Maine First Media has posted a video taken earlier this month in Kennedy Park in Lewiston, ME, the Somali capital of New England.
No time to do more than post the news, but here are some ‘highlights.’ Visit Maine First Media for the video.
(Go here for my huge archive on Lewiston.)
Thanks to all my readers who sent me this story.
Category: Crimes
Caught! Somali man living in Vermont used false identity to get in to US as a refugee
Not surprising of course, but what is surprising is that he is actually being prosecuted.
You can bet this wouldn’t be happening if Hillary was President!
And, how is this for timing—see my previous post this morning about a retired foreign service officer blowing the whistle on widespread fraud in the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program.
Longtime readers may remember our extensive coverage of Somali family reunification fraud first revealed in the Wall Street Journal in 2008 (behind a paywall now).
If you search RRW for ‘Somali family reunification fraud‘ you can find maybe twenty more posts on the topic over the years!
Don’t hold your breath that a large number of the tens of thousands who lied about who they are, will get caught, but this is a start!
See the moves he made that got him caught…..
Continue reading “Caught! Somali man living in Vermont used false identity to get in to US as a refugee”
Time to take fraud in US Refugee Program more seriously; where is Congress?
A former foreign service officer who worked in several capacities in the US Refugee Admissions Program around the world speaks from first hand experience when she says it is past time—way past time—for Congress to investigate the program.
After outlining examples of fraud that have been identified, Mary Doetsch says this at the Daily Caller:
It’s Time For Congress To Restore The Integrity Of The US Refugee Program
Perhaps even more disturbing than the actual fraud is the fact that this type of investigation is the exception rather than the norm. For decades, little heed has been paid to program’s extensive fraud.
As a former refugee coordinator who served throughout the Middle East, Africa, Russia and Cuba, I saw first-hand the flagrant abuses and scams that permeate the refugee program. I witnessed widespread exploitation and misuse, from identity fraud to marriage and family relation scams, and from private individuals profiting from their involvement in USRAP to distortion of the actual refugee definition to ensure greater numbers of people who are really migrants are admitted as refugees.
During my own time working in this program, I watched USRAP continue to expand unchecked, seemingly without concern for whether it served the best interests of its own citizens or the country.
While refugee admissions have been declining under the Trump administration, there has been almost no focus on programmatic fraud. Midway into the 2018 fiscal year, just over a quarter of the 45,000 individuals proposed in the FY18 refugee ceiling had entered the country. This slow-down in admissions may reduce some fraud, but without structural reform, it cannot be eliminated.
Too many government officials, often under the guise of humanitarianism, have continued to disregard both the external “pay-to-play bribery schemes” of the UN along with the internal fraud within USRAP operations. The once admirable refugee program has lost its integrity and must be reformed. The USRAP is in need of a complete overhaul and it’s time for Congress to take the lead.
Read it all here.
Good luck trying to get Congress to do anything.
See what Ms. Doetsch said back in February 2017 in response to Trump’s announcement of restrictions to refugee resettlement from certain countries.
This morning as I see CNN crowing about how Trey Gowdy says the FBI did no wrong in planting someone in the Trump campaign, I am reminded of how the chicken! (yes Gowdy!) never lifted a finger to try to get to the bottom of the problems with the USRAP when he was chairman of the subcommittee responsible for overseeing the program.
Maine: Somali refugees charged with welfare fraud
What else is new! The only thing new is the change in location from Minnesota to Maine and this time it is medicaid fraud and not daycare fraud.
This news is from the Somali capital of Maine—Lewiston—and from earlier this month.
Tip of the iceberg?
From the Sun Journal (hat tip Frank):
PORTLAND — Two men from the Twin Cities charged with welfare fraud appeared in federal court Monday seeking release from jail.
At an afternoon hearing, U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge John Rich III ordered Abdirashid Ahmed, 38, of Lewiston released on $5,000 bond after seizing his passport.
Rich said Ahmed would be equipped with an electronic monitoring device to ensure he does not leave Androscoggin County.
Ahmed was kept Monday night in federal custody at Cumberland County Jail. He was expected to be escorted Tuesday morning to Lewiston and released into the custody of the U.S. Probation Office. He must get permission from that office if he were to seek to leave Androscoggin County in the future, Rich said.
Continue reading “Maine: Somali refugees charged with welfare fraud”
Trial opens in case of another Uzbek refugee charged with plotting terror in his home country
We remember when Jamshid Muhtorov was arrested attempting to leave the country in 2012 and I have wondered what the heck was going on that his case was not going to trial.
Before reading on, you might want to revisit another notorious case of an Uzbek refugee sentenced to prison in Idaho who subsequently tried to kill the prison warden where he had been incarcerated, see here.
Now to the story from Denver about Jamshid Muhtorov where we learn the trial delay was due to his lawyer’s efforts to challenge the use of information from NSA surveillance: