Category: Immigration fraud

Brazil “unprepared” for asylum-seeker crush

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It’s not just Australia, Israel, Bulgaria, Italy and the rest of Europe trying desperately to hold back the tide of migrants from the Middle East/Africa and other third world nations, but even in South America there is no peace from largely economic migrants (all calling themselves ‘asylum seekers’) looking for new places to call home.

Homeless “asylum seekers”

From Deutsche Welle (The star of this story is Mohammed from Syria):

Brazil has seen the number of asylum seekers increase nearly tenfold over three years and official agencies are woefully unprepared to deal with the refugees. Few people receive asylum and help for immigrants is sparse.

[….]

In Brazil, political refugees from the Middle East or Africa have been a rare sight over the last few years. The South American country appears far removed from the horrors of war on foreign continents. But that is changing. Between 2010 and 2013, the number of people seeking asylum in Brazil increased nearly tenfold, from 566 to 5,200. Adding to those numbers are thousands of immigrants from Haiti, Senegal, Angola, Liberia, Bolivia, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

“Brazil has to prepare for an increasing crush of immigrants,” said Andres Ramirez, who represents the UN’s refugee agency in Brazil (Acnur). Since 2013, the organization has been operating a small office in Sao Paulo. One of the biggest problems, he told DW, is the lack of emergency shelters. “Many refugees sleep on the streets for days before they get any help,” he said.

Of the 5,200 people applying for asylum in Brazil, just 649 were recognized, according to figures from the country’s Ministry of Justice. The largest group among them, 283, came from Syria, followed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with 106, then Columbia and Angola.

The largest group seeking asylum, however, were the 1,814 Bangladeshis. Just one was recognized as a political refugee. Senegal followed with 868 asylum seekers, of whom four were recognized. In other conflict regions, such as Lebanon, Guinea-Bissau and Somalia, acceptance rates stood at below 3 percent.

Such statistics don’t include the 15,000 Haitians in northern Brazil. Roughly 70 per day arrive in Brasilia, a city of just 10,000 in the state of Acre, bordering Peru.

[….]

The unofficial influx has become a political problem. In an extraordinary cry for help, the state government of Acre requested on Wednesday (15.1.2014) that the federal Ministry of Justice allow it to close the border to Peru.

Read it all.

As always, I wonder how the poor and destitute from places like Bangladesh are getting the money to travel half way around the world to Brazil.  And, do they all pass through Cuba on the way???  I suppose it’s just a matter of time before they work their way north to the US border!

Ahmed and Abdulmalik busted in Baltimore food stamp fraud scheme

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This one was a $1.5 million rip-off of the US taxpayer.

The Baltimore Sun doesn’t say much, but here (below) is the entire FBI press release that I found informative.  Note that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was involved, so there must be an immigration angle to the case.   But, of course, no mention of details regarding where these alleged crooks came from!  We have our guesses!  LOL! See a pattern?

For new readers this is a hobby here at RRW.  See our previous report on another big bust in our home state. It is good to know that even in blue Maryland the feds are ferreting out the fraudsters.

From the FBI yesterday (highlights are mine):

BALTIMORE—Abdulmalik Abdulla, age 37, and Ahmed Mohssen, age 53, both of Baltimore, were arrested today on federal charges of conspiracy to commit food stamp fraud and wire fraud in connection with a scheme to illegally redeem food stamp benefits in exchange for cash. The criminal complaint filed today alleges that the defendants, who operate Sam’s NY grocery store on North Milton Street in Baltimore, received more than $1.5 million in federal payments for transactions in which they did not provide any food but instead split the proceeds with food stamp recipients. Federal agents arrested the defendants and executed search warrants at the store and related locations today. In separate cases, 10 defendants were charged with food stamp fraud in September 2013; four of those defendants have pleaded guilty, and the others are awaiting trial.

The arrests were announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge William G. Squires, Jr. of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General, Northeast Region; and Special Agent in Charge Stephen E. Vogt of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

“Retailers who trade food stamp credits for cash are on notice that federal authorities are on their trail,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. “Taxpayers fund the program to provide food for needy recipients, not to turn retail store cash registers into ATMs.”

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), previously known as the Food Stamp Program, is administered by the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), together with state agencies. The program funds low-income individuals to allow them to obtain a more nutritious diet. In Maryland, the program provides eligible individuals with an electronic benefit transfer (EBT) card called the Independence Card, which operates like a debit card. Recipients use the EBT card to purchase approved food items from participating retailers.

Retailers must apply to and be approved by FNS to participate in the program. Authorized retailers use a point-of-sale terminal that checks the EBT card information and deducts the cash value of the purchase from the customer’s SNAP benefit balance. SNAP reimbursements are paid to retailers through electronic funds transfers. Retailers bill the government in return for providing approved food items. SNAP retailers, including the defendants, receive instruction regarding the requirements and regulations of the food stamp program, such as that only eligible food items can be exchanged for EBT benefits and that a retailer may never exchange EBT benefits for cash or non-food items.

The criminal complaint alleges that the defendants exchanged EBT benefits for cash, typically paying half the value of the EBT benefits in cash. As a result of unlawful cash transactions, the defendants allegedly obtained more than $1.5 million in EBT deposits for transactions in which the store did not provide food.

The defendants face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud and a maximum of five years in prison for conspiracy to commit food stamp fraud. The defendants are expected to have initial appearances at 3:45 p.m. today in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.  [Wire fraud??? Does that mean money left the country?—ed]

A criminal complaint is not a finding of guilt. An individual charged by criminal complaint is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the USDA Office of Inspector General and FBI for their work in the investigation. U.S. Attorney Rosenstein expressed appreciation to Secretary Ted Dallas and the Maryland Department of Human Resources, as well as U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services-Office of Fraud Detection and National Security for their assistance in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant United States Attorney Kathleen O. Gavin, who is prosecuting the case.

See our extensive archive of similar cases from sea to shining sea!

Related:  See Washington Times Golden Hammer award earlier this month.  And, from Breitbart—able-bodied people with no dependents signing up in droves—have they figured out how to use the cards for cash?  I bet they have.

Australia apologizes for breaching Indonesian waters to push back migrants, but….

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

….we are going to continue to turn boats away from our shores, said Immigration Minister Morrison!

I wasn’t planning on writing a second post on Australia today (see first one here), but when I saw this photo, I wanted you to see it!

What the heck is this—a strategy session with a white ‘community organizer’ where Somali men, at a hotel in Indonesia, plan their next attempt to break into Australia!

If they want asylum, ask for it in Indonesia, a safe Muslim country!  International law requires legitimate asylum seekers to ask for asylum in the first safe country they reach!

This is the caption published with the photo: “Somali immigrants gather at a hotel where Indonesian authorities have billeted asylum seekers hoping to reach Australia. (AFP/JEMS)”

Here is the story that accompanies the photo, from Reuters:

SYDNEY — Australia’s government on Friday acknowledged its navy breached Indonesian territorial sovereignty several times as part of its controversial operations to stop boats carrying would-be asylum seekers from entering Australian waters.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said he had been informed earlier this week about the “inadvertent breaches” and immediately informed the Indonesian navy.

Lieutenant General Angus Campbell, the officer in charge of “Operation Sovereign Borders,” said the breaches occurred on multiple days but declined to provide further details.

“We deeply regret these events and have offered an apology,” Morrison told reporters. “However the Australian government remains committed to continuing to implement the policies to stop the boats.”

Most of those they are pushing back are from:  Afghanistan, Darfur, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria.

There is more.

Australia continues plans to keep illegal migrants off-shore amid the usual complaints

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The complaints, of course, mostly come from the humanitarian industrial complex and its henchmen at the UN.

Boat people attempting to get into Australia hit record high numbers in 2012.
http://www.mole.my/content/boat-people-coming-australia-hits-record

We haven’t written much about Australia lately, but most Australians were so angered by those migrants arriving on boats and demanding asylum that they voted for a get-tough policy represented by Tony Abbott in the elections last year.

Here is some recent news, from the Irish Independent (that obviously leans left on immigration):

Australia will shut four mainland immigration detention centres, the government said on today, as it pushes ahead with controversial policies to turn back refugee boats and detain asylum seekers in remote centres offshore.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said in a statement the decision to shutter the facilities, which are run by British outsourcing company Serco Group Plc, would save at least A$88.8 million ($80.41 million) a year.

“These sites are remote, relatively small and expensive,” Morrison’s statement said. “These facilities were never envisaged as being permanent and due to the rationalisation of the immigration detention network they are no longer required.”

Australia’s conservative government routinely does not answer questions about its immigration policy, which was a central plank of its election victory last year, saying it does not comment on “operational matters”.

The number of would-be refugees reaching Australia pales in comparison with other countries but it remains a polarising political issue that also stokes tensions with neighbour Indonesia over border policies criticised by the United Nations.

Tuesday’s announcement comes amid growing scrutiny of Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s asylum seeker policies.   [Of course opinion lines like this are in here to bias the reader!—ed]

The government has refused to confirm widespread reports that the Australian Navy has started implementing a controversial policy of returning intercepted vessels carrying asylum seekers to Indonesia.

Guess where most of the illegal migrants are coming from?

Most of those held in offshore centres have fled conflict zones such as Afghanistan, Darfur, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria.

I’ll betcha even those coming from Darfur are Muslims!

Thanks to our visitors from Australia which consistently number second or third behind the US in visitor stats.  This is our 121st post in our Australia category.

Yonkers, NY: food stamp fraud heist in 3 convenience stores nets $1.2 million

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

And, besides the one Hispanic—Gloria Garcia—those charged include Ahmed, Shoiab, Yousif, and Mufid!

EBT Nation! My go-to graphic when I can’t find a photo of the food stamp crooks

From Lohud.com:

The owners of three Yonkers groceries and two of their employees have been charged in a scheme to exchange more than $1.2 million in food stamps for cash.

Prosecutors, who began investigating some of the people as early as 2011, said the scheme has persisted for years at the three stores. Employees at the stores — two of which are in downtrodden sections of the city — would overcharge customers’ electronic benefit cards and then give the customers the cash while pocketing some of the money for themselves.

At 42 Post Deli Grocery on Post Street, prosecutors said, this meant the store owner and employee would keep about 50 percent of the cash; other stores kept smaller amounts.

These crooks are not always the brightest bulbs so one wonders how these young Middle Eastern or African men have been able to acquire small stores throughout America—who is helping them?

Why do I say they aren’t that bright, the feds only need to look at how much food stamp redemption goes on in comparable stores and that is what they did here.

At Sam Deli on Palisade Avenue investigators calculated that the store authorized $292,819 in benefits redemptions from March 2012 to February 2013, while similar stores redeemed as little as $8,433. Prosecutors said Gloria Garcia, 51, the owner of a third grocery, exchanged more than $800,000 in federal benefits for cash.

So where do these perps come from? Like most of these food stamp fraud cases, immigration status is not mentioned.

Four of those charged, including Garcia, were taken into custody Tuesday and arraigned in U.S. District Court in White Plains. The other three were identified as Ahmed Alsamet, 35, the owner of Sam Deli, and Shoiab Ahmed, 22, an employee there, who are accused of exchanging upwards of $250,000 in food stamps for cash; as well as Yousif Kassim, 30, the owner of 42 Post.

Kassim is charged along with Mufid Kassem, 36, an employee at 42 Post. Both are accused of exchanging food stamps for more than $200,000 in cash. Kassem remains at large.

Food stamp fraud reporting is a side interest here at RRW, click here for probably a hundred similar stories going back to 2008.  So far, the mainstream media has refused to make any connection between these scams and ‘immigrant (hah!) entrepreneurs.’

Go here for information on how to report suspected food stamp fraud where you live.