Category: Nashville

Tennessee Somali sex trafficking trial points to immigration fraud truth

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

And, that immigration fraud could end up causing the prosecutors to lose this case.

I haven’t seen the very latest on the trial that was supposed to wrap up yesterday, but here is an AP story from Thursday.  At least from this report it doesn’t look like a guilty verdict for at least the CHILD sex trafficking charges can hold up:

Jennifer Thompson, defense attorney for Idris Ibrahim Fahra, said Jane Doe No. 2 was a runaway who manipulated people around her and was fed information from a St. Paul police investigator.

Only when the witness got into trouble, “that’s when she plays the victim card,” Thompson argued.

She pointed out the witness, also Somali, doesn’t know her age because her birth certificate was faked. [and, the US State Department never found that out before they let her (and the men too) and thousands like them into the US!—ed]

Thompson contended Jane Doe No. 2 was “a grown-up” as old or older than the men she was having sex with.

Let me put this the way the Left would put it—Somalis come from a culture that condones lying (ie. it is not their fault, their culture makes them do it).

A reminder:  as many as 36,000 Africans (mostly Somalis) entered the US by lying about family relationships

Back in 2008 the US State Department discovered wide-spread fraud in the so-called P-3 family reunification program mostly involving Somalis.  Surprise! They lied about family connections.  Here, officials put the estimate of fraudulent entries between the years 2003 and 2008 at 36,000!

So, in fact, we don’t know who these people are who are on trial in Tennessee let alone their birth dates.

For all of our earlier posts on the Tennessee case, type “Somali sex trafficking” into our search function.

For new readers: see the sidebar where it says “top posts” and today there are 8 of 12 top posts on Somalis.  Our top post, probably of all time, is the one about how we got so many Somalis (a post with over 21,000 readers).  And, by the way, the years we permitted the largest number of Somalis to enter the US are three years following 9/11 (2004, 2005, 2006…all Bush years).

Somali sex trafficking trial underway in Nashville

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update April 21st:  More sordid details from the on-going trial, here.

Case is complicated by lack of accurate birth dates for the former refugees.

From AP at the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Forensic experts testified about DNA evidence during the second week of a federal trial involving several defendants accused of using a young Somali female for forced prostitution.

The trial being held in Nashville includes nine out of a total of 30 people who have been accused in an indictment of involvement in a child sexual trafficking ring that prosecutors say was run by Somali gangs and that included sexual acts in Minnesota, Ohio and Tennessee.

The key witness testified last week that she was used as a prostitute by members of Somali gangs starting in the 6th grade. But the trial has been complicated by the fact that both the alleged victim and many of the defendants are from Somali families who fled to the United States as war refugees and who don’t have accurate birth records. The other defendants are expected to face trial at a later date.

Go here for all of our previous coverage of the case.

More delays in the Tennessee Somali sex trafficking case

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

And, what do you know—refugee immigration documents are inaccurate for some.

(Previous posts on this case can be found here)

From AP at NECN.com (raise your hand if you’ve seen this story mentioned anywhere on the mainstream media!):

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) — A federal trial involving more than a dozen defendants accused in a sex trafficking ring run by Somali gangs has faced a series of delays.

U.S. District Judge William J. Haynes again this week ordered jurors to return on Monday as defense attorneys argued that the defendants, many of whom are refugees from Somalia, were juveniles at the time the alleged crimes occurred.

The indictment said three gangs called the Somali Outlaws, the Somali Mafia and the Lady Outlaws were forcing teenage girls into prostitution and operated in St. Paul, Minnesota; Minneapolis; Columbus, Ohio; and Nashville.

After selecting a jury last month, the trial was delayed last week when prosecutors turned over thousands of documents and audio recordings from the investigation to defense attorneys on the eve of trial. Both defense attorneys and federal prosecutors have repeatedly declined to comment about the case.

Who exactly is my mama, and when exactly was I born?

Many, but not all the defendants, are described as refugees who came to the United States as young children. [What about the others, were they born here, or came illegally?—ed] Police have relied on immigration paperwork to determine their ages, but defense attorneys have argued in court that information in those documents are routinely incorrect due to cultural and language issues.*

One defendant, Abdirahman Abdirazak Hersi, has a date of birth listed in police records as Feb. 20, 1990, but his mother testified in court Wednesday that he had been born in Somalia on Dec. 1, 1991, and that her sister was incorrectly listed as his mother in immigration records.

His attorney has asked the judge to dismiss some of the charges against his client because he would have been a juvenile at the time of the offenses and he never had a juvenile status hearing that would determine whether he would face the charges as an adult.

* Or due to fraud!   New readers may not know that the family reunification portion of the Refugee Resettlement Program was (maybe still is!) closed for years beginning in 2008 when the State Department discovered widespread fraud primarily from Somalia and East Africa.   The “family” members turned out not to be related at all.  Here is my original reporting.  And, as of this writing (July 2011)—fewer refugees coming to the US due to security concerns—the program had not resumed.

Somali sex trafficking trial delayed in Nashville

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

If you were planning to try to get a seat in the courtroom this week for one of the biggest trials in Tennessee history, you will have to wait until next week.

According to the AP published at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the trial has been delayed a week to allow defense attorneys time to review more documents.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A federal judge has delayed the start of a trial for more than a dozen people accused in a sex trafficking ring run by Somali gangs that reached from Minnesota to Tennessee.

Opening arguments were scheduled to start Monday, but over the weekend the U.S. attorney’s office released to defense attorneys hundreds of pages of investigator notes and hours of telephone recordings of one of the juvenile female victims.

The indictment said three gangs called the Somali Outlaws, the Somali Mafia and the Lady Outlaws were forcing teenage girls into prostitution and operated in St. Paul, Minn.; Minneapolis; Columbus, Ohio; and Nashville.

The indictment accuses the gangs of finding and recruiting young girls, some also Somali, for the purpose of prostitution in exchange for money and drugs between 2000 and 2010.

Most of the defendants are from the Somali refugee populations in Minnesota and Tennessee.

U.S. District Judge William J. Haynes pushed the start of the trial back one week to give the defense attorneys time to review the additional evidence. Assistant U.S. Attorney Van Vincent told the court that the late release of the documents was not intentional.

For new readers, here is a post I wrote in 2008 that is still almost daily one of the top posts here at RRW.  In it we show how many Somali refugees have entered the US legally as refugees over the last two decades—over a hundred thousand now.   One federal contractor that played a big role in resettling Somali Muslims is Catholic Charities.

And, here is one of many previous posts on this sex trafficking case.  You can find links to earlier posts there.

Special government-funded employment services for special people

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

That means for refugees (and employers of refugees) and not you!   (This is another in my recent series of posts in a category I’ve titled ‘legal immigration and jobs‘ here.)

I’ve told you before, here, about the Center for Refugees and Immigrants of Tennessee (CRIT) whose Director Abdirizak Hassan was charged some years ago with misusing government grant money and subsequently changed the name of his organization from the Somali Community Center to the present innocuous sounding name—Center for Refugees and Immigrants of Tennessee (henceforth CRIT). Well, he is still getting federal government grants—no debarment for him!  Debarment is when someone has cheated on a government grant and is then not allowed to apply for another one.

Hassan has also been known to pop back and forth to Somalia from time to time—I thought that was a dangerous country from which he sought asylum in the US?

Here is what CRIT says on its website about their employment services (I have highlighted my favorites, and added some notes!):

Are you an employer who needs good, conscientious workers?

The Center for Refugees and Immigrants of Tennessee (CRIT) can help you find good employees without a placement fee! [yippee it’s free! because the feds are picking up the tab!—ed]

We have unrestricted work-authorized refugees with experience in assembly line/production, warehouses, hospitality, quality control, and professional fields.

Why hire a refugee?

* Refugees are permanently work-authorized: You don’t have to worry about tracking them down annually to ensure they are still work-authorized

* You could qualify for tax incentives by hiring refugees: Since many refugees receive public assistance, your company could qualify for tax credits and training incentives when you hire them.   [So, what did I tell you special deals for employers—WHAT TAX CREDIT?—ed]

* Our job placement services are FREE: Rather than spend money placing job advertisements, contact the Center for Refugees and Immigrants of Tennessee. Let us help you find qualified workers FREE OF CHARGE.  [Your business doesn’t have to spend money because the US taxpayer is picking up the tab for special people—ed]

* Refugees have passed numerous background checks during their resettlement: If employers hire refugees, they will not have to incur the significant cost of performing background checks because extensive background checks were done before they arrived in the U.S.  [Kind of like those Iraqi refugees in neighboring Kentucky charged in a terrorism case, turns out they lied on their background checks—ed]

* Refugees have higher job retention rates than other groups in entry level jobs: According to the National Immigration Forum, Dee Zee Manufacturing’s Human Resources Manager Cindee Moyer said “Before I hired refugees, I had a 60% turnover rate. Now I have a 20% [turnover]. I had a 6% absentee rate, now it’s down to .1%.”

* Refugees receive free support from the Center for Refugees and Immigrants of Tennessee: CRIT provides post-placement support for our clients to help them retain their jobs. We assist with filling out paperwork, resolving any on the job issues, and accessing social services. We are always here to serve both the refugee employee and the companies they work for. [Again, employers can pay lower wages because worker needs (food, shelter, healthcare) are being subsidized by the taxpayer—ed]

* Refugees are motivated, hard workers: Because refugees lost their homes as well as their careers in their home countries, they want to regain what they have lost and achieve economic stability. [It’s kind of like slave labor because they can’t go home.—ed]

And, last but not least, they don’t say it, but refugees are willing to work on the following holidays because they are Muslims and don’t give a hoot about our holidays!

    * Refugees are flexible about what shift they work and what days they work: Many refugees will work second or third shift or weekends and holidays. Many of our refugee workers can work on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years Eve, New Years Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, and Independence Day.

So again, who is funding CRIT’s “free!” special headhunter service for big business in Tennessee—you are—the US taxpayer!

Here is CRIT’s most recent Form 990.  Out of a gross income of $243,185, $213,105 comes from you via government grants (p. 9).  So, although it is politically incorrect for me to say it so bluntly, you are funding headhunter services for employers who then hire Muslim refugee workers over American workers in Tennessee.  Great huh!

End note:  I wonder if CRIT is working with Tyson Foods to fill their cheap/captive labor needs, here.