can suffer under an intolerant regime. That shouldn’t happen in post-revolutionary Egypt.  [And, why would Egypt be any different then other countries in the region as Islamic supremacism takes root?—ed]

Readers you may not hear the drumbeat about saving the Copts as loudly as you might another group, because the Left (the drum-beaters on resettlement) are invested in the myth that the Arab Spring was a good thing.  They won’t be so eager to trumpet the totalitarianism of strict Islamic rule being demonstrated already against the Coptic Christians.