Stephen Dinan

Vast majority of billions in pandemic-aid fraud will never be recovered, watchdogs tell Congress

A single Social Security number was used to apply for pandemic benefits in at least 29 different states, investigators revealed to Congress on Wednesday, illustrating the size of the fraud that the government faced in doling out trillions of dollars in benefits.

February 1, 2023

Hackers linked to Russia, China stole U.S. pandemic relief money, Secret Service confirms

Criminal organizations backed by the Chinese and Russian governments have been linked to pandemic fraud, the U.S. Secret Service confirmed to Congress on Wednesday.

February 1, 2023

GOP wins showdown with Mayorkas as DHS allows agents to testify

Homeland Security will allow senior Border Patrol agents to testify to Congress, after Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas backed down from his earlier refusal, House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer said Tuesday.

January 31, 2023

IRS subjects Black taxpayers to more audits, study finds

Black taxpayers are far more likely to face audits than others, according to a new study released Tuesday.

January 31, 2023

Biden’s end of COVID emergency undermines his Supreme Court case on student debt forgiveness

President Biden has decided the coronavirus emergency will be over in early May -- which is a problem for his lawyers, who are about to go to the Supreme Court and argue that the pandemic gives him the legal leeway to forgive student debt.

January 31, 2023

Drones and water slides: How cities spent Uncle Sam’s pandemic money

When the coronavirus pandemic struck, someone in the Mississippi government thought of drones.

January 31, 2023

$5.4 billion in pandemic loans were paid to suspicious Social Security numbers

The government doled out nearly 100,000 pandemic loans to people whose applications were filed using suspect Social Security numbers, government investigators revealed Monday.

January 30, 2023

Illegal immigrant ‘crushed’ to death in vehicle packed with 30 people

A smuggler forced 30 illegal immigrants into a vehicle, crushing one of them to death.

January 30, 2023

Tens of thousands of federal employees bilked government of pandemic cash

Tens of thousands of federal employees stole taxpayers' money by filing bogus pandemic loan requests.

January 30, 2023

DHS blocks Border Patrol chiefs from testifying to Congress

The Department of Homeland Security has told Congress it will not allow four senior Border Patrol officials to testify next month about the chaos at the border.

January 27, 2023

Dems move to strip Bolsonaro of U.S. visa, make him deportable

Democrats have found one high-profile immigrant they want to see deported: former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

January 27, 2023

Biden extends deportation amnesty for people fleeing Hong Kong

President Biden renewed a deportation amnesty Thursday for people from Hong Kong who have made their way to the U.S., saying they should not be forced to return home to growing political oppression by Beijing.

January 26, 2023

House GOP asks IRS employees to snitch on agency

The new Republican chairman of the panel that oversees the IRS said Wednesday that he has created a new online form for agency employees to report directly to Congress on any abuses or wrongdoing they see.

January 25, 2023

DHS says illegal border crossings plummet after new ‘parole’ program

Homeland Security said Wednesday that illegal border crossings of key nationalities have plummeted after the department began a new program that converts would-be illegal immigrants into legal arrivals.

January 25, 2023

NIH failed to track how China’s Wuhan virus lab was spending U.S. money

The federal government missed warning signs from the lab at the center of the coronavirus controversy, allowing U.S. money to flow to the Wuhan Institute of Virology without adequate oversight of what the Chinese scientists were doing, an inspector general reported Wednesday.

January 25, 2023

Criminals free despite extension of border rule, spaces made for migrant surge now empty

Homeland Security released more than 1,100 illegal immigrants with criminal records from its detention facilities in December as it sought to make room for a border surge that never materialized.

January 25, 2023

States sue to stop new Biden border ‘parole’ policy set to bring in 30,000 more migrants per month

GOP-led states sued Tuesday to try to stop President Biden's "parole" program that would create a new pathway for up to 30,000 migrants to enter the U.S. each month.

January 24, 2023

Federal worker who ran for Congress as a Democrat gets fired

It took more than five years, but the federal government has finally won the right to fire Keith Arnold, a federal employee who repeatedly ran for Congress in violation of laws against mixing government work with politics.

January 24, 2023

Federal agent used DHS car to deliver packages for Amazon

A federal agent was slapped with probation after admitting he used his government-issued vehicle to make deliveries for Amazon and to pick up Uber and Lyft passengers, all while on duty with the Department of Homeland Security.

January 24, 2023

Suspect in killing of 20-year-old autistic woman was newly released illegal immigrant teen

The teen accused of killing a 20-year-old autistic woman in Maryland last summer was an illegal immigrant and member of MS-13 who had been caught then released into the U.S. as part of the government's leniency toward illegal immigrant children, according to a new report.

January 23, 2023