The Department of Justice has announced the arrest of 15 people in Massachusetts and charged them in a $1.4 million food stamp fraud scheme involving stolen American identities and Social Security numbers.
Fifteen were arrested, eleven of whom were illegal aliens using stolen identities of Americans, the DOJ reported in a press release.
“These criminal illegal aliens conspired to defraud Massachusetts taxpayers of more than $1.4 million in public benefits, depriving American citizens of benefits that they needed,” said DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin. “After these 12 criminal illegal aliens face justice, they will be swiftly removed from our country so they can never defraud American taxpayers again. Under President Trump, DHS is putting the American people first again.”
“These cases highlight a broader, deeply troubling pattern: the exploitation of America’s safety-net by illegal aliens,” said Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald for the National Fraud Enforcement Division. “Fraud by illegal aliens carries real and substantial costs to American taxpayers and places enormous strain on our public benefits systems. The Fraud Division remains laser-focused on rooting out fraud — whether committed by illegal aliens or anyone else — and recovering money wrongfully taken from the American people.”
McDonald added that some of the identities stolen by illegal migrants prevented the Americans whose identity was stolen from applying for their benefits because the Americans’ names were already being used in the system by the illegal migrants.
“American citizens were boxed out of [welfare programs] because illegal aliens took their names to then take their money…illegal immigration carries real and substantial costs to American taxpayers and places enormous strain on our public benefits systems – and the further we look, the more fraud we find,” McDonald said during the press conference.
The National Fraud Enforcement Division also noted that there are “dozens and dozens” of other such fraud cases in their pipeline and more cases and arrests are coming soon.
The Department of Homeland Investigations also revealed that more resources are being dedicated to the hunt for fraud.
Those arrested include Heriberto Rodriguez, Mirian Chalas, Santo Escolastico Cuello, Mario Baez Romero, Richard Odelis Vallegas Nunez, Miguel Diaz Matos, Mitul Patel, Santo Tejada Sanchez, Jennifer Ferran, Owen Landry, Yahaira Diaz Gomez, and four others who authorities are still working to fully identify.
Watch the full press conference here:
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