On Earth Day, environmentalists must not link arms with anti-immigrant forces.

The goal of these anti-immigrant groups is to lure the environmental community into an America First-style immigration policy.

On Earth Day, the environmental movement in the United States must reject bigotry. It should not join hands with anti-immigrant groups.

These groups are trying to infiltrate the environmental movement and coopt its message. Continue reading here:

Why Anti Immigrants groups are in charge of any Immigration Reform?.

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Three Washington, D.C.-based immigration-restriction organizations stand at the nexus of the American nativist movement: the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), and NumbersUSA. Although on the surface they appear quite different — the first, the country's best-known anti-immigrant lobbying group; the second, an "independent" think tank; and the third, a powerful grassroots organizer — they are fruits of the same poisonous tree.

FAIR, CIS and NumbersUSA are all part of a network of restrictionist organizations conceived and created by John Tanton, the "puppeteer" of the nativist movement and a man with deep racist roots. As the first article in this report shows, Tanton has for decades been at the heart of the white nationalist scene. He has met with leading white supremacists, promoted anti-Semitic ideas, and associated closely with the leaders of a eugenicist foundation once described by a leading newspaper as a "neo-Nazi organization." He has made a series of racist statements about Latinos and worried that they were outbreeding whites. At one point, he wrote candidly that to maintain American culture, "a European-American majority" is required.

Key Quotes from the Report:

"CIS' creation was part of a carefully thought-out strategy aimed at creating a set of complementary institutions to cultivate the nativist cause – groups including the Federation for American immigration Reform (FAIR) and NumbersUSA."

"…these organizations are frequently treated as if they were legitimate, mainstream commentators on immigration. But the truth is that they were all conceived and birthed by a man who sees America under threat by non-white immigrants."

On FAIR: "The nativist lobby's action arm has an ugly record of promoting racist ideas, conspiracy theories and anti-immigrant hatred."

On CIS: "The nativist lobby's supposedly ‘independent' think tank has never found any aspect of immigration it likes."

Cardiologist Convicted of 51 counts of Healthcare Fraud. Ethic? Moral?

United States Attorney Donald W. Washington, along with Health & Human Services Office of Inspector General Special Agent in Charge, Mike Fields, and FBI, New Orleans Division, Special Agent in Charge, David Welker, announced the conviction of DR. MEHMOOD M. PATEL, 64, of Lafayette, by a federal jury of healthcare fraud After a three-month trial which began on October 1, 2008, and six days of deliberation, a jury returned a guilty verdict on 51 counts of healthcare fraud in United States District Court in Lafayette.

After the verdict Tuesday evening, Judge Tucker Melancon denied the government’s motion for detention before sentencing, but increased Patel’s release bond obligation to $500,000.00. The court also ordered the defendant to surrender all medical licenses, including those allowing him to practice medicine
in Louisiana, Canada, India and elsewhere by 9:00 a.m. on December 31, 2008. A date for sentencing is expected to be set soon.

PATEL was indicted in February 2006 stemming from a complaint made to the Department of Health & Human Services that the defendant was placing stents in people who did not need them. A search warrant was executed on Patel’s office in November 2003, at which time patient files were seized. Beginning on or about September 2003, Our Lady of Lourdes (OLOL) Hospital in Lafayette, LA conducted an internal investigation leading to the suspension of DR. PATEL’S privileges at OLOL. A similar process was undertaken by Lafayette General Medical Center (LGMC) in late 2003 and early 2004 which also led to DR. PATEL being suspended from practicing at LGMC. After the hospitals suspended the defendant’s privileges, the Louisiana State Medical Board restricted DR. PATEL’S license to practice interventional cardiology, leaving him the ability to practice internal medicine pending the results of the criminal trial.

Testimony at trial revealed that MEHMOOD M. PATEL, M.D., who has been practicing interventional cardiology in Lafayette, Louisiana and surrounding areas for more than 25 years, was falsifying patient symptoms in medical records, falsifying findings on medical tests, and performing unnecessary coronary procedures such as deploying angioplasty balloons and stents. Testimony from experts in cardiology specialties revealed that the defendant deployed stents, balloons and radiation in coronary arteries that had little or insignificant disease. Testifying medical experts included doctors from Emory University in Atlanta, GA, the University of Pennsylvania Medical School in Philadelphia, PA, Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City, and the University of California at Los Angeles, CA, as well as cardiologists practicing in Louisiana. Each expert testified about only a small number of the thousands of procedures performed annually for many years by DR. PATEL. The indictment in the case contained 91 counts involving only 75 patients chosen by the government with the help of these experts.

Additionally, the jury heard testimony from dozens of other government witnesses including medical technicians, nurses, and patients who painted the defendant as one who lacked concern for patient care and safety. Many of the nurses and technicians indicated their concerns and made complaints to their supervisors after witnessing unnecessary angioplasty procedures performed by the defendant doctor. Testimony also revealed that DR. PATEL was performing unnecessary medical procedures and billing both Medicare and private insurance companies, which added up to millions of dollars paid to DR. PATEL and the hospitals where many of the procedures were performed. During the years 1999-2003, DR. PATEL was the number one biller in cardiology services for the State of Louisiana. During the approximately three-year period covered by the indictment, DR. PATEL billed Medicare and private insurance companies more than $3 million, of which he received $541,745.00 from this scheme. The indicted charges included less than $90,000.00 of the amount received by the defendant.

DR. PATEL performed procedures at both Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital and Lafayette General Medical Center, as well as a leased mobile catheterization lab located outside his practice, Acadiana Cardiology, before he opened his own catheterization lab in mid-2002 on the second floor of his office on St. Julien Street in Lafayette, Louisiana.

United States Attorney Donald W. Washington stated: “Patient care and safety are the primary duty of all healthcare providers. Doctors are never privileged to perform medically unnecessary procedures on any person for any reasons whatsoever. I hope that this matter sends a strong message to those good and honorable medical professionals to police their ranks and be faithful to their credo of doing no harm to any patient. Healthcare providers like Dr. Patel are not entitled to payment by federal and/or private health plans for medically unnecessary procedures. Physicians must be held accountable when they fail in their primary mission to care for their patients appropriately, ethically and respectfully. Healthcare fraud will continue to remain a priority for this office, and we will aggressively investigate and devote our full attention and resources to matters of this magnitude.”


Special Agent in Charge for Health & Human Services Office of Inspector General, Mike Fields, stated: “Yesterday, Dr. Patel heard from this jury what healthcare providers who defraud Medicare are hearing from juries all over America - you will be held accountable for your greed. HHS-OIG agents will
continue to work closely with our state and federal law enforcement partners to protect the Medicare Trust Fund.”

Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s New Orleans Division, David Welker, stated: “It is reprehensible to think that a medial professional would put patients at significant risk and conduct medically unnecessary procedures simply to fill their personal coffers. Hopefully, as U.S. Attorney Donald Washington notes, this conviction should send a powerful message to healthcare providers of the perils of deviating from their oath. It should also send a message to patients to be personally involved in their own care. We will continue to aggressively investigate healthcare fraud to ensure the safety of the public.”
PATEL faces a maximum of ten years imprisonment, a fine not more than $250,000.00, and a term of not more than three years of supervised release following confinement.

Sentencing in federal court is determined by the discretion of federal judges and the governing statutes. Parole has been abolished in the federal system. This case was investigated by Special Agent Barbara Alleman of Health & Human Services and Special Agents Troy Chenevert and Greg Harbourt of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted by United States Attorney Donald W. Washington and Assistant United States Attorney Kelly
Uebinger

Undocumented Immigrants draining the Medicare program? A lie or a Lie.!!!

If you put all the different sources of funding together today- the SSI, the IHSS, the child care, welfare and Section 8 - they can make a family income of $5,000 to $8,000 a month without having to really work. That's up to $100,000 a year tax-free. They can live in very nice homes and drive nice cars but the Goverment, Nativist, Minuteman Groups and Anti Immigrants blaming undocumented immigrants when to the contrary are not eligible to receive any "welfare" benefits and even legal immigrants are severely restricted in the benefits they can receive.

As the Congressional Research Service points out in a 2007 report, undocumented immigrants, who comprise nearly one-third of all immigrants in the country, are not eligible to receive public "welfare" benefits -- ever.

In the months since the Los Angeles County Civil Grand Jury found that "scam artists" are "embedded" inside the county's in-home care program, an investigation has uncovered widespread fraud, including county employees involved in the schemes.

More than 700 instances of suspected fraud have been referred to the state Department of Health Care Services for investigation, and arrests of In-Home Supportive Services employees are pending, prosecutors said.

"I think the extent of the fraud is greater than anyone ever realized," said James Baker, assistant head deputy in the Welfare Fraud Division of the county District Attorney's Office.

He said officials in the Department of Public Social Services are re-examining the whole in-home care program and protocols.

"They have started an internal review of all IHSS and DPSS employees (involved)," he said.

As the number of county residents receiving in-home care has doubled to 174,000 in the past decade, officials say fraud in the $1.6 billion program has also grown exponentially.

Last summer, the little-noticed section of the grand jury's report found that the entitlement program, which provides in-home care to elderly and disabled people, is rife with fraud.

"The IHSS program is not supposed to be a cottage industry for scam artists, especially those embedded within the ranks of DPSS itself," the report authors wrote. The scams "start inside the organization itself," said

John Gleiter, chairman of the grand jury's Investigative Committee and co-author of the report.
"It's the old Mafia game," said Gleiter, a retired businessman who lives in North Hollywood. "You look inside to see who is watching the chickens, and it's the fox who is watching the chickens."

County Social Services Director Philip Browning, who previously served as the state fraud director in Alabama, said fraud will not be tolerated among the department's 14,000 employees.

"It's heartbreaking to hear situations where employees have done things they shouldn't have and misused the program," he said. "I personally don't believe we have very many employees who are abusing the system, but when we do find these individuals, we want to take every disciplinary action possible and prosecute them to the fullest extent."

Growing concerns about fraud in the in-home program arose after the settlement of two lawsuits involving DPSS workers who blew the whistle.

Earlier this month, the county Board of Supervisors approved a $148,000 settlement for DPSS employee Sandra Siedenburg, who said she suffered retaliation for reporting many instances of elder abuse, theft of government funds and fraud, according to the lawsuit filed by Beverly Hills attorney Leo James Terrell. In the lawsuit, Siedenburg, who lives in Palmdale, complained about failures to investigate after she reported the incidents to her superiors.

In 2006, the supervisors approved a $250,000 settlement with former DPSS welfare case reviewer Gamil Youssef, who alleged he was retaliated against after making allegations of fraudulent activity inside the department.

Last month, the Service Employees International Union permanently banned Tyrone Freeman, former president of the union representing in-home care workers, from union membership, according to an SEIU statement. The SEIU said an independent hearing officer, former California Supreme Court Justice Joseph Grodin, found that Freeman had engaged in a pattern of financial mismanagement and self-dealing in violation of union bylaws. The union demanded that Freeman pay $1.1 million in restitution.

David Kline, spokesman for the California Taxpayers Association, said the grand jury report, the lawsuit settlements and the union president's ouster point toward the need for a statewide investigation.

"It seems like this is exactly the kind of investigation that is needed in every corner of the state because this program has grown very rapidly," Kline said. "If this much waste and fraud is going on in Los Angeles County, then we can only imagine what is going on in the other 57 counties."

In the report, grand jurors wrote that the "well-intentioned" aid program employs more than 120,000 people - mostly family members and relatives - paid $9 an hour to provide care and domestic services to elderly and disabled people.

The care is provided to people unable to take care of themselves. When effective, the program saves the state money by enabling elderly and disabled people to remain in their homes, rather than in far more costly nursing homes and medical facilities.

But county grand jurors found that the program has had mixed effectiveness: on the one hand, helping the "truly needy (and) the thought-to- be-needy," but on the other hand, inadvertently supporting criminal behavior.

"The mission of DPSS-administered aid programs is to ameliorate the plight of the poor and otherwise needy, not to cultivate their situation," jurors wrote.

Baker said his office has prosecuted dozens of people in IHSS scams costing taxpayers millions of dollars - as when people pretended to be blind or schizophrenic to receive benefits, or when some used multiple identities.

Baker said many involved in in-home care scams are also involved in abuse of programs to help the needy with child care, Section 8 housing and food stamps, as well as income assistance through federal and state welfare and Supplemental Security Income programs. In all, it may cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars annually in fraud, Baker said.

In July, Baker's office filed criminal charges against 21 men and women accused of an IHSS scheme that cost taxpayers more than $2 million.

Among those facing welfare-fraud charges is Kim Johnson, 40, of Palmdale. While receiving $194,000 in IHSS benefits for 24-hour protective supervision due to claimed disability, Johnson was observed driving a Cadillac Escalade, investigators said.

Prosecutors also accused Johnson and others of being involved in a conspiracy to buy a home in the Antelope Valley with profits and $100,000 in Section 8 benefits.

One of the big problems with in-home care is that people can qualify for "any type of disability," including ones "hard to really prove or disprove," Baker said.

"For instance, someone can have someone take them to the doctor and say, `I hear voices,"' he said. "The doctor writes a diagnosis of schizophrenia. They take that to DPSS or SSI, and they get benefits based on the doctor's note."

To crack down on fraud, grand jurors recommended fingerprinting, photographing and conducting criminal-background checks of recipients and providers. They also called for enhanced computer technology to cross-reference program participants and periodically reassess the recipient's actual needs.

In response, the DPSS sponsored a recent meeting with prosecutors and officials from state and federal agencies. The group drafted 29 recommendations to reduce fraud but not eliminating.

Both Browning and Baker say a big problem is that the state Department of Health Care Services, responsible for investigating IHSS fraud, has only a few investigators. Of the 747 fraud referrals DPSS made to the state since 2005, only 142 have been investigated.

A bill was introduced earlier this year to allow counties to conduct their own IHSS investigations, but it did not pass.

"Most of these recommendations are not within our authority," Browning said. "It will take the state Department of Social Services or the Department of Health Care Services to allow us to take some action."

U.S. Citizens drainning Social Services.

It is impossible to make people understand their ignorance; for it requires knowledge to perceive it and therefore he that can perceive it hath it not. At the same time Anti Immigrants, Nativists allow ignorance to prevail upon them and make them think They can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders. Ignorance is a Bliss.

The questions is: How the Anti Immigrants, Nativists determined the cost and effects to our Society from Undocumented Immigrants? Providing a false, assumable or inaccurate reports doesn't make you an exception of ignorant, Illusionist, bigotry and Anti Immigrant. The Food is ready. take a bite. Keep reading:

A former Minnesota Department of Health and Human Services supervisor was recently indicted by a federal grand jury for health care fraud and for the alleged theft of more than $900,000 in Medicaid funds, the U.S. attorneys office announced Wednesday.

Kim Joann Austen, 47, of Hudson, Wis., was charged Oct. 7 in Minneapolis with one count of health care fraud and 22 counts of theft of health care funds. Her indictment was unsealed Wednesday after her initial appearance in federal court in Minneapolis. Austen turned herself in on Tuesday. She remains in custody, and a detention hearing is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. today at U.S. Courthouse in Minneapolis.

Officials allege that Austen created a scheme to defraud Medicaid, a federal health care benefit program, and received $903,896.54 from the State of Minnesota.

Since about August 1997, Austen had been the supervisor of the computerized system that processes submitted Medicaid claims for payment. Medicaid provides medical care and services to low-income people. Once a claim is approved, payment is issued through the state's government accounting system used for all state revenues and expenditures.

The indictment alleges that on Aug. 1, 2003, Austen created a vendor number in the name of an adult man who is not a Medicaid provider. She then submitted fake invoices that used the vendor number created in the man's name, causing the state to issue 23 checks -- for nearly $904,000. Including taxes withheld, officials allege the total fraud amounted to $1.1 million.

The former supervisor of Health and Human Services in Minnesota allegedly stole almost $904,000.

Why is Wells Fargo Flirting with Anti-Immigrant Extremists? By Eric Ward

Respected business leader Wayne Calloway once remarked that “[n]othing focuses the mind better than the constant sight of a competitor who wants to wipe you off the map”. Over the last several years it appears that Wells Fargo has not only embraced Calloway’s insight but taken it a step further by putting the enemy right inside its very own bedroom.
For several years nativists under the guise of “immigration reform” have waged endless attacks against Wells Fargo, even going so far as to create web pages such as Embargo Wells Fargo. Having declared a racial war against our nation’s immigrant and refugee communities, anti-immigrant organizations and leaders targeted Wells Fargo as part of their growing “war of attrition”. In short, make life a living hell for immigrants and anyone else who defends their inalienable rights to simply be treated like a human being. The anti-immigrant movement is demanding that Wells Fargo choose sides between community and barbarism.
However, Wells Fargo appears to have done the opposite. Rather than taking responsibility as a community leader and drawing a clear moral barrier against hate, Wells Fargo instead chooses to lend its indirect support to the anti-immigrant movement itself. According to the Center for New Community during the 2005-2006 election cycle the Wells Fargo and Company Employee PAC made fifty-eight contributions totaling $108,250 to members of the House Immigration Reform Caucus (HIRC).
Created by the infamous nativist Tom Tancredo who led attacks against Wells Fargo, HIRC represents one of the most entrenched threats to American pluralism today.” Members of HIRC have introduced some of the most punitive legislation proposed during the last two House sessions. The current head of HIRC is Congressman Brian Bilbray of California the former lobbyist of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). FAIR was recently named a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Other groups designated as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center include the Ku Klux Klan and the American National Socialist Workers Party. Ironically in 2007, Bilbray went on to co-sponsor anti-immigrant legislation that directly targeted the banking industry, including Wells Fargo.
Having been attacked by everyone from Lou Dobbs to Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) President Dan Stein, one would think that Wells Fargo would understand firsthand the impact that the bigotry of the anti-immigrant movement is having on local communities and Wells Fargo customers. In Arizona, anti-immigrant activists have literally destroyed the economy of Arizona in their attempt to divide the state and the families that live there.
Sadly Wells Fargo’s indirect support doesn’t end in the Nation’s beltway but to the streets of Arizona itself. In Arizona far away from the eyes of the nation, xenophobes have waged a relentless war against the immigrant community. Not simply satisfied with the harassment of Latino communities at the hands of armed vigilantes, Maricopa County Sherriff Joe Arpaio joined the fray, terrorizing citizens and non-citizens so much that the U.S. Department of Justice has an open investigation into his activities. Arpaio does this from space leased from Wells Fargo.
On Monday, October 27, 2008, Arizona has called for a national day of action against Wells Fargo. The demand is simple, they are asking that Wells Fargo stop housing and profiting from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s attempt to terrorize the Latino community of Arizona. Whatever your views on immigration policy, it’s hard not to be disturbed by Wells Fargo’s support of groups that seek to slam the door on America’s historic commitment to inclusion and opportunity.
Fortunately for our nation, Americans of all stripes have stood up to defend a historic commitment to unity, hard work, and rights. Organize a lunch time vigil at your local Wells Fargo. Call or email Wells Fargo. Tell Wells Fargo that its voice is necessary to pull the debate on immigration back from the intolerant fringes.
It’s time for Wells Fargo to send Arpaio packing. Click Here:

Illegals portrayed by a twisted mirror.

The typical Undocumented Mexican immigrant is an honest worker struggling for a better life for himself and his family, not a violent criminal.

In 1995, an article in the San Jose Mercury News reported that it is quite common for families to be divided by the border. For example, the father and one of the sons are legal residents, while the mother and another son are in Mexico and unable immigrate legally. The one father and son cannot afford to give up their jobs in California to return to Mexico, and the rest of the family is unsuccessful at immigrating legally, so the family must live apart.

The anti-immigrant folks never seem to give a second thought to rich U.S. farmers who knowingly employ undocumented workers at sub-standard wages (and in sub-standard conditions). Such employers are a major source of the draw of immigrants into U.S., but are rarely if ever portrayed as criminals who deserve to be "severely punished". They are indeed breaking the law by employing undocumented workers, but this law is lightly enforced if at all whereas it is becoming quite fashionable for politicians in America to call for increasing efforts at enforcing laws against illegal border crossings (and for Usenet demagogues to scream for severe punishment of "illegals").

In my career in California's high-tech center known as Silicon Valley, I have noticed that the janitors are almost universally Mexicans, and driving through the agricultural areas of California, the laborers breaking their backs in the fields (often covered with carcinogenic pesticides) are mostly Mexican. It seems to me that the Mexicans have really gotten the bottom of the barrel in our society.

So how is it that Mexican immigrants are responsible for all of our economic problems and other troubles, and why all the outrage? To me it bears a chilling resemblance to the way Hitler was able to dupe all of Germany into believing that all their problems were caused by the Jews.

We need to stop being spoonfed our issues by politicians, and stop letting the demagogues push our emotional buttons, and look at the real source of our problems, such as the fact that 50% of what the government collects from us in corporate and individual income taxes is spent on destruction (the military), rather than on building a peacetime social and industrial infrastructure, and a very significant sector of our economy is the "defense" (war) industry, which, unlike peacetime industries, drags down rather than fuels the economy. Why is there no outrage over the fact that the Trident IV first-strike nuclear weapon is still being funded at $300 million a year, when the cold war is long over? Why is there no outrage over the fact that 75% of all international weapons sales are made by the U.S., and 90% of our customers are non-democratic regimes? Why is it that the Mexican worker and welfare mothers are getting all the blame for this country's problems????

It never ceases to amaze and disgust me to see grown adults blaming Mexican school children and pregnant women for their economic woes, while monthly Space Shuttle missions costing billions (often on "secret military" missions) are not given a second thought.

Notwithstanding these statements, The Anti Immigrants denies that their objections to immigration from developing nations are purely based on skin color. Instead, they contends that immigrants of color are culturally deficient, placing great emphasis on the need to speak English (apparently as a native language). Such concerns may mask racial concerns and, at a minimum, coincide with race. Consider some of the so- called cultural problems allegedly posed by today's immigrants. As They involving the need for cultural homogeneity, presence of too many "hispanics", a soapbox to explore many personal frustrations, and nativisim - pure and simple.

Undocumented Immigrants boolster social security retirement.

Have you ever wondered what happens to all the money collected for Social Security that Undocumented Immigrants don't get? Do you know who are the most concern to any legalization for Undocumented Immigrants and why?
Seniors and retirement boomers are against any form of legalization for Undocumented Immigrants that could cost Social Security billions in future payments and will almost certainly trigger benefit cuts for baby retirement boomers and senior citizens.
What happens to the money assigned to people using false identities, or names matched with the wrong Social Security Number (SSN), or newlyweds who forgot to register their name changes with the Social Security administration?

The answer lies in a little-known aspect of the Social Security behemoth known as the Earnings Suspense File (ESF).

The ESF has become a hotbed for debate over everything from immigration rights, as it continues to accrue money at roughly $ 7 billion a year, with the total as of 2005 sitting at $660 billions.
During 2000-2005 the total number of mismatched wage reports jumped from 217 million to 274 million- 82% higher than during the 1990's and more than double the rate of the 1980's. Over the same period, wages in the Earnings Suspense File more than doubled, from $301.8 billion to $660 billions.

Since Undocumented Immigrant crossing the Mexican border into the United States six years ago, Ángel Martínez has done backbreaking work, harvesting asparagus, pruning grapevines and picking the ripe fruit. More recently, he has also washed trucks, often working as much as 70 hours a week, earning $8.50 to $12.75 an hour.

Not surprisingly, Mr. Martínez, 28, has not given much thought to Social Security's long-term financial problems. But Mr. Martínez - who comes from the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico and hiked for two days through the desert to enter the United States near Tecate, some 20 miles east of Tijuana - contributes more than most Americans to the solvency of the nation's public retirement system.

Last year, Mr. Martínez paid about $2,000 toward Social Security and $450 for Medicare through payroll taxes withheld from his wages. Yet unlike most Americans, who will receive some form of a public pension in retirement and will be eligible for Medicare as soon as they turn 65, Mr. Martínez is not entitled to benefits.

He belongs to a big club. As the debate over Social Security heats up, the estimated seven million or so Undocumented immigrant workers in the United States are now providing the system with a subsidy of as much as $7 billion a year.

While it has been evident for years that Undocumented immigrants pay a variety of taxes, the extent of their contributions to Social Security is striking: the money added up to about 10 percent of last year's surplus - the difference between what the system currently receives in payroll taxes and what it doles out in pension benefits. Moreover, the money paid by Undcoumented workers and their employers is factored into all the Social Security Administration's projections.

Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, co-director of immigration studies at New York University, noted sardonically, could provide "the fastest way to shore up the long-term finances of Social Security."

It is impossible to know exactly how many Undocumented immigrant workers pay taxes. But according to specialists, most of them do. Since 1986, when the Immigration Reform and Control Act set penalties for employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants, most such workers have been forced to buy fake ID's or ITIN Numbers to get a job.

Currently available for about $150 on street corners in just about any immigrant neighborhood in California, a typical fake ID package includes a green card and a Social Security card. It provides cover for employers, who, if asked, can plausibly assert that they believe all their workers are legal. It also means that workers must be paid by the book - with payroll tax deductions.

IRCA, as the immigration act is known, did little to deter employers from hiring Undocumented immigrants or to discourage them from working. But for Social Security's finances, it was a great piece of legislation.

Starting in the late 1980's, the Social Security Administration received a flood of W-2 earnings reports with incorrect - sometimes simply fictitious - Social Security numbers. It stashed them in what it calls the "earnings suspense file" in the hope that someday it would figure out whom they belonged to.

The file has been mushrooming ever since: $189 billion worth of wages ended up recorded in the suspense file over the 1990's, two and a half times the amount of the 1980's.

In the current decade, the file is growing, on average, by more than $50 billion a year, generating $6 billion to $7 billion in Social Security tax revenue and about $1.5 billion in Medicare taxes.

In 2002 alone, figures released by the Social Security Administration, nine million W-2's with incorrect Social Security numbers landed in the suspense file, accounting for $56 billion in earnings, or about 1.5 percent of total reported wages.

Social Security officials do not know what fraction of the suspense file corresponds to the earnings of Undocumented immigrants. But they suspect that the portion is significant.

"Our assumption is that about three-quarters of other-than-legal immigrants pay payroll taxes," said Stephen C. Goss, Social Security's chief actuary, using the agency's term for Undocumented immigration.

Other researchers say Undocumented immigrants are the main contributors to the suspense file. "Undocumented immigrants account for the vast majority of the suspense file," said Nick Theodore, the director of the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "Especially its growth over the 1990's, as more and more undocumented immigrants entered the work force."

Using data from the Census Bureau's current population survey, Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, an Think Tank group in Washington that favors more limits on immigration, estimated that 3.8 million households headed by Undocumented immigrants generated $6.4 billion in Social Security taxes in 2002.

A comparative handful of former Undocumented immigrant workers who have obtained legal residence have been able to accredit their previous earnings to their new legal Social Security numbers. Mr. Camarota is among those opposed to granting a broad amnesty to Undocumented immigrants, arguing that, among other things, they might claim Social Security benefits and put further financial stress on the system.

The mismatched W-2's fit like a glove on Undocumented immigrants' known geographic distribution and the patchwork of jobs they typically hold. An audit found that more than half of the 100 employers filing the most earnings reports with false Social Security numbers from 1997 through 2001 came from just three states: California, Texas and Illinois. According to an analysis by the Government Accountability Office, about 17 percent of the businesses with inaccurate W-2's were restaurants, 10percent were construction companies and 7 percent were farm operations.

Most immigration helps Social Security's finances, because new immigrants tend to be of working age and contribute more than they take from the system. A simulation by Social Security's actuaries found that if net immigration ran at 1.3 million a year instead of the 900,000 in their central assumption, the system's 75-year funding gap would narrow to 1.67 percent of total payroll, from 1.92 percent - savings that come out to half a trillion dollars, valued in today's money.

Undocumented immigrants help even more because they will never collect benefits. According to Mr. Goss, without the flow of payroll taxes from wages in the suspense file, the system's long-term funding hole over 75 years would be 10 percent deeper.

Yet to immigrants, the lack of retirement benefits is just part of the package of hardship they took on when they decided to make the trek north. Tying vines in a vineyard some 30 miles north of Stockton, Florencio Tapia, 20, from Guerrero, along Mexico's Pacific coast, has no idea what the money being withheld from his paycheck is for. "I haven't asked," Mr. Tapia said.

For Undocumented immigrants, Social Security numbers are simply a tool needed to work on this side of the border. Retirement does not enter the picture.

"There will be a moment when I won't be able to continue working," Mr. Martínez acknowledges. "But that's many years off."

Mario Avalos, a naturalized Nicaraguan immigrant who prepares income tax returns for many workers in the area, including immigrants without legal papers, observes that many older workers return home to Mexico. "Among my clients," he said, "I can't recall anybody over 60 without papers."

No doubt most Undocumented immigrants would prefer to avoid Social Security altogether. As part of its efforts to properly assign the growing pile of unassigned wages, Social Security sends about 130,000 letters a year to employers with large numbers of mismatched pay statements.

Though not an intended consequence of these so-called no-match letters, in many cases employers who get them dismiss the workers affected. Or the workers - fearing that immigration authorities might be on their trail - just leave.

Last February, for instance, discrepancies in Social Security numbers put an end to the job of Minerva Ortega, 25, from Zacatecas, in northern Mexico, who worked in the cheese department for a popular discount food retailer with a large operation in California.

The company asked dozens of workers to prove that they had cleared up or were in the process of clearing up the "discrepancy between the information on our payroll related to your employment and the S.S.A.'s records." Most could not.

Ms. Ortega said about 150 workers lost their jobs. In a statement, Mike Campbell said that it did not fire any of the workers, but Robert Camarena, a company official, acknowledged that many left.

Ms. Ortega is now looking for work again. She does not want to go back to the fields, so she is holding out for a better-paid factory job. Whatever work she finds, though, she intends to go on the payroll with the same Social Security number she has now, a number that will not jibe with federal records.

With this number, she will continue paying taxes. Last year she paid about $1,200 in Social Security taxes, matched by her employer, on an income of $19,000.

She will never see the money again, she realizes, but at least she will have a job in the United States.

"I don't pay much attention," Ms. Ortega said. "I know I don't get any benefit."

Identity Theft beyond borders

Do no guess Nativists, Protectionists, Anti Immigrants, Xenophobics, Ignorants have the mind set to blamed Undocumented Immigrants.!!!!!!!


Eleven people were indicted Tuesday for allegedly stealing more than 40 million credit and debit card numbers, federal authorities said
The indictments, which alleged that at least nine major U.S. retailers were hacked, were unsealed Tuesday in Boston, Massachusetts, and San Diego, California, prosecutors said.

It is believed to be the largest hacking case that the Justice Department has ever tried to prosecute.

Three of the defendants are from the United States; three are from Estonia; three are from Ukraine, two are from China and one is from Belarus.

The remaining individual is known only by an alias and authorities do not know where that person is.

Under the indictments, three Miami, Florida, men -- Albert "Segvec" Gonzalez, Christopher Scott and Damon Patrick Toey -- are accused of hacking into the wireless computer networks of retailers including TJX Companies, whose stores include Marshall's and T.J. Maxx, BJ's Wholesale Club, OfficeMax, Barnes and Noble and Sports Authority, among others.

The three men installed "sniffer" programs designed to capture credit card numbers, passwords and account information as they moved through the retailers' card processing networks, said Michael Sullivan, the U.S. attorney in Boston.

This has other personal numbers that could give them access to credit or debit cards that have already been issued and are active," Sullivan.

The probe began in late 2006, Sullivan said. In addition to the Justice Department, the Secret Service has been conducting an undercover investigation for more than three years through the U.S. attorney's office in San Diego, he said.

The three then concealed the data in encrypted computer servers they controlled in the United States and eastern Europe, the Justice Department said.

Some credit and debit card numbers were sold on the Internet, and were "cashed out" by encoding the numbers on the magnetic strips of blank cards. "The defendants then used these cards to withdraw tens of thousands of dollars at a time from ATMs," authorities said.

Gonzalez and the others used anonymous Internet-based currencies to conceal and launder their proceeds, as well as channeling funds through bank accounts in Eastern Europe, the department said.

"There are ties between all three districts and ties internationally that go all the way to the Ukraine and Latvia," Sullivan said. "The 41 million credit and debit numbers were used internationally."

Gonzalez was previously arrested in 2003 by the Secret Service on suspicion of access device fraud, the Department of Justice said, and was working as a confidential informant for the agency. However, the Secret Service discovered during the investigation that Gonzalez was involved in this case, authorities said.

The California indictment charged eight others with operating an international stolen credit and debit card distribution ring, selling stolen card information for personal gain -- millions of dollars, in at least one case, authorities said.

Three of the defendants in the most recent case, among them Gonzalez, were also charged in May in a related indictment in New York, Justice said. Those charges allege the three were engaged in a scheme to hack into computer networks run by the Dave & Buster's restaurant chain and steal credit and debit card numbers from at least 11 locations.

The three installed "sniffer" programs at the cash register terminals of the locations, capturing credit and debit card numbers, authorities said. At one location, the sniffer captured data for some 5,000 cards, causing some $600,000 in losses to the banks that issued the credit and debit cards.

Gonzalez is awaiting trial on the New York charges. The other two of the international defendants are also in custody, police said.

"Identity theft can involve a single criminal stealing the personal financial information of a single victim or, as it did here, it can involve a group of criminals stealing the credit card numbers of millions of people, many of whom may not even learn that they were victims for months or years," said Attorney General Michael Mukasey.

"Identity theft victims suffer well beyond the immediate financial costs; they suffer lost confidence in their privacy and security, as well as the emotional strain and the time it can take to repair damaged financial lives and credit histories. In many cases, the effects of these crimes can be felt for years after they are committed."

Mukasey and other officials said the case serves as a reminder that computer crimes can cross international borders.

"We have been working with countries around the world to identify and address technical vulnerabilities in computer networks, and to ensure that laws and procedures are adequate to deal with these kinds of crime," Mukasey said. "And we have been working closely with our international partners to crack specific cases when they take us beyond our borders

Thousand of protesters in Postville, Iowa


On May 12, 2008, nearly 400 workers were arrested in an ICE raid on the Agriprocessors, Inc., meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa. In the following months, witnesses and news media reported a number of human rights and due process violations against the workers that took place at the plant and in the makeshift courtrooms set up by the U.S. government following the raid. On July 27, 2008, activists and people of faith from Iowa and across the country marched in Postville to show solidarity for the workers and their families and to call for fair and humane immigration reform.
This video reflected the needs of Humane and comprehensive Immigration reform.

What if I Told you that Arizona Anti Immigrant Law had a Racist touch?

Anti Immigrants, Nativists and Minuteman Members are Dangerous?

.

I just copied this video from Human League were they exposed the Nativist and how dangerous they are and will be.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Specially Lynn Stevens.
Lynn is one of many members of United For Sovereign America Vigilante group that terrorize Mexicans and Latin people in Arizona.

Another Charged in $110 Million Health Care Fraud Scheme. Isn't Just the Tip of the Iceberg and List going on and on.




WASHINGTON – Three Miami area brothers who allegedly financed 11 corrupt HIV infusion clinics and a physician’s assistant who worked at those clinics have been charged in a $110 million HIV infusion fraud scheme, the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida announced today.

The indictment alleges that between January 2001 and November 2004, Carlos and Luis Benitez conspired to submit approximately $110 million in false and fraudulent claims to the Medicare program for HIV infusion services allegedly provided at 11 corrupt HIV infusion clinics that they owned and controlled. As part of the scheme, Carlos and Luis Benitez referred Medicare beneficiaries to the clinics and directed the beneficiaries be paid kickbacks to induce them to claim they received legitimate services at the clinics when in fact the HIV infusion services were either not provided or were not medically necessary. The HIV infusion clinics that they owned and controlled were: AH Medical Office Inc.; Advanced Medical Rehabilitation Center Inc.; Best Medi Corp.; Physician’s Health Med-Care; Physician’s Med-Care Inc.; Saint Jude Rehab Center Inc.; Global Med-Care Corp.; CNC Medical Corp.; G&S Medical Centers Inc.; Karla Medical Services Inc.; and Best Medicare Inc.

The indictment alleges that Jose Benitez owned and operated one of the eleven clinics, Advanced Medical, and assisted in submitting approximately $10 million of the false and fraudulent claims to the Medicare program for HIV infusion services that were not provided and for services that were not medically necessary. Thomas McKenzie was a physician’s assistant at the HIV infusion clinics owned and operated by Carlos, Luis and Jose Benitez. The indictment alleges that, at the direction of Carlos, Luis and Jose Benitez, McKenzie was responsible for training physicians and providers in how to make it appear that legitimate and appropriate medical services were being provided as well as overseeing the preparation of documents to make it appear that the services were actually rendered and medically necessary.

After obtaining the proceeds from their crimes, the indictment alleges that Carlos, Luis, and Jose Benitez engaged in a scheme to launder those proceeds by, among other things, transferring millions of dollars in proceeds to sham "marketing" and "management" companies that they owned and controlled and by transferring proceeds among the corrupt HIV infusion clinics.

Carlos Benitez, Luis Benitez, Jose Benitez, and Thomas McKenzie were charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, to cause the submission of false claims to the Medicare program, and to pay health care kickbacks; conspiracy to commit health care fraud; and submitting false claims to the Medicare program. Carlos, Luis and Jose Benitez were charged with conspiracy to launder the proceeds of their crimes, and Carlos and Luis Benitez were each charged with money laundering. The indictment also seeks forfeiture of assets held by all defendants. Carlos and Luis Benitez each face a maximum sentence of 155 years in prison, Jose Benitez faces a maximum of 40 years, and Thomas McKenzie faces a maximum of 50 years.

This case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Hank Bond Walther and John K. Neal of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, as well as Laurel Loomis Rimon and Constantine Lizas of the Criminal Division’s Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section, with the investigative assistance of the FBI and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General. The case was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force that has been operating in Miami since March 2007. The Strike Force is led by Deputy Chief Kirk Ogrosky of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section in Washington, D.C., and the office of U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta of the Southern District of Florida.

Nativists, and Anti Immigrants. What part of Ilegal you do not Understand.!!!!!!!!!!!!



Most of Nativists, Anti Immigrants found that Undocumented(Ilegal) Immigrants were mostly a drain. Well Just Ilegal Billing, Ilegal fraud, ilegal benefits entitled to, ilegal claim, ilegal Kickbacks, Ilegal charges for services do not rendered to patient,

But they found greater ambiguity on whether Undocumented immigrants are good or bad for American society because they do not see the real facts. They rather create waves of flames of Anti Immigrant sentiment to our Society to see Undocumented people as a bad people.

Undocumented Immigrants has been persecuted, scapegoated, dimished, criminalized and labeled as a problem on Social Services specially Healthcare Services like Medicare and Medicaid. Well lets see the real facts.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

False Claims Act Returns $2 Billion in FY 2007.

The Justice Department has announced that $2 billion has been recovered under the federal False Claims Act in Fiscal Year 2007, of which $1.45 billion came from whistleblower-filed cases. The total amount returned to the U.S. Government under the False Claims Act since 1986 is well over $20 billion. Department of Justice data is actually very conservative, as it does not include billions of dollars in civil recoveries returned to the states or criminal fines imposed as a direct consequence of False Claims Act filings and prosecutions.

The cases below represent a "running tally" of False Claims Act cases compiled by the Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund for Fiscal Year 2007.

Amount in Millions $ Date Nature of the fraud Medicare Medicaid.

Bristol-Myers Squibb 328 9/28/2007 A total $515 million settlement, with $328 million to be paid under the Federal False Claims Act, and the state's getting $187 million. Fraud charges included off-label marketing, kickbacks, AWP drug pricing violations and several other frauds involving 50 drugs and a total of seven qui tam cases.

Amerigroup 172 3//14/2007 Judgment for $334 million including penalties. Amerigroup cherry-picked patients in violation of its HMO Medicaid contract, purposely avoided women in their third trimester of pregnancy because they cost more to insure. Note that this judgment is on appeal and reflects a $190 million penalty on top of a $144 million jury verdict.

Combined settlement with four orthotics companies: Smith & Nephew, Biomet, Zimmer, DePuy (Johnson & Johnson) 310 9/27/2007 $310 million total settlement of broad practice of kickback in the orthotics industry. Zimmer to pay 169.5 million, DePuy to pay $84.7 million, Smith and Nephew to pay $28.9 million, Biomet to pay $26.9 million. Stryker agreed to be monitored, but has entered no civil settlement.

Aventis (sanofi-aventis) 180 9/17/2007 Medicaid Average Wholesale Price case involving the anti-nausea drug Anzemet. Total settlement was for $190 million

Medco 155 10/24/2006 Shorting prescriptions, canceling prescriptions to avoid paying non-performance penalties, soliciting and accepting kickbacks from pharmaceutical manufacturers to favor their drugs, and paying kickbacks to health plans to obtain business. X X

Purdue Pharma 140.5 5/10/2007 Company "mislabeled" the drug saying it was less addictive than it was. This is a $634.5 million settlement, with $276 million to be forfeited to the United States, $160 million allocated to federal and state government agencies to resolve false claims for government healthcare programs and $130 million will go to resolving private civil claims. Of the 160 million to go to State and Federal FCA claims, $19.5 million is to go to the states.

Bill L. Harbert-owned construction companies 102 5/15/2007 Bid rigging for US AID paid for water and sewer systems installed in Egypt in the 1980s as part of the Camp David peace accords.

Oracle / PeopleSoft 98.5 10/10/2006 Provided false pricing information to GSA to obtain a federal contract.

ConocoPhillips 97.5 8/15/2007 Underpaid royalties owed on natural gas produced from federal and Indian leases

Omnicare / Specialized Pharmacy Services (Michigan) 52.5 10/5/2006 Improper billing, failure to credit Medicare for returned drugs, billing drugs for dead patients. X
Omnicare 49.5 11/14/2006 Illegal switching of generic pill to capsule forms of Zantac (ranitidine) in nursing homes and other facilities.

InterMune, Inc. 36.8 10/27/2006 Illegal off-label promotion of Actimmune. X X

Lourdes Perez, Provident Home Health Care Services Inc. and Tri-Regional Home Health
Care Inc. 33.8 10/11/2006 Medicare "bill mill" in which Medicare was billed for patients who were not homebound and for services her companies did not perform, creating false medical records to support the claims. X

Maximus Inc. 30.5 7/24/2007 Maximus billed DC Medicaid for targeted case management services that it either did not provide or had no records for.

Kerr-McGee Oil 30 1/25/2007 Jury verdict on case involving Kerr-McGee cheating the government out of millions of dollars in royalties on oil it produced in publicly owned coastal waters.

Robert I. Bourseau, Dr. Rudra Sabaratnam, and their two single-employee corporations, RIB Medical Management Services, Inc., and Navatkuda, Inc., 23.8 10/2/2006 Used false cost reports to bill Medicare for unreimbursable services at the Chula Vista psychiatric hospital formerly known as Bayview Hospital & Mental Health Systems. X

Akal Security Inc 18 7/13/2007 Akal violated terms of its contract to provide trained civilian guards at eight U.S. Army bases.

Harris County Hospital District 15.5 3/28/2007 Medicare Secondary Payer violations plus billing Medicaid for patients under custody of law enforcement.

Larkin Community Hospital in Miami and its current and former owners, Dr. Jack Michel, Dr. James Desnick, Morris Esformes and Philip Esformes 15.4 11/30/2006 Kickbacks X X

Aggregate Industries 15 7/27/2007 Total settlement of $50 million, of which $27 million will go into a special fund to be used to pay for future maintenance and repair of the Big Dig highway project, and an additional $8 million will be paid in criminal fines.

Jackson Memorial Health System 14.25 12/20/2006 Jackson Memorial was deliberately making use of unallowable or reopened cost reports, getting wrongful overpayments as a result. X

Ajax Paving Industries Inc. and Dan's Excavating Inc. 11.75 3/16/2007 Knowingly violated Disadvantaged Business

Enterprise (DBE) contracting requirements for federally funded construction
projects at Detroit Wayne County Metropolitan Airport

Cell Therapeutics 10.5 4/18/2007 Off-label marketing of Trisenox billed to Medicare.

Intergris Baptist Medical Center 10 11/28/2006 Inflated costs for organ transplants

Emory Worldwide 10 11/14/2006 Inflated bills for handling priority mail for USPS

Medicis Pharmaceutical 9.8 5/8/2007 Off-label marketing: Company promoted the use of a topical anti-fungal, Loprox, for diaper rash on children under the age of 10, without approval by the Food & Drug Administration.

American Medical Response Inc. 9 10/5/2006 Ambulance services fraud. X

KBR Inc. 8 11/29/2006 Overcharged the U.S. Army for logistical support in the Balkans during 1999 and 2000
Crane Co.
7.6 8/14/2007 Substandard valves sold to the U.S.

SCCI Health Services Corporation, and its subsidiary, SCCI Hospital Ventures Inc 7.5 1/7/2007 Kickback and self-referral (Stark violations) X

Raritan Bay Medical Center 7.5 3/16/2007 Purposefully inflated outlier charges for inpatient and outpatient care to make these cases appear more costly than they actually were.

PBSJ 6.4 1/25/2007 PBSJ submitted claims to the overstated overhead rates in its Government contracts.

Atlanta's Northside Hospital 5.75 10/20/2006 Kickbacks

Oakland City University 5.3 7/31/2007 University paid incentives to admissions recruiters contrary to federal regulations.

IBM & PriceWaterhouseCoopers 5.2 8/16/2007 Companies solicited and provided improper payments and other things of value on technology contracts with government agencies

Keystone Mercy Health Plan 5 10/27/2006 Medicaid HMO Kept Medicaid overpayments X
Cook County, Illinois 5 12/20/2006 County mismanaged a federally funded study involving pregnant drug addicts.

AIT Worldwide Logistics of Itasca, Ill. 4.2 10/20/2006 Kickbacks and bill padding.

St. Elizabeth Regional Medical Center (NE) 4 10/31/2006 Used false cost reports to overbill l Medicare for neonatal and burn units.

Scooter Stores 4 5/14/2007 Settlement includes $4 million in cash and $13 million in foregone Medicare payments to settle charges the company billed Medicare medically unnecessary power wheelchairs.

HealthSouth Corporation 4 11/3/2006 HealthSouth submitted fraudulent Medicare claims for prosthetic and orthotic devices - such as artificial limbs and braces - used to treat HealthSouth hospital inpatients X

Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center 3.8 5/9/2007 Billing Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance providers $2.5 million for unnecessary cardiac procedures, such as angiograms and angioplasties, on more than 70 patients.

Orphan Medical/ Jazz Pharmaceuticals Inc 3.75 7/13/2007 Aggressive marketing of Xyrem (GBH, the "date rape" drug) for unapproved use. Part of a total settlement of $20 million, including criminal.

Cabrini Medical Center 3.4 3/29/2007 Kickbacks billed as administrative services for referral of patients.

Korrect Optical 3.25 1/25/2007 Korrect Optical submitted false claims to the

Department of Veteran Affairs ( VA )through ophthalmic prescriptions for eyewear for veterans.

Dr. Daniel Nixon and other board members of the Institute for Cancer Prevention, Tatum, LLC and Weiser, LLP 3.2 1/17/2007 Unlawful receipt and use of federal grant money.

Electronic Data Systems Inc. and Travelers Casualty 2.85 1/23/2007 EDS was processing National Flood Insurance Program claims based on backdated policies written by Travelers.
Dey 2.8 4/26/2007 Settle charges of price inflation and defrauding Mass. Medicaid program (AWP).

Rural/Metro Corporation 2.5 6/11/2007 Kickback for referrals

David Rommel 2.48 11/13/2006 Dental practice fraud. Won by summary judgment.

Danbury Hospital (CN) 2.4 10/27/2006 Self-reported upcoding for septicemia, respiratory failure, respiratory infections and inflammations. X

Affiliated Computer Services, Inc 2.3 7/2/2007 ACS allegedly Submitted inflated claims for programs run by and through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), and the Administration for Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Self reported.

APAC Atlantic 2.25 10/3/2006 False asphalt testing

University of Miami Medical School 2.2 12/27/2006 UM sometimes billed for critical care services when patients were not critically ill or where critical services were not rendered. X X

Loma Linda Behavioral Medicine Center (Loma Linda BMC) in Redlands 2 4/26/2007 Fraudulently overbilled federal health insurance programs by manipulating cost reports.

O'Hara Regional Center for Rehabilitation, Health Care Management Partners, ORCR Inc., Solomon Health Management, Solomon Health Services 1.9 10/5/2006 Abuse and neglect and substandard nursing home services. X

Emeritus Corp 1.86 8/30/2007 False and inaccurate billing to the Texas Medicaid program.

COSMOS Corp 1.5 1/23/2007 COSMOS improperly charged government contracts for costs that dealt with the company's operations, and also shifted labor costs from private contracts to government contracts.

Crawford and Company 1.36 10/11/2006 Billing the government for health care services to federal employees at rates set by Crawford managers, rather than billing the actual time spent performing that service.

Ciena Healthcare Management 1.25 8/20/2007 Improperly billed Medicaid and Medicare for inadequate care of and services to residents at four metro Detroit nursing homes.

Bli Farms, Richard Bli and the estate of James E. Bli 1.229 11/29/2006 False crop insurance claims.

Lancaster Community Hospital 1.2 6/8/2007 Knowingly overbilled Medicare for physical therapy costs.

Lakewood Cheder School 1.2 10/31/2006 False information to obtain funds for preschool lunch program.

Robert E. Eberhart and Jonathan Holzaepfel, orthopedic surgeons and partners in
Seacoast Trust, and Thomas King 1 3/8/2007 HealthSouth paid higher than normal rent equivalent to income from referrals made by the doctors

Parkway Hospital, Inc 1 8/14/2007 Inflated hospital costs reports.

Environmental Management Inc. 1 4/2/2007 Overbilling and illegal disposal of chemicals in methamphetamine lab cleanups for DEA.

Dey 1 4/4/2007 Settlement of Hawaii FCA marketing the spread cases

Julio C. Melo, M.D., 0.984 7/23/2007 Billed Medicare for Evaluation and Management services that exceeded the number of hours there were in a day.

RightCHOICE Managed Care Inc. 0.975 1/31/2007 RightCHOICE paid higher fees to physicians serving government0insured patients than for other plans.

Comprehensive Cancer Centers 0.9 11/8/2006 Upcoding led to overbilling of Medicare for CCC services at Desert Regional Medical Center (owned by Tenet) X

Iftakhar Khan and Amjad Khan 0.825 1/9/2007 Owners of Livonia-based Michigan

Rehabilitation and Pain Management fraudulently billed Medicare. X

Green Valley Pavilion, LLC 0.55 5/14/2007 Forging and altering patient charts to maximize reimbursement from Delaware's Medicaid Program

Oregon Imaging Center 0.51 12/12/2006 Tests not ordered by doctor.

Moritz Embroidery Works 0.5 7/10/2007 False "Buy American Act" certification to the United States government for military and police emblems and patches.

John Dempsey Hospital 0.475 6/27/2007 Overbilled Medicare for chemotherapy treatment.

Colquitt Regional Medical Center 0.475 3/5/2007 Overcharged the government for services through CRMC's Home Health Office in Sylvester, GA X X

Hillsboro Area Hospital, in Hillsboro, Ill. 0.3 2/7/2007 Over billing for the treatment of Medicare beneficiaries who were diagnosed with pneumonia, sepsis, and renal failure. X

Beacon Ambulance Company. 0.219 3/29/2007 Use of one basic technician and a single Paramedic on ambulance run, and billing for two Paramedics.

Promark, Inc. 0.2 11/14/2006 Overstating warranty on epoxy paint to DoT

Riverview Cancer Center 0.165 10/5/2006 Upcoding and services not provided

LS Technologies 0.145 3/16/07 Submitted duplicate claims for two different subcontracts and was paid $50,000 based on these false claims.

Madison County, Alabama 0.11 2/19/2007 Diversion of money from "Working Connection," a welfare-to-work program.

Kansas City, Missouri School District 0.066 5/18/200 66,000 paid in money and over $13.6 in claims relinquished in E-Rate fraud case.

Armstrong Williams 0.035 10/22/2006 Failing to do contracted work for Dept. of Education

Dr. Roberto Ramirez 0.03 12/21/2007 False dental billing X X

Clark's Trading Company (Clark's 0.012 10/18/2006 Product substitution (meat) at Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Link: http://www.taf.org/total2007.htm

I think race is definitely a factor in the immigration issue.




Because from the way the topic is framed in the media, Nativists, political stand point it seems that the issue is only about illegal immigrants from Latin America, and even more specifically, Mexico.

Nobody seems to be much concerned about security along the Canadian border where most of the drugs confiscated by federal agents in Montana come from people crossing the border at legal ports of entries, which begs the question: Do most smugglers try to sneak their wares into the U.S. from Canada through these legal crossings, or are the agents just not finding those who are crossing illegally?

The answer seems to be a little of both, according to Mike Milne, a spokesman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

He notes that the vast majority of people coming into the United States do so at legal border crossings, which could be part of the reason for the larger number of drugs confiscated there.

“For instance, on a typical day nationally, 1.1 million people are processed through our points of entry,” Milne said, adding that the figure includes both northern and southern borders. “Those who are coming here between the legal crossings are A) entering the U.S. illegally, so they already have a violation there or B) are entering illegally because they’re up to no good in other ways. They’re smuggling narcotics, currency or other items.

“Are we perfect and catching everything? The answer is no. … Are the borders impenetrable? No. But we’re making them more secure and have more resources available now.”

Those realities are reflected in statistics compiled for the Havre sector, which covers 454 miles of the Montana-Canadian border, according to Ramon Rivera with the border patrol’s office in Washington, D.C

At legal ports of entry in the Havre sector during fiscal year 2007, which runs from Oct. 1, 2006, through the end of this month, agents confiscated marijuana 20 times, methamphetamine four times, cocaine six times, and psilocybin mushrooms, poppies and Oxycontin once each.

By comparison, during that same time frame at non-legal points of entry like trails or rural roads between the two countries the agents were involved in only four incidents involving marijuana, and one each of mushrooms and heroin. Only one of those incidents amounted to a quantity large enough n almost 19 pounds n to be considered something other than personal use.

Alex Harrington, spokesperson for the Havre sector, said it’s not just that more people go through the legal entry points; it’s also that the main mission of the border patrol is to search for terrorists and weapons of mass destruction, not drug smugglers.

“Our main mission is to look for illegal aliens and terrorists, and if the people we stop do have something on them, that’s good for our agents but it’s not the main reason we stop people,” Harrington said.

Confiscating small quantities of street drugs seems to be typical for what’s also happening at the legal border crossings in Montana, where agents typically make one or two large drug busts each year.

“They’re coming through with marijuana, coke or ecstasy in their pockets because they’re users,” Milne said. “But we’re certainly looking for and celebrate when we find our commercial loads.”

He expects more smugglers will try to cross the border via Montana in the future, since agents have been working the Washington-Vancouver border hard during the past decade. He warns that these drug dealers typically are well financed, dedicated and resourceful, which makes them “a formidable foe for law enforcement.”

“The pressure we put on them in western Washington has pushed larger amounts, specifically marijuana, into eastern Washington and parts of Montana,” Milne said. “It’s like that carnival game, where you whack a mole and it comes up somewhere else. We put pressure in one area, and they pop up somewhere else, quite possibly between ports of entries. It’s a moving target and we have to adapt and apply our resources based on risk management.

“The border patrol will tell you they don’t have enough officers to stand arm to arm, so we have to use our intelligence, training and experience.”

Since 2003, the office of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has almost tripled the size of the force on the 4,000-mile Canadian border, from 300 to 928. Overall, that that means each person is responsible for 4.3 miles.

In the Havre sector, which stretches from the eastern Montana border to the Continental Divide, its 92 agents equates to an average of about five miles per agent.

Havre generally ranks in the middle of the agent/per mile ratio of the eight sectors along the northern border. To its immediate west, the Spokane sector has 122 agents who patrol 307 miles of border, creating an agent-to-mile ratio of about 2.5 people per mile. The sector to the east, which basically covers the North Dakota border, has only 105 agents to patrol the 861 mile border, which equates to about eight miles per agent - the largest agent-to-mile ratio on the border.

The 863-mile Detroit sector has 122 agents, or 7 per mile; the Houlton, Maine, sector has 105 agents patrolling 611 miles of border, or about 6 people per mile. On the lower end of the scale, the Blaine sector, which covers western Washington, has 123 agents patroling 252 miles of border, or 2 people per mile. Buffalo, N.Y., which includes Niagra Falls, has 113 people for 341 miles, or 3 miles per agent. and the Swanton, VT., sector, which covers 295 miles of border, has 146 agents, or two per mile.

And with all this emphasis on catching terrorists or weapons of mass destruction, is it a success or failure of the Havre sector that it’s made only one arrest of an individual wanted for questioning in connection with possible terrorist activities?

“They’re not pounding on our door, but we are here just in case,” Harrington said. “It only takes one terrorist, one individual with a grudge against the United States, to come across with something on them.

“We want to make sure another 9/11 doesn’t happen.”