Tag: Somali refugees

Today’s episode of the Somali stowaway teen’s family soap opera

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Actually it was Tuesday’s episode as reported by West Hawaii Today on Wednesday.

Step-mom Saiban Abdi leaves Santa Clara County family court in San Jose Tuesday, April 29, 2014. http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_25660547/father-flies-hawaii-pick-up-teen-stowaway

The step-mother, described in some accounts as the reason the Somali refugee boy stowed away on a Hawaii bound jet, was in court to defend charges that she isn’t properly taking care of an elderly uncle (taxpayers are paying her to take care of the relative).

Meanwhile, the boy’s father flew to Hawaii to retrieve his son and according to this account, he wasn’t allowed to take him back to California.  Watch for more in upcoming episodes!

From West Hawaii Today:

SAN JOSE, Calif.—The same day the father of the 15-year-old stowaway was in Hawaii trying to reunite with his runaway son, another family drama involving the teen’s stepmother unfolded Tuesday in a San Jose courtroom.

The stepmother, who had been accused by her cousin of treating her stepson “like trash,” defended herself in court against another accusation by the same man—that she didn’t properly care for an elderly uncle.

“He’s not being truthful,” Sainab Abdi said of the cousin as she stood outside the courtroom Tuesday. “Don’t believe this guy. This is wrong.”

[….]

For the family of Somali refugees, who fled their war-torn country and lived in a refugee camp before moving to America, it’s been a tough 10 days in their adopted home.

Cousin claims she was neglecting elderly Uncle, but the judge dismissed his petition.

The stepmother’s cousin, Mukhtar Guled—a San Jose insurance agent and security guard—told this newspaper last week that Yahya was unhappy at home because his stepmother, Sainab Abdi, treated his six youngest siblings like “king and queens,” but that Yahya and his older sister and younger brother with a different mother were treated poorly.

On Tuesday, Abdi defended herself, saying Guled had an ulterior motive to make her look like a bad person: He was losing his battle to care for his uncle and be in charge of his affairs—a job that Abdi held until last week and came with $600 a month in government assistance.

Teen is in the custody of Hawaiian social service agency.

Meanwhile, it was unclear when Yahya’s father, Abdulahi Abdi Yusuf, would be able to return home with his son. An e-mail sent to the Hawaii Department of Human Services was not returned. The teenager has been in the agency’s custody since shortly after he was found on the Maui tarmac. His father has said he was being treated for breathing difficulties at a Honolulu hospital.

I feel sorry for this kid and I feel sorry for the US taxpayer.  As I said previously, the new Somali government is looking for Somalis to return from the diaspora, maybe this family could sort out their domestic problems back home.

Somali stowaway soap opera (next episode): family contradicts CAIR

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Just when I thought it was safe to move on to another topic, along comes one more news story about why a Somali refugee boy stowed away in the wheel well of a jet bound for Hawaii.

In our previous post this morning we reported that CAIR was acting as a spokesperson for the family (blathering about immigrants being bullied in school) and never mentioned the boy’s desire to go home to Africa to be with his mother.    At the same time Voice of America is reporting that according to law enforcement officials in Hawaii, that is what the boy told them.

Mom in Ethiopia, with two more kids, wants resettlement in to America now as well.

Meanwhile, VOA, says the whole family would like to go back to Africa (if it was safe).

We should be grateful for this boy’s great adventure because it is producing a copious number of main stream media reports and thus bringing the whole Somali refugee migration issue into more American’s living rooms.

Voice of America:

What led 15-year-old Yahya Abdi to jump a fence at San Jose International Airport and stow away on the jetliner bound for Maui?

According to unidentified law enforcement officials, the teen, who lived with his father, had argued with relatives and was trying to reach his mother in Somalia. In reality, she lives in an Ethiopian refugee camp that is home to about 10,200 displaced Somalis, a United Nations official told the Associated Press.

In two separate VOA interviews, both parents mentioned that extreme homesickness might have prompted Yahya to attempt the dangerous trip.

Abdullahi Yusuf, Yahya’s father, spoke to VOA’s Somali service in an exclusive interview last week.

“He was always talking about Africa, where his grandparents still live,” Abdullahi said. “… We all wanted to go back, but due to the security and living conditions there we could not go back.”

Speaking to VOA Somalia Service from Sheed Dheer, the refugee camp, Ubah Mohamed Abdullahi said her son was homesick. She blamed the father for their son undertaking the dangerous journey.

Fractured Somali families:  kids miss Mom.

Hashi Shafi, executive director of the Minneapolis-based Somali Action Alliance, said the California teen’s story is only one example of many fractured Somali families.

“I know a lot of young kids in Minnesota who have been struggling with life lately,” Shafi said, “and when you talk to some of them, they tell you that they are missing their mother whom they haven’t seen for 10 to 16 years.”

So how come so many are missing Mom?  Could Mom be wife #2 or #3 and hubby had to choose just one in order to be eligible for refugee resettlement.  (LOL!  I am not advocating bringing all of the wives to America, just pointing out that due to this huge religious and cultural difference, we have families “disintegrating” and many messed up kids!  Diversity is so beautiful!).

Illegal alien Somalis in US too!

VOA then gives us a comment about a Somali illegal alien who traveled across the globe (not apparently having asked for asylum in the many safe countries he traversed) to get to our southern border, and now says, gee, I miss my family!   Here is an idea! Let’s reunite them—in Africa!

Huge numbers of young African immigrants, among them significant portion of Somalis, risk their lives in search of a better life in Europe and U.S.

But for many of them, reality turned out to be far removed from their hopes.

Sa’id Gure took a long, perilous journey from Somalia through the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Mexico before reaching the United States. The 20-year-old said he misses his parents and siblings.

Again, this disillusioned 20-year-old is an illegal alien!  We admit thousands of Somalis into the US every year as legal refugees, so why didn’t he just get in line in Africa?

And, by the way, where did this poor kid get the money needed for his globe-trotting adventure to our Mexican border?  Why the h*** doesn’t some reporter ever ask that question?

 

 

Somali stowaway soap opera continues; CAIR involved now

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Reports are sprouting up everywhere with conflicting stories about the Mom (is she a liar?), the Dad (did he kidnap the kids and bring them to America?), will the State Department permit the Mom to come to the US to reclaim her kids and to (of course) stay? etc.  And, now the siblings are in the mix talking to reporters too!

Then here comes CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) to defend the family—they say it is all about bullying that is hard on immigrants trying to adjust to America (America bad!) with no mention of the aggrieved Mom back in Ethiopia.  In Islam, Dad has rights to kids, Mom doesn’t.

For background, our first report on the Somali stowaway is here.

CAIR Executive director Zahra Billoo: the boy is struggling to adjust to life in America and needs social services. http://kalwnews.org/audio/2011/02/08/facing-down-islamophobia-interview-zahra-billoo_832857.html

CAIR speaks for the family, from Fox12 Oregon (Hat tip: ‘pungentpeppers’ who can’t get enough of this case!):

SAN FRANCISCO (HawaiiNewsNow) – The father of a teenager who stowed away on a flight from San Jose to Kahului plans to fly to Hawaii soon to take his son back to California.

The family of Yahya Abdi, 15, released a statement through a civil rights group called the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).   [“Civil rights” group—ha! ha!—ed]

“The family is very relieved about their son’s safety. I think for the last week everyone has had the opportunity to learn about the harrowing circumstances of the trip, the very low likelihood of survival,” said Zahra Billoo, CAIR’s executive director.

The teenager told investigators on Maui that he climbed into the wheel well of a Hawaiian Airlines plane after running away from the California home he shares with his father and stepmother. The boy was trying to reunite with his mother in Africa after just learning that she was alive, according to San Jose authorities.

“The family spent a lot of time displaced in Somalia and as a result of sort of the war-like conditions of that country the son had not had any formal education before arriving in the United States,” explained Billoo.

Abdulahi Yusuf said his son is struggling to adjust to life in the U.S. as a high school student.

“The dad said that he was a really good kid and that he is loved dearly by his family,” Billoo said. “Overall it was a very difficult situation and school was possibly the hardest of all of those pieces.”

Then get this!  We need to supply him with social services!

“In this era of bullying and cyberspace and social media, things are already so difficult for youth, further aggravated for recent immigrants at times. I hope that they will get the social services that they need,” said Billoo.

There is more in the continuing soap opera:

Here is a story about Mom fretting in Ethiopia (with two more kids she would surely bring to the US, see photo).   And, CBS interviewed siblings who say their birth mother is a liar and is only saying that the kids were taken to America against her wishes so that she too could get in to the US.   I suspect hubby had two wives back in Africa at the same time and the State Department made it clear that he could bring only one wife to America.

By the way, this CBS news piece says the kids have been here for 5 years (something that seemed to be in dispute in some previous reports).

As I said before, why not send the whole kit-and-caboodle back to Africa and let the new Somali government sort out their domestic entanglements (involving at least 11 kids!).  Why should the US taxpayers be on the hook for the legal wrangling, potentially new resettlements, and for “social services”?

For new readers: We have admitted well over 100,000 Somali refugees to the US.   To check out the numbers visit this post, one of our most widely read posts*** over the last few years.  It is a little out of date, but you get the idea.

In the first six months of this fiscal year we have admitted 3,708 additional Somalis.

Also, after being closed for years, the US State Department has resumed the Somali  family reunification program that admitted tens of thousands of Somalis fraudulently to the US between 2003 and 2008 before a moratorium halted the program.  The frauds were not found and deported!

***I will update that and let you know what the top five posts are now!  Here it is!

Somali stowaway’s mom found in Ethiopia, she wants to come to the US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Leave it to the UK Daily Mail to get an exclusive interview with the Hawaii-bound Somali boy’s mom.  He is still in a hospital in Hawaii, by the way.  No brain damage I hope!

Yahya Abdi wanted to get back to Africa.

Here is our earlier report on the story that stunned and dismayed the airline security world.

My first reaction to hearing the news, uncovered by the Daily Mail (we are so thankful for the British press), is once again we have a case of the UN and the US State Department not doing adequate screening (and believing the lies of Somalis who want a foot in America’s front door).

It has all been swept under the rug now, but longtime readers know that in 2008, the US State Department closed the family reunification program for Somalis (stayed closed for years) because they found (surprise!) widespread fraud (lying!)—tens of thousands had lied to get into the US!  None were ever deported.

Now, get this!  Mom is on her way here (or thinks she is) and she expects the US government to take care of her kids until she gets here.

Then, of course, who is going to pay for the legal wrangling in court as she attempts to get her kids back from her lying cheat of a husband—we are, the US taxpayer.  Why is all of this our problem?

From the UK Daily Mail (hat tip:  ‘pungentpeppers’ who has been following the case closely):

The stowaway teenager who miraculously survived a five hour flight to Hawaii hidden in the wheel well of a Boeing 767 was falsely told by his own father that his mother was dead – and he discovered the truth two years ago, it was claimed today.

Yahya Abdi – pictured here for the first time – ran away from the home he shares with his father, stepmother and siblings because he wanted to find his mom, who he has not seen since 2006.

His mother Ubah Mohamed Abdullahi, 35, was left heartbroken when she split from her husband Abdulahi Abdi Yusef.  [I will bet you a buck that he had both wives at the same time—ed]

He remarried a woman called Sainab Abdi and then left with Ubah’s three children to travel to the United States.

But she is now in the process of immigrating to America and is determined to win her children back, exclusively telling MailOnline, ‘I need my children and they need me’.

[….]

Speaking on the phone through a translator from the Sheed-dheer Refugee camp in Ethiopia, she explained how her ex-husband had told her children, Yahya, Yassir and Najma she was killed in a rocket attack in Mogadishu.

Apparently furious Yahya only found out she was still alive two years ago, through the local Somali community.

The emotional mother said: ‘When they imigrated to the United they told the authorities I was dead.

I don’t know what this sponsor bit (below) is, however, you can be sure some rich American do-gooder isn’t going to “sponsor” her and take care of her and pay her legal bills!  Daily Mail continues:

‘I am currently in the process of getting a sponsor to move to the United States. It is a long process, but I will come and I will get full custody of my children.

‘I want the American Government to look after them until I come because I do not believe they are safe with their father and their stepmother. She treats my children badly, she has her own children and she doesn’t care about mine.

 The “American Government” is you, dear reader!

Read it all, the Daily Mail has more including more photos.

Here is a thought, maybe send them all back to the new government in Somalia to sort out their domestic dispute.

Here are two more news accounts of this latest news:  CBS San Francisco (with news clip) and Boston Herald.

For new readers, we have now long surpassed 100,000 Somalis admitted to the US and just this fiscal year (2014) we have already admitted 3,708 additional Somali “refugees.”  At that rate, 2014 will be another banner year for Somali migration to America.

 

Lewiston, ME: Wealthy Somali couple sentenced in housing fraud scheme

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We earlier reported on the case of husband and wife welfare fraudsters here in 2010 and 2012.     More of David Lubell’s immigrant entrepreneurs?

 

Immigrant entrepreneurs Ali-Nassir Ahmed and wife Roda Abdi in December 2013 Sun Journal photo.

 

They have now been sentenced to a measly few months in prison and three years on probation after serving their time.

Unhappy, and not at all remorseful, they are appealing their case to a higher court.

From the Lewiston Sun Journal (Hat tip: Michael).  Emphasis below is mine:

AUBURN — A Lewiston couple who owns Lewiston’s first halal market was sentenced Tuesday to a total of 19 months in jail for bilking the federal government out of more than $46,000 in housing subsidies.

Roda Abdi, 46, and her husband, Ali-Nassir Ahmed, 54, both of 208 Ash St., Lewiston, appeared in the Androscoggin County Law Library on Tuesday. Each was convicted of a single count of felony theft by deception at a bench trial last year.

Active-Retired Justice Robert Clifford sentenced Abdi to four years in prison with all but 10 months suspended; Ahmed received four years with all but nine months suspended. Both are to spend three years on probation once they’ve served their time in jail.

The couple remained free Tuesday pending appeal. They filed notice to take the case to the state’s highest court shortly after sentencing.

The couple who owned a halal market and apartment buildings had gobs of cash, but reported that they had no assets on forms for the housing subsidy.

Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin offered other examples of sentences for welfare fraud similar to those recommended for Abdi and Ahmed.

But unlike those defendants and unlike most Mainers, she said, the Lewiston couple had so much money at their disposal that they were able to buy a multi-unit apartment building in Lewiston and were in the process of buying a second building — all with cash. Deposits to their store accounts over 4½ years totaled more than $3.2 million, she said.

At the same time, they told the housing agency they had no income or assets, or minimal income.

So where does a refugee couple get millions of dollars in cash?  We may never know! (Sounds like a racist question!).

They have been (and still are!) promoting themselves as good role models for their fellow countrymen arriving in the Somali capital of New England—Lewiston.

“They have not accepted responsibility,” Robbin told the judge. Two dozen letters submitted to the court on the couple’s behalf suggest “they have not come clean with friends, family and acquaintances.”

They and their business are held up as models of good citizenry and community, Robbin said.

“That becomes a concern to the extent that they are translating for newcomers and helping them to transition to American society. We need to send a message that they are not role models in how they conducted themselves in defrauding the system,” Robbin said.

She noted that neither defendant had expressed remorse, nor accepted responsibility for his or her criminal actions.

What most Americans don’t get is that in Islamic culture, ripping off the infidel is perfectly legal and encouraged!

For new readers:  See all of our posts on the mess in Maine by clicking here.  “Rich diversity”, what a joke!  See especially Maine the welfare magnet, one of our most popular posts of all time.

Endnote:  If you check out that link above about David Lubell, note that the media protection of immigrant crooks is on display in Tennessee as The Tennessean has taken down the link to the article about the crooks (it is a good thing we captured some of the story!).