If you are a longtime reader, you know that following food stamp fraud cases is a side interest of mine. Go here to my large archive on past cases. I haven’t written much lately on the topic because reporting on the refugee program is about all I can handle.
There is so much that could be done to stop the fraud including disallowing these ‘mom and pop’ convenience stores from accepting EBT cards.
I continue to urge one of you to write a blog solely on the topic of immigrant fraud such as food stamp fraud and other welfare fraud—a topic that could keep you busy every day and do our country a great service.
And, besides, your blog could be hopping (and fun to write!) because I suspect we will see more crackdowns now that the Justice Department is run by Jeff Sessions.
The type of fraud mentionedhere in the Breitbart story (called trafficking) works like this: Customer with SNAP benefits comes in to store wanting cash (for drugs?). Manager or owner pays customer 50 cents on the dollar in cash and then seeks reimbursement from the government (you!) for the full $1 dollar supposedly spent on food.
Twelve Floridians have been charged with running an alleged $20 million food stamp fraud scheme in one of the “largest” food stamp fraud crackdowns in history, according to the Justice Department.
Federal prosecutors told the Miami Herald that the 12 defendants who reportedly defrauded the federal government of $20 million were charged with food stamp fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
The list of those charged include Mohammed Alobaisi, 37; Mohammad Alteen, 33; Joe Ann Baker, 56; Reynold Francois, 38; Omar Hajje, 43; Jalal Hajyousef, 42; Andy Javier Herrera, 24, and his father, Javier Herrera, 49; Ihab Hassouna, 44; Maria Jerdana, 36; Hasan Saleh, 59; and Yousef “Joe” Homedan Zahran, 60.
“In this instance, eight small convenience stores in South Florida committed a staggering amount of fraud in a relatively short amount of time,”said Karen Citizen-Wilcox, special agent in charge, U.S. Department of Agriculture-Office of the Inspector General, in a press release.
[….]
Store owners and employees who commit food stamp fraud face steep consequences.
No, I would not call a few months in jail “steep consequences.” And, how does someone pay restitution when they have sent your tax dollars out of the country (which is often the case)?
We are disturbed and deeply disappointed by the proposed presidential determination number of 45,000,” said Bishop Joe S. Vasquez of Austin, Texas, who is chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration. http://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2017/faith-groups-ask-government-to-reconsider-historically-low-refugee-cap.cfm
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops insisted that Trump admit 75,000 paying refugee clients to the US beginning October 1. But, not a word at Crux that they receive millions of tax payer dollars for their Christian charity as the largest of nine federal refugee contractors.***
During his weekly audience on September 27, Pope Francis will kick off a two-year “Share the Journey” campaign aimed to encourage Catholics to “encounter” migrants and refugees. In response, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is calling for a National Week of Prayer and Action, scheduled from October 7-13.
The new campaign is focused on providing practical ways for Catholics to break down barriers of fear and build bridges with migrants and refugees.
Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA), Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and the USCCB are part of a global network of organizations participating in the campaign organized by Caritas Internationalis.
Pope Francis invited the invasion of Italy:
Throughout his papacy, Francis has made the cause of refugees and migrants one of special concern to him. His first trip outside Rome as pope was a day trip to the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, where he celebrated mass to memorialize the thousands of refugees that had died there trying to reach Europe.
Pope Francis welcomes migrants to Lampedusa Italy in 2013, see what happened: https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2016/05/20/migrants-burn-down-refugee-center-on-lampedusa-thank-you-pope-francis/
[….]
The National Week of Prayer and Action comes at a time when many leaders of the U.S. Church have clashed with the Trump administration over its policies toward migrants and refugees.
Earlier this month, the administration announced that it would be ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program known as DACA, which provides protection from deportation for qualified immigrants. This decision prompted widespread outrage among members of the U.S. church hierarchy.
In the coming days, the president is also expected to set a ceiling on the number of refugees the U.S. will accept. Administration officials have suggested a limit of 50,000, while the USCCB is advocating for at least 75,000 to be welcomed.
(This story was posted at Crux before the final decision was announced. We know now that Trump came in at 45,000.)
Trump’s 45,000 capon refugees has the Bishops hopping mad, see here. (Not a word there either that the number admitted will affect the Bishop’s bottom line!)
***The UN/US Refugee Admissions Program will never be reformed as long as these nine federal contractors are allowed to accept federal funds and then lobby and otherwise community organize in order to keep the taxpayer-funded gravy train rolling.
This is more than the usual press statement from the White House on the Presidential Determination. In my experience previous statements have been shorter and certainly not so defensive.
Whose bright idea was it to ‘split the baby’ and place a cap on refugees arriving in the US at a number to anger both sides (Tillerson, Trump, Haley, McMaster?) Unless he morphed into Obama, Trump will never make the Open Borders Left happy, so why look weak and disrespect the base?
Below (hat tip Richard at Blue Ridge Forum) are just some of the nuggets (interspersed with comments from me) that interested me. Read the whole thinghere.
It reads like a press statement to justify suspending the whole program, or at least dropping the number significantly! 45,000 is not a significant drop!
President Donald J. Trump is Taking a Responsible and Humanitarian Approach on Refugees
President Trump has determined that up to 45,000 refugees may be admitted into the United States in Fiscal Year 2018. [George Bush averaged under 45,000 admissions from FY 2002-2008.—ed]
Editor: The difference between us and other countries being flooded with ‘refugees’ is that those refugees will not become permanent voting citizens in places like Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon. Those we take are on a path to citizenship.
With this new ceiling, the United States will continue to permanently resettle more refugees than any other country and we will continue to offer protection to the most vulnerable…
Editor: Remember readers that successful asylum seekers (those granted asylum) are refugees eligible for all the perks and privileges given to the refugees we fly in. They can access welfare and become citizens. They are refugees even if the media continues to say that the likes of the Boston Bombers are not refugees.
The decision reflects the need to concentrate limited resources on the approximately 270,000 aliens who have applied for asylum but have not been properly vetted, and are already present in the United States.
Editor: The next time you hear the contractors/volags say there are no terrorists in the refugee pool in America, remember this:
As of February 2017, more than 300 individuals who were initially admitted to the United States as refugees were under FBI investigation for potential ties to suspected terrorists.
Since 2011, there have been at least 20 admitted refugees who have been arrested or removed from the United States based on terrorism investigations.
In 2016, a Somali refugee attacked 11 Americans at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.
Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, approximately two dozen individuals who had been admitted to the United States as refugees have been removed or arrested and convicted of terrorism-related offenses.
Editor: This is the first time in a long time we have heard a word about any state or local say about what is being dumped on communities from Washington, but couched in squishy language (help build trust in refugee resettlement). Who wrote this press release???
In February, the President met with local sheriffs at the White House to hear their concerns, including those about refugees who were resettled in their communities without local input.
President Trump believes in enhancing existing efforts to work closely with State and local leaders to help build community trust in refugee resettlement efforts while also determining the best placement of resettled refugees in the United States.
Editor: Regarding this next section of the White House press statement, there is no mechanism in place for any refugees who have been admitted to the US to go home. Over the years penniless unhappy refugees have come forward to say they made a mistake and want to go back home, but can’t afford to pay the airfare. We have argued that there should be a way to accommodate their wishes.
One primary goal of United States refugee policy is to enable refugees to ultimately return home, where they can be reunited with friends and family and help rebuild their communities.
[….]
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spent more than $96 billion on programs supporting or benefiting refugees between 2005 and 2014.
HHS surveys from the Obama Administration show that 45% of refugees arriving between 2011 and 2015 were receiving cash assistance, 49% were receiving Medicaid, and that nearly 75% were receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.
Read it all here. I am sure I will be revisiting it.
45,000 is way too many and nothing here has changed my mind about that!
Indeed much of what is written above could have been used as justification for suspending the whole program!
And, by the way, where is the much more useful report that is supposed to have been delivered to Congress before the determination?
Endnote: In case you missed it, Donald began welcoming those Australian rejected asylum seekers just this week as he surpassed his 50,000 CEILING for FY17 by 3,695! Total as of this morning for FY17 is 53,695.
Maybe the Prez should invite those mostly single men who have lived in detention for as long as 4 years to the White House and show them to the media (and show his family what a humanitarian he can be)!
And, yes, Mr. President, the deal was “dumb” and it makes you “look terrible.”
We have America’s hurricane refugees and you are bringing in ‘refugees’ that Australia does not want on its mainland!
What is Trump grinning about? He (we!) get nothing out of the deal that saves Turnbull’s political neck.
The news that they were leaving Australia’s detention centers en route to at least five American states is two days old, so surely they have been delivered.
For new readers, see all of my posts on the Australian (dumb!) deal by clicking here.
Here is the news posted Wednesday at The Guardian:
More than 50 refugees from Manus Island and Nauru are on their way to the United States to be resettled there.
The first 52 refugees to be accepted for resettlement in the United States under a contentious agreement with Australia have left the Pacific island camps where they had been held for years.
Their move comes as reports from Washington indicate the US is preparing to announce it is further slashing its overall refugee intake to its lowest level in a decade.
The first 25 refugees from the men-only camp on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Islandhad flown out of the capital, Port Moresby, on Tuesday for the United States via the Philippines and Qatar, Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul said.
Another 27 refugees flew to Port Moresby on Wednesday from a camp in Nauru, he said, also bound, ultimately, for Los Angeles.
But, Los Angeles is not their final destination:
The refugees will be resettled across the United States, including in Georgia, Oregon, Colorado, Texas and Arizona.
They will be assisted with housing, physical and mental healthcare, English lessons, enrolment of children in schools, and in finding employment. [On the US taxpayer’s dime!—ed]
[….]
Obama’s administration had agreed to accept up to 1,250 of Australia’s refugees, mostly from Iran, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, [earlier reports said that Rohingya Muslims were in the group too—ed] in exchange for Australia agreeing to accept refugees from the “northern triangle” countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, under a US-led resettlement program. [These are mostly economic migrants NOT even in the US.—ed]
It was dumb when Obama did it, and it is dumb now!
Trump lashed his predecessor’s deal as “dumb”, and complained in a phone call to the Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, that it would “make me look terrible”.
[….]
Trump ultimately agreed to honour the agreement, subject to “extreme vetting” of refugees.
The US is under no obligation to take a set number of refugees. Australian officials are confident the US will resettle somewhere approaching the 1,250 figure publicly speculated…
The takeaway from this dumb deal is that the US is helping Australia protect its borders, and maintain its security and sovereignty while sacrificing ours!
Australia’s asylum policy mandates that no refugee who arrives in Australia by boat can ever be resettled in the country, a policy the government says dissuades asylum seekers from attempting the dangerous and occasionally deadly ocean crossing from Indonesia.
Nevermind, that the Refugee Act of 1980 gives the power to the President to set the CAP/CEILING*** for refugee admissions for the coming fiscal year which begins on Sunday.
I have to laugh because I can always count on the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society to be the first of the nine federal contractors to break from the gate on the next political action the refugee industry will take.
As CEO of HIAS, Hetfield makes an annual salary of $358,718 (doing well by doing good!). Will he take a pay cut if there aren’t enough paying ‘clients’ (aka refugees) entering the US this year?
For new readers, see how much of your money, your tax dollars, goes to each of the nine to resettle refugees on a per head basis, here.
There can never be serious reform while the nine are rolling in your money using it to hold rallies and lobby on the Hill while the media tries to make the public think that this is all about ‘humanitarianism’ and ‘religious charity.’
As you surely know by the keening sound coming from contractors like HIAS they aren’t happy with the 45,000 cap announced this week. (I can see huge bidding wars between the contractors as they bid for bodies in a smaller pool of refugees.)
I’m very unhappy with the number too, as I saidhere. The UN/US Refugee Admissions Program should be reviewed by Congress to determine if it is still even a program the US should continue.
If the President had suspended the program and said a ‘determination’ would not be sent until Congress reviewed the program, he might have achieved some important campaign promises. Sending a determination of 45,000 was meaningless—splitting the baby—and will do very little, if anything, to bring about needed long term change.
I digress, more later on what Donald Trump should be doing on the issue.
Here is HIAS telling its followers what to do:
This is a screenshot, so links are not hot. If you want to see the text of what they want their followers to send the Washington reps, go here: https://www.hias.org/stand-against-record-low-cap-refugee-admissions
This is what you should be doing today.
Tell the Presidentthat you are unhappy with 45,000. He clearly wimped out! And, tell your representatives in the House and Senate how you feel too because you are up against lobbyists, like those at HIAS (likely teamed up with global corporation/Chamber of Commerce lobbyists) working the halls of Congress.
*** You will be hearing more from me about the fact that the 45,000 is a CEILING (NOT A TARGET). Trump could stay well under 45,000 and still be operating within the law.
He doesn’t need an Executive order to stay under the ceiling—he never did!
