Obama is getting it done with his pen and phone while everyone yaks about the Republicans possibly winning the Senate in a few weeks and while we follow shiny objects—like the Ebola mess.
Obama getting it done!
Folks I hate to break it to you, but Obama will have two years to do his unlawful work because even if Republicans take control of the Congressional branch there appear to be few leaders who have any guts there to stop (or undo) any of the outrageous executive actions he is getting done.
I don’t understand why more Republican Senators and Congressional leaders don’t speak up now and thus assure their victory in November.
We better hope the 80-year-old Senator Grassleystays in the Senate and stays healthy!
By the way, there are already tens of thousands of Haitians here legally under Temporary Protected Status. See our category on Haiti, here, to learn how that came about. Since they are here legally I expect their families will be applying for family reunification under the new Obama plan.
I’m also guessing that these new Haitians will come under the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlementand their contractors thus making this another expansion (in addition to the UACs) of the definition of the word ‘refugee’ and further broadening the refugee resettlement program thus giving the new Haitians immediate access to welfare, one of the plums that comes to those designated as “refugees.” (Someone correct me if I am wrong!).
The ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee took the Obama administration to task Friday for its “irresponsible” plan to allow as many as 100,000 Haitians to immigrate to the U.S. without a visa.
Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said the administration’s Haitian Family Reunification Parole Program — which will allow thousands of Haitians awaiting a U.S. visa to enter the country and legally apply for work permits — is “an irresponsible overreach of the executive branch’s authority.”
Which countries are next on President Obama’s list?” Mr. Grassley said. “Will there by medical screenings before entry? Will work permits be granted automatically? How will this affect American workers?”
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the branch of the Department of Homeland Security that handles immigration benefits cases, announced Friday the program to unite Haitians already living in the U.S. with family members abroad will ramp up in 2015.
At that time the State Department’s National Visa Center will begin notifying families who may be eligible to take part in the program. Those immigrants will allowed to apply for work permits while waiting for issuance of their permanent visas.
The agency said the program will expedite “safe, legal and orderly migration.”
EBT Nation! This is my go-to graphic for food stamp fraud stories when I can’t find a photo of the perp.
This may be the best food stamp fraud story we’ve posted all year!
No Mohammads in this one however!
Note to new readers: following immigrant-run convenience store fraud is a hobby here at RRW, and one that has recently yielded lots of juicy stories. Click here for our entire archive.
This one is from Salem, Massachusetts where Haitian immigrant, Peter Jhonny Limat, has been found guilty of ripping off the Department of Agriculture (you the taxpayers) to the tune of an estimated half a million dollars at two convenience stores he owns.
But, what is so interesting is that his defense in court was that the customers made him do it—they were to blame for his stealing from the SNAP program. In fact, the customers are also breaking the law as we saw in the story from Florida earlier this month (Operation Money Tree!), but the judge wasn’t buying that Limat wasn’t at fault.
This is the first story I saw at The Salem News published on December 24th. Below you will get a chuckle out of story number two, published on December 28th (I was looking, unsuccessfully, for a photo of Limat when I found the update). Emphasis below is mine:
SALEM — The owner of two small convenience stores in Salem and Lynn will be sentenced next month to two years in jail by a judge who said yesterday that Peter Jhonny Limat’s breach of the public trust warrants time behind bars.
“The money that pays for food stamps doesn’t come out of thin air,” said Salem Superior Court Judge Howard Whitehead. “It comes out of the pockets of working people, and it goes to people who supposedly cannot afford the necessities of life.”
But many of the customers at Limat’s two stores — Boston Street Market in Salem and J&M Mini Mart in Lynn — weren’t using their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or “SNAP,” cards to buy food, Limat admitted earlier this month.
This is a really simple explanation for readers on how the scam is done:
Instead, prosecutors said, Limat, 38, of Lynn, would let people use the cards like they were using an ATM and then take half the money for himself. A customer who wanted $50, for example, would let Limat charge $100 to the card, which he would report as food sales. Each of them would get $50 in cash. The Department of Agriculture would then reimburse Limat for the full amount, sending the money directly to his bank account.
[…..]
Over the course of a year, Limat conducted some $800,000 in food stamp transactions, prosecutor Phil Mallard told the judge earlier this month. More than half those transactions — a half-million dollars worth — were for purported food sales of more than $100, something Mallard argued was practically impossible given the limited inventory of both stores. [Readers, just a reminder that the other day I mentioned that store inventory is a tip-off to investigators.—ed]
Limat’s tax return indicated he was raking in the dough in previous years.
But Nathan, a privately hired Boston defense attorney, argued that his client and his family are now struggling to get by.
The 2005 BMW that Limat bought needed a new transmission, and every cent Limat earns as a Haitian interpreter now goes to the state Department of Revenue to satisfy a state cigarette tax arrears, Nathan said. [Sounds like he has more problems on top of food stamp fraud—ed]
Blame the customer! His attorney cited the New York Times!
Both Nathan and Limat yesterday placed the blame on customers looking for cash.
“This ‘scam,’ according to a New York Times article, is a fraud committed by the person walking into the store,” Nathan said.
So the judge didn’t buy it and gave Limat a couple of weeks to get his affairs in order before he reports to jail, however, clearly fearing Limat would split the country the judge ordered Limat fitted with a GPS bracelet.
Here is what happened next according to the update from The Salem News:
SALEM — On Monday, a judge gave Peter Jhonny Limat a chance to get his affairs in order before being sentenced in a food stamp fraud scheme.
There was one condition: He had to agree to return to court the next day to be fitted with a GPS bracelet to monitor his whereabouts until sentencing on Jan. 13, when he was scheduled to receive a two-year jail term.
He stood the judge up on Christmas eve!
When Limat, 38, of Lynn, failed to show up at the courthouse Tuesday for his bracelet, Judge Howard Whitehead waited for him all morning, then issued a warrant.
Still, the judge, known for his patience, wanted to give Limat the benefit of the doubt. Even though it was Christmas Eve, the judge remained at the courthouse until it closed at 4:30 p.m., on the chance Limat would show up.
A probation officer who had the day off even went by Limat’s home, where his wife said she hadn’t seen him since the day before.
When Limat finally turned up on Thursday with a list of excuses, the judge ran out of patience and put him in custody.
And yesterday, the judge decided to impose the two-year jail term immediately — even as Limat’s new attorney, Jean-Fresnel Josaphat, offered more excuses for Limat’s failure to show up.
No more excuses, as clearly the judge fears he might make a run for Haiti!
Josaphat pleaded with the judge to let Limat out of jail, saying his family has planned a birthday party for him on Dec. 29, and offering to surrender any documents he might need to leave the country and return to his native Haiti.
Previously, Limat had told the judge he’d lost his passport — an assertion Whitehead also cast doubt on yesterday.
Do you find it as fascinating as I do that crooks and liars, like this guy, are actually able to buy a couple of convenience stores, get permission from the Department of Agriculture to run the SNAP program in them, and go on for years before being caught?
If you suspect food stamp fraud in your neighborhood, click herefor how to report it.
Endnote: Limat’s story probably tops 2013, but this 2011 food stamp fraud story where Fatima tried to run out the back door with a suitcase full of money (and mom in tow), may be my all-time favorite. Although a close second is this story from 2008 where the Arab American Newsnoted that there were an awful lot of Arab names in these food stamp fraud cases! Nah! said a US attorney, just a coincidence!
We report all the time about the Mediterranean boat people trying to reach Europe from Africa (many dying in the process), or the many boats full of mostly Muslim migrants trying to reach Australia, but this is the first time I’ve become aware of Haitians in large numbers employing people smugglers to get to the US.
30 died and 110 saved from this overloaded boat just last month. Photo: U.S. Coast Guard via Getty Images
The US Coast Guard has prepared a Public Service Announcement in hopes of halting the practice.
MIAMI – Following dozens of known drowning deaths at sea this year, the U.S. Coast Guard and Haitian-American community activists unveiled a public service campaign Thursday urging Haitians to avoid immigrant smugglers. They’re also asking Haitian family members in the United States to refrain from financing the smuggling operations, because they are so dangerous.
“Do not go to the sea. Do not put yours lives in the hands of these ruthless smugglers,” said Captain Mark Fedor, Chief of Law Enforcement for the Seventh Coast Guard District in Miami.
[…..]
In the last year, U.S. officials have seen a dramatic rise in the number of Haitians being smuggled in small, often-overcrowded boats across the 80-mile-wide Mona Passage to Puerto Rico, a U.S. commonwealth.
So far this year, the Coast Guard and other law enforcement officials have apprehended 2,265 Haitians crossing the Mona Passage. That compares to just 188 Haitians caught there in the previous eight years.
It is not clear what is done with those “rescued.” Are they returned to Haiti? Or do they get taken care of under a program called the Cuban Haitian Entrant Program where at least 20,000 Cubans and Haitians become eligible for taxpayer support every year in a program pretty much run by federal contractors—the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and Church World Service—but paid for by you.
We haven’t written much about Haiti lately, but I see we have 52 previous posts on the subject, largely related to the temporary protected status they have available to them.
Photo is from this story. By the way, what happened to all the celebrities who were rushing to Haiti after the Earthquake to bring them aid? Did they get bored and go home? Move on to the next humanitarian photo-op?
Update: Brenda Walker at VDARE has some good stats you should see, here.
The New York Posthas a new twist on one of our favorite subjects—-food stamp fraud. Hat tip: Anne
Seems that Jamaicans, Haitians and immigrants from the Dominican Republic living in New York are buying non-perishable food to send ‘home’ to relatives.
EBT Nation! If they are shipping food out of NY, surely they are pulling the same scam in your state!
Food stamps are paying for trans-Atlantic takeout — with New Yorkers using taxpayer-funded benefits to ship food to relatives in Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Welfare recipients are buying groceries with their Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards and packing them in giant barrels for the trip overseas, The Post found.
The practice is so common that hundreds of 45- to 55-gallon cardboard and plastic barrels line the walls of supermarkets in almost every Caribbean corner of the city.
The feds say the moveable feasts go against the intent of the $86 billion welfare program for impoverished Americans.
[….]
The United States spent $522.7 million on foreign aid to the Caribbean last fiscal year, government data show.
That reminds me, Haitians are still getting ‘temporary protected (refugee) status’ from that earthquake back in 2010, but as we learned in January there weren’t many takers because anyone getting into the US illegally in recent months is anticipating a free ride when (if!) the so-called “comprehensive reform” becomes law.
For our extensive immigrant-perpetrated food stamp fraud archive, click here.
But will Temporary Protected Status be rendered moot if Obama-Rubio-Ryan get their way? The answer is Yes! Everyone will be able to stay! (but they can now anyway!)
Just two days ago I told you that the push was on to give Temporary Protected Status to Malians in the US. Most recently we granted TPS to Syrians. Haitians, as we reported here, aren’t signing up in large numbers because they see the Obama-Rubio-Ryan Amnestycoming (more on that below). And, those Guatemalans and their Leftwing open borders advocates are trying to get the designation as well (although they seem to have slacked off, waiting for amnesty perhaps?). “Temporary” refugees, can get drivers licenses and jobs and every couple of years their “temporary” status is renewed.
The Center for Immigration Studies tells us here how hard it is to get rid of even the criminals who have TPS status.
Roberto Galo has been in the US since the 1990’s!
Last week ICE arrested Roberto Galo, the unlicensed Honduran who killed a young man named Drew Rosenberg in a traffic crash in November 2010, and is detaining him without bond. Galo’s arrest is appropriate but, incredibly, despite the fact that Galo repeatedly violated California driving laws and killed someone, ICE had to make an exception to its policies in order to take him into custody and seek his removal.
Galo is an illegal immigrant who has been living here legally since the late 1990s under a grant of Temporary Protected Status (TPS). Beneficiaries of TPS may apply for driver’s licenses; but Galo could not get one because he failed the driving test three times. Under immigration law, Galo no longer qualifies for TPS after having been convicted of two misdemeanors (vehicular manslaughter and unlicensed driving) stemming from his responsibility for the crash that took Drew Rosenberg’s life.
But under current policies, offenders like Galo are not supposed to be put on the path to removal. USCIS, which administers the TPS program, has directed its officers to try to reclassify some misdemeanors as “infractions” in order to allow these offenders to stay.
Appropriately, Mark Krikorian the Director of the Center for Immigration Studies, with USCIS cases like Galo’s in mind, asks Rep. Paul Ryan and Senator Marco Rubio, so are you planning to trust Obama to keep his end of the bargain as you pander to the ‘Hispanic’ voter.
Krikorian:
Sen. Marco Rubio has effectively endorsed President Obama’s approach to immigration, and that endorsement was in turn endorsed by Rep. Paul Ryan. Or, as Julia Preston put it in the New York Times yesterday, “Strikingly, Mr. Rubio’s principles did not sound that different from proposals for an immigration overhaul by Mr. Obama, Democratic leaders and a handful of other Republicans.”
So, in considering what can now accurately be referred to as the Obama-Rubio-Ryan amnesty plan of 2013, there’s one central question that Rubio and Ryan need to be asked: Do they trust President Obama to enforce the immigration laws in the future, after today’s illegals have been legalized?
If they answer “yes”, then they need to explain why they think he’d suddenly become committed to enforcement after four years of downgrading immigration law enforcement, and more generally acting as though the U.S. Code were a body of suggestions rather than laws.
[…..]
This isn’t some nit I’m picking — it’s central to the whole concept of “comprehensive immigration reform”. If you trust Obama to do the right thing, then, by all means, endorse his plan for amnesty, as Rubio and Ryan have done. But if you don’t trust him to keep his word, if you think all his statements come with an expiration date, then there’s no honest way you can back his approach.
For more on what Rubio’s (and no doubt Grover Norquist’s too!) “comprehensive” plan would do, visit VDARE and see what “Washington Watcher” says about it. Here is one snippet:
In reality, because, as I mentioned earlier, there is no way to find out when an illegal alien first came to this country, an amnesty will certainly lead to more illegals crossing the border to take advantage of the new program.
It is safe to say that Rubio’s proposal appears to be virtually indistinguishable from what the Democrats want—except the delay in granting citizenship to the amnestied illegals.
Usually, Republican amnesty proposals at least pretend that they are focused even more on enforcement than legalization—but Rubio has pretty much given up even that pretense.
My theory: Rubio is willing to give the Democrats whatever they want—so long as the illegals don’t get (immediate) citizenship.
Back to TPS
I don’t see any other conclusion, if Obama-Rubio-Ryan get their way, everyone gets to stay and Temporary Protected Status is permanent (no more fig leaf), but for certain classes of illegal immigants it already is—Salvadorans, Somalis, Haitians etc.
Liberians had TPS for years and note that they are off the list, but no one deported them!
To be truly “comprehensive,” Rubio’s bill should include a repeal of TPS. And, the diversity visa lottery too! How about a moratorium on refugee resettlement as well until that 1980 Kennedy-Biden-Carter law has been back to Congress for reauthorization (something that has never happened).
