Category: Other Immigration

Border Patrol testimony: Canadian border greater threat then Mexican border

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’m trying to clear out bits of news piling up on my desk.  Here is a report from CNS News that caught my eye.  We already know there is much back and forth between Somalis across our northern border.  One of the most interesting cases—now swept under the rug—was the case of the Canadian Somali who died in a Denver hotel room with enough cyanide to kill hundreds just before the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

From CNS News:

Washington (CNSNews.com) – The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency has apprehended more suspected terrorists on the nation’s northern border than along its southern counterpart, CBP Commissioner Alan Bersin said Tuesday.

“In terms of the terrorist threat, it’s commonly accepted that the more significant threat” comes from the U.S.-Canada border, Bersin told a hearing of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees, and Border Security.

Bersin attributed the situation, in part, to the fact that the U.S. and Canada do not share information about people placed on their respective “no-fly” lists. As a result, individuals deemed a threat who fly into one country may then cross the land border into the other.

There is more, read on.

Food stamp fraud in Louisiana: sheriff expects more busts soon

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I think this is my first immigrant food stamp fraud from Louisiana!

And, you can bet there is more to this story then some cases of Coca Cola!  The brothers busted this time are from Yemen (the written report from KTBS News doesn’t tell us that but if you watch the news clip you will hear that interesting bit of information).  I wonder how many of our tax dollars are sent to Yemen from Louisiana!

Scamming the infidels:

Two brothers have been arrested on fraud-related charges, accused of stocking a Shreveport convenience store with soft drinks bought with an illegally purchased food stamp card.

Caddo Parish sheriff’s investigators said the men paid 60 cents on the dollar for the food stamp card, used it to buy 50 six-packs of soft drinks and then took them to a convenience store where one of the men worked.

“Everybody’s winning (financially) but the taxpayers,” said Sheriff Steve Prator, who said his office has investigations underway into similar cases.

Abdo Zamzami, 38, and Safwan Zamzami, 24, face charges. Abdo Zamzami was arrested for unauthorized use of an access card and computer fraud. His brother was booked as a principal to computer fraud.

Isn’t diversity great!

Diversity visa lottery screw-up puts the program in the news

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

And, that is a very good thing!  I saw this story as a tiny item in a small daily paper.   If you have never heard of the Diversity Visa Lottery, you are in for a shock.  Each year millions of people from around the world submit paperwork (with the help of companies and lawyers whose business it is to get them through the process) to enter the US State Department “lottery” in hopes of being one of 50,000 chosen each year to legally come to America—to add to our diversity!

Here, from Sky News, is the news about this year’s lottery gone awry:

For a few joyful days, more than 20,000 people around the world thought they had beaten the odds and won a lottery that gave them a chance to go and live legally in the United States.

On Friday, the State Department sent its regrets.

Computer problems had negated the lottery’s results, it said.

The exercise will have to be repeated and those announced as winners would have to wait it out with the previous losers.

The decision reopens competition for 50,000 wild-card visas for people who otherwise would have little hope of qualifying.

About 15 million had applied, so the bad news for 20,000 was very good news for many others who had thought they had lost.

The article profiles ‘Max’ a German (who could very well be a Turk) who is already in the US on another visa and tells of his initial joy and his ultimate disappointment at being chosen in the first 20,000 and then being told it was all a big mistake.  Max hired a company involved in the worldwide immigration industry to get him through the process.

The Associated Press contacted Max through a German company that helps applicants navigate the thicket of paperwork for what is known around the world as the ‘ green card lottery’ . Most legal aliens in the United States are issued green cards as proof of their status.

For all the criticism of the US overseas, it remains the single most desirable place to immigrate, either legally or illegally.  [Remember this the next time you hear the Leftists/Marxists complaining about America!]

Bill to end the lottery!

Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), again this year, introduced his bill to end the lottery, but an attempt to cut the program on HR 1 (the continuing budget resolution) was killed by House Republican leadership, here.   One terror attack has already been committed by a “winner” of the lottery.  See also the list of co-sponsors, there are a lot of good conservatives who are not co-sponsoring yet, but should get on this bill.

For an additional shock, check out the FY2011 “winners” here.

Cautionary note!  Every time I hear someone say that legal immigration is great, but it’s illegal they wish to curtail, I shudder and I know they don’t know what the h*** they are talking about!  So please stop saying that foolish tripe!

For new readers:  Type ‘diversity visa lottery’ into our search function for more posts on the program.

Texas food stamp fraud investigation has a new partner

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Another big immigrant food stamp fraud arrest happened this week after a grand jury indicted three in Brownsville, Texas.  This is the first case I’ve seen that was investigated with the help of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Homeland Security.  Usually only the Dept. of Agriculture is involved.

From MMDnewswire:

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (MMD Newswire) April 29, 2011 — The owner of a local dollar supermarket and two of his employees were arrested on Tuesday, after a federal grand jury indicted the three men for food-stamp fraud, and other charges. The arrests were announced by U.S. Attorney José Angel Moreno, Southern District of Texas. The investigation is being conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Office of Inspector General.

Parviz Sheikh Rezaei, 55, owner of Pariz Dollar Supermarket in Brownsville, Texas, was arrested April 26 on the following charges: fraud under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food-stamp fraud, wire fraud; money laundering; money structuring; and operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business. Gabriel Garza and Juan David Fernandez, employees of Pariz Dollar Supermarket, were also arrested on Tuesday for food stamp fraud. All three defendants appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Felix Recio on April 26 and have been ordered temporarily detained until their arraignment April 29,. at which time the issue of bond will be decided.

Another report at KRGV-TV tells us they ripped off American taxpayers and poor people to the tune of $4 million, that’s one of the largest thefts I’ve seen to date.

Parviz Rezaei, Gabriel Garza and Juan Fernandez have been indicted on 45 counts of taking nearly $4 million from the federal government.

Federal agents arrested them Tuesday at a grocery store called Paraiz Supermarket in Cameron Park.

Federal documents claim Rezaei owns two Cameron Park stores and that he, along with his two workers, would trade cash for the food stamps. They allegedly would give the recipients money and charge a 23 percent handling fee then charge the federal government as if they were buying food.  [Heck, these guys weren’t so greedy, in most cases the ‘take’ is 50 percent.—ed]

Wonder what country they were transmitting money (redistributing wealth) to?   I gotta hand it to the Obama Administration these food stamp fraud busts have really been picking up lately.

Canada has immigrant “investors” ripping it off too!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’ve been writing for years about LEGAL immigration programs in the US that allow those people from a whole long list of countries who have a little money to “invest” to get into the US and buy such things as mom and pop gas stations and convenience stores only to turn them into fraudulent enterprises most notably stealing from the food stamp program. (See my earlier post this a.m. for example)

Now, we learn that Canada, greedy for “investors” too, has a legal immigration program that is a major fraud operation.  Here is a long story and an investigation by the Globe and Mail about how Canada is being hoodwinked by unscrupulous Chinese “investors.”

Here is just one little bit from the Globe’s story:

But a bigger threat may lurk abroad. More than 80 per cent of the companies The Globe’s counterfeit client asked for help offered to sugarcoat the past, even if it includes a criminal conviction and time in jail.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney confirms that “crooked consultants” in such places as India, Pakistan and especially China are a problem. “A lot of people,” he said in an interview, “are willing to pay a lot of money to cut corners.”

I wish we had a news gathering organization as aggressive as the Globe and Mail which actually set up a sting operation to get this story.

Our American food stamp scams (convenience stores owned by immigrant investors)  would be a great subject for such a sting!

By the way, if you are interested in more on how the American E-2 Treaty Investor program works, see this post I wrote last year at this time.  Note that we even have law firms in some cities helping the “investors” get here and acquire their very own personal convenience store!