Last week, illegal aliens Hyung and Dae Cho were both sentenced in Maryland for food stamp fraud. With about 50 transactions a day, these Korean nationals exchanged $25,000 to $30,000 worth of U.S. food stamps per month between June 2011 and May 2013.
Sadly, this is not an isolated problem.
The Chos were caught in a sweep which resulted in the indictments of eight convenience store owners in Maryland. Prosecutors indicted Yemen nationals Abdullah Aljaradi and Ahmed Al-Jabrati in Baltimore for obtaining over $2 million in a food stamp scheme.
It’s not just in the Old Line State. According to a recent Department of Agriculture report, between 2009 and 2011, $858 million in food stamps was traded for cash. Just in Massachusetts, state officials reported 14,431 cases of potential food stamp abuse through the first 10 months of 2013, which is an increase of 87% over the same period in the previous year. Obviously, not all of the fraud is perpetrated by illegal aliens.
The illegal aliens sentenced in Maryland profited from of a program intended to benefit hungry Americans. One-sixth of the population (47 million Americans) receives food stamps today. The growing number of Americans who are using food stamps is attributed mostly to unemployment in the current recession, according to economists. Although House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has opposed efforts to combat fraudulent use of public benefits by illegal aliens, she does defends the food stamp program, now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), for helping Americans: “Consider this: one in five children, and it will soon become one in four, but one in five children struggle with hunger and nearly half of all SNAP recipients are children; nearly four million Americans over age 60 rely on nutrition assistance; five thousand active-duty military families, active-duty [military]families rely on SNAP, depend on SNAP; nearly three million veterans and their families don’t get enough to eat each month….”
Illegal aliens have stolen millions in taxpayer funds that were supposed to feed hungry Americans. This story is definitely one that makes you hungry for true immigration reform.