Federal authorities announced charges Thursday against 15 people — including 11 suspected illegal immigrants — who they say stole food stamps and other welfare benefits in Massachusetts.
The thefts ranged from relatively low-level, including one migrant accused of stealing an identity to collect $4,000 in food stamps, up to a man who is charged with stealing nearly $550,000 from food stamps, housing assistance, disability and Medicaid.
Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald, who leads the Justice Department’s fraud enforcement division, called the illegal immigrant cases part of a “deeply troubling trend.”
“Illegal immigration carries real and substantial costs to American taxpayers and places enormous strain on our public benefits systems,” he said.
Speaking at a press conference in Massachusetts, he said they still aren’t even sure of the real identities of some of those charged, because they’re clinging to identities that the government believes to have been stolen from real citizens.
In some cases, Mr. McDonald said, the actual citizens were blocked from getting the services because the migrants had already filed under their names.
“American citizens were boxed out of these programs because illegal aliens took their names, to then take their money — or, more accurately, your money, the American taxpayer’s money,” he said.
Leah Foley, the U.S. attorney in Massachusetts, said people are seeing “unchecked, unbridled, rampant fraud” in her state.
“These are not one-off cases, these are not clerical errors,” she said. “It should not be this easy to steal from the government.”
Mr. McDonald singled out Puerto Rico as one source of stolen identities.
Massachusetts has seen a raft of such cases over the years.
Because Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, their identities make for juicy targets for illegal immigrants from Latin America. That’s particularly true for migrants from the Dominican Republic, at least six of whom were among those whose charges were announced Thursday.
Mr. McDonald said some of the cases they identified were because people in Puerto Rico came forward to apply for benefits, only to be blocked. After all, someone in Massachusetts was already collecting under their name.
Mr. McDonald also said they’ve come across cases where illegal immigrants had racked up criminal records under the stolen identities.
The programs at issue are generally run by states, but largely funded by taxpayers at the federal level.
uthorities said once someone earns access to food stamps, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, they can then use that to access other welfare programs.
Roberto Coviello, special agent in charge of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General, said some states — including Massachusetts — are refusing to share information with the feds that could help expose more cases.
“They don’t have guardrails, they have, in some cases bad leadership, and they don’t want to work with the federal government,” he said.
Among those charged is Heriberto Rodriguez, accused of passport fraud and stealing $546,463 from four benefit programs.
Four men were charged as “John Does” because their actual identities haven’t been ascertained.
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