Ethiopian refugee arrested in Virginia, government says he lied to become US citizen

08/19/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here we go again! It sure looks like the Trump Justice Department has launched a campaign to ferret out those who fraudulently got in to the US claiming they were refugees. (Reminds me to start watching DOJ press announcements on a daily basis!)

Michael Patrick Leahy at Breitbart has penned another post within days of telling us about the Iraqi refugee arrested in California. In that case the government alleges that the Iraqi was a member of ISIS when he arrived here from Turkey.

Here we learn that the DOJ is alleging that this refugee was not abused and persecuted, but was himself a human rights abuser.

Report: Ethiopian Refugee Arrested for Fraudulent U.S. Citizenship, Was Interrogator During ‘Red Terror’

Special agents from the Department of Homeland Security arrested an Ethiopian refugee after he was indicted on Tuesday on felony charges of allegedly fraudulently obtaining U.S. citizenship.

The red terror — See wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qey_Shibir Image is from 2016 film: https://mg.co.za/article/2016-03-29-new-ethiopian-film-addresses-red-terror-campaign-of-mengistu-reign

“Mergia Negussie Habteyes, 58, is charged in an indictment, which was returned by a grand jury for the Eastern District of Virginia on Aug. 14, alleging that Negussie told a series of lies to U.S. immigration authorities in the course of obtaining authority to enter the United States as a refugee, subsequently obtaining lawful permanent-resident status, and ultimately obtaining U.S. citizenship,” The Department of Justice(DOJ) said in a statement released on Friday:

Specifically, the indictment asserts that, when he applied for naturalization in the United States, Negussie falsely stated that he never persecuted persons because of their political opinion, and he failed to disclose that he had committed a crime or offense for which he was not arrested.

In fact, according to the indictment, Negussie served as a civilian interrogator in the Higher 3 prison in Ethiopia in the late 1970s, during a period known as the Red Terror. In that role, Negussie is alleged to have participated in the persecution, through brutality, of individuals imprisoned because of their political opinion.

Additionally, Negussie falsely stated that he never gave false or misleading information to any U.S. government official while applying for any immigration benefit and that he never lied to U.S. immigration authorities to gain entry or admission into the United States and to obtain immigration benefits.

News of the arrest of the Ethiopian refugee in Virginia on felony charges follows the announcement this week of the arrest of an Iraqi refugee and alleged Islamic State murderer in California, who was charged with lying on his refugee application and now faces an extradition hearing based on a warrant for the 2014 of an Iraqi police officer issued by an Iraqi judge in May of this year.

More here.

The Washington Post has a short article yesterday, but doesn’t give us any additional information.

I want to know exactly when he was admitted to the US as a refugee. I would also love to know which resettlement agency placed him, but that is something we rarely ever hear. An exception is the recent case of the Iraqi who shot a police officer in Colorado where we learned it was Lutheran Social Services that was his caretaker upon arrival.

By the way, over the years we have brought in a huge number of refugees from Ethiopia and even one of the nine contractors is the Ethiopian Community Development Council (head quarters located in Virginia).

This post is filed in my ‘Crimes’ category along with 2,000 plus other stories involving refugee and immigrant crimes here and around the world.

Wisconsin Refugee Agency may have scammed taxpayers big time!

10/09/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Call home Paul Ryan! This outrageous “savings” program is one of many, you as Speaker of the House, need to investigate!

paul-ryan-beard — Speaker Paul Ryan has shown zero interest in reforming the Refugee Act of 1980. I wonder could we suggest Janesville (his home town) as one of the many new resettlement sites in America!

I’m guessing this is not an isolated case.
For new readers, Speaker Paul Ryan has not allowed any serious Refugee Act reform bills (he allowed one sham bill because he knew the Senate wouldn’t pass it anyway) to move forward in the House during his tenure as speaker and for that matter neither has Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
These so-called ‘Individual Development Accounts’ are an abomination and potentially rife with fraud. When taxpayers learn about them (we have mentioned them on many occasions) they are shocked.
The federal government actually gives grants to non-profit refugee agencies to administer a program which allows refugees to get matching funds when they save money for four things (Education, business, home or car).
How would you like to get such a deal:

For every dollar a refugee saves, he/she is matched a dollar out of the US Treasury (your pocket)!

But, again the program is managed by a resettlement contractor (with no accountability to the taxpayer) like this one in Milwaukee. Financial audits/investigations of the contractors are rare.
From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (hat tip: Joanne):

A Milwaukee nonprofit that offers after-school programs for refugee children and other assistance for refugees is under investigation for alleged misuse of federal funds.

The Pan-African Community Association gave money to at least 32 people who were not eligible to receive funds, investigators with the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement have found, according to records obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel under the Freedom of Information Act.

The Ethiopian Community Development Council is one of nine federally funded refugee contractors that could not exist without your tax dollars. Go to this link to see if they have an office near you: http://www.ecdcus.org/Where_We_Work/affiliates.html

In addition, the organization violated terms of federal grants by spending more than 35% of its annual budget on administrative costs and paying individuals in the form of money orders, rather than paying vendors directly for items purchased, the reports state.

The association received more than $440,000 in federal funds from 2012 to 2015 to help refugees from Africa and around the world buy cars and houses and to open businesses in Milwaukee. Using Individual Development Accounts, the program was designed to offer matching grants to refugees who, for example, saved at least $2,000 of their own money to go toward the purchase of a car or $4,000 toward a house.

[….]

The Pan-African Community Association is contracted through the “preferred communities program,” with the Ethiopian Community Development Council. The council, in turn, is one of about 10 [nine actually—ed] national organizations — mostly faith-based — that the federal government contracts with to provide services to refugees.

Continue here for more of the gory details and denials.
I haven’t written about “preferred communities” since here in 2014. But, you might have a look and see if your city is one of them. They don’t change often.

Call Congress!

Time to listen to ‘Mom for Trump’ (I am not going to quit trying to persuade you that right now there is only one place to put pressure to slow the flow of third worlders to your towns—Congress!):

Ann, could you tell all your readers on a daily basis to call our useless Congress @ 202 224 3121 and have them say DEFUND REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT PROGRAM. I call daily and if enough of us do so, we can make a difference.

If you have problems getting a live person on the phone when you call Washington (like I did when I called my Congressman John Delaney (D-MD) the other day), then find out the locations and phone numbers of their district and state offices and call those. When you have someone on the phone on Tuesday (they surely won’t be there on Monday), in addition to telling them to defund the program, find out where your member or Senator will be in the coming weeks and be there! Ask (in person, in front of an audience) if he or she will Defund the Refugee Resettlement Program when they get back to DC after the election.

VDARE: Ethiopian refugee allegedly brutally murdered 97-year old military vet last month

08/08/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

You can read the whole dreadful story by Nicholas Stix at VDARE, here (Hat tip: Ed). This is the opening paragraph:

War On Whites? As the United Nations, the Main Stream Media, and the President of the United States all demand Americans award “refugee” status to tens of thousands of illegals, let’s remember the brutal murder of Rupert “Andy” Anderson, an American veteran allegedly killed by an Ethiopian “refugee” just this month. Ngor Makuey, who has been arrested for the murder of the 97 year-old man and the attempted murder of his 94 year old wife, is an immigrant allowed into this country because of his family’s flight from violence. He used this kindness as an opportunity to bring slaughter to once-peaceful towns.

Read it all.

One more refugee crime case where in addition to the pain and suffering he caused, not only did we pay for his resettlement, but taxpayers will pay for his trial and incarceration for life. I think the cost of criminal trials of refugees and the cost of their time in prison should come out of the US State Department’s budget and out of the contractors’ hides. Of course it is still all your tax money, but at least it might cause the resettlement industry to be more careful about who they bring to your towns and cities.

By the way, we have 1,556 posts in our ‘crimes’ category, here. Happy reading!

Denver: Ethiopian “refugee” gets 22 years for immigration fraud

05/24/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Diversity is strength alert!

Turns out he was wanted for war crimes in his native country and another Ethiopian recognized him in Denver** and reported him to authorities. So much for the much bally-hood security screening!

Here is the latest news from AP at the Washington Times (Hat tip: Robin):

DENVER (AP) – An Ethiopian jail guard accused of torturing and killing dozens of people during government-sponsored violence in the 1970s was sentenced Friday to 22 years in prison for immigration crimes by a federal judge who said the U.S. cannot become a refuge for human-rights violators.

Defendant Kefelgn Alemu Worku (kah-FEH’-lun ah-LEE’-moo WER’-koo) had lived quietly in the Denver area for eight years until 2011, when another Ethiopian recognized and confronted him outside a cafe with the words, “I think I know you,” before alerting authorities.

Worku was convicted last year of assuming another man’s identity and lying on U.S. immigration forms by denying that he committed acts of political persecution.

Worku is just one of many “refugees” with crimes to hide that we have admitted to the US and reported about on these pages. We learn about them when taxpayers foot the bill for an expensive trial! So, I guess better late than never, the judge wants to send a message:

“The risk that this country becomes regarded as a safe haven for violators of human rights is such that the maximum sentence is required,” U.S. District Judge John L. Kane said during sentencing, adding there was undeniable evidence that Worku had a role in war crimes. “The relatively harmless lifestyle he has had in the United States does not change the character flaw of psychopathy.”

Will the “kids” be prosecuted for the fraud as well?

We wrote about Worku’s conviction, here, in 2013 and this is what we said at the outset:

I searched our thousands of posts and voila, I knew I recognized the name, we first reported on Worku here in 2012. It is really worth visiting that post to see how complex a fraud was perpetrated on the US State Department. Worku didn’t just claim (in isolation) to be someone else, but “kids” in America (not his kids) actually helped perpetrate the scam and allowed him to assume the identity of their ailing father. He came to the US through ‘family’ reunification.***

Ethiopians already here in the US as refugees claimed he was their father. Are those liars going to be prosecuted or deported?

**Denver is a US State Department preferred resettlement site.

***In 2008, the State Department was shocked to discover that the family reunification program was so riddled with fraud that tens of thousands of Africans got into the US by lying! The program was closed for years, here, but is now up and running again!

Minnesota: East Africans jumping into American political system

04/02/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Photo by John Cross: Mustafa Jamale, an aide to U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, speaks Monday at Minnesota State University during a panel talk on political activism in East African communities.

That is the subject of a panel discussion held this week at Minnesota State University.

From Mankato Free Press (emphasis is mine):

MANKATO — For a time, Somalis in Minnesota had something of a suitcase mentality as many wondered if their time here was temporary, said Hashi Shafi of Minneapolis.

For that reason, and because it was something of a foreign concept, many people didn’t participate in American democracy.

“To unpack our suitcases takes time,” said Shafi, director of a civic education nonprofit in Minneapolis.

But unpack they have, as evidenced by the Somalis who are organizing their communities politically.

Shafi and two other East Africa natives visited Minnesota State University Monday for a panel discussion on political activism among Somali and Ethiopian immigrants.

It is very difficult to find population numbers for Somalis in the US now, so this next bit of information is useful:

There are an estimated 100,000 Somalis and 30,000 Ethiopians in Minnesota.

Read it all by clicking here.

New readers might wish to visit this older post—Why so many Somalis in Minneapolis?—still one of our most-read posts at RRW. Guess who resettled the Somalis in Minnesota? If you guessed any one of these, you are right: US Conference of Catholic Bishops/Catholic Charities, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, and World Relief (evangelicals)!