The fraud didn’t start in Minnesota. It started before they even got here.
While almost everyone by now knows about Rep. Ilhan Omar’s interesting ‘family ties’, this kind of thing was not unusual for Somalis where the goal was to smuggle each other in with little regard for the actual realities. The State Department knew about it enough to cut off family reunification programs back in 2008 because the ‘family’ members weren’t actually family.
In February, the State Department launched pilot testing in Kenya to verify family relationships, mainly among Somalis. When applicants arrived for a previously scheduled appointment, a U.S. official asked them to volunteer for a DNA test.
An expert then swabbed the cheek of those who claimed biological relationships, such as a mother and her purported children.
The cell samples were sent to labs in the U.S. for analysis.
As word spread, some applicants began missing appointments, and others refused to cooperate.Laboratory analysis of the samples indicated a large portion of applicants weren’t blood relations, as they claimed. “The results were dismaying,” says Ms. Strack. “This told us we had a problem with the program.”
In late April, the government decided to temporarily halt the family reunification resettlement program for East Africans. A government official confirms that “many thousands of people” are affected by the suspension, particularly Somalis and Ethiopians.
Refugee resettlement agencies report that arrivals have slowed to a trickle.
Predictably, the ‘refugee resettlers’ who got us into this mess howled bloody murder.
In Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., home to the country’s largest East African population, Catholic Charities hasn’t handled a single family reunification case since March 19. The agency has resettled 35 East African families this year, compared with more than 450 last year and about 1,300 in 2006. “Everyone is calling or walking in here and asking what is going on,” says Angela Fox, a resettlement worker at Catholic Charities.
“No one condones people gaining entry by false means; the integrity of the program must be ensured,” says Bob Carey, chair of Refugee Council USA, a coalition of U.S. agencies that work on refugee issues, and vice president of resettlement for the International Rescue Committee. However, he adds, “DNA is not the only means to assess family relationships.”
Refugee advocates say the definition of family among Africans extends beyond blood relatives, especially when families fleeing persecution are scattered. “Some families are raising children who aren’t their own but whom they call son or daughter,” says Ms. Fox of Catholic Charities.
Uh huh.
No one got deported. There were no consequences. The invasion continued. So did the brother-marrying. And what began with a family reunification fraud ended with billions in fraud in Minnesota.
