Former Kansas welfare worker says illegal immigrants abused the system

Kansas City Star ^ | Mar. 10, 2011 | - Steve Kraske

[moonshinner_09]

TOPEKA | A hearing on an Arizona-style immigration law drew impassioned testimony Thursday, including a statement from a former welfare worker who described “overwhelming” levels of fraud by illegal immigrants.

Lana Reed, who worked as a bilingual specialist for the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services in Overland Park from 2008 to 2010, urged lawmakers to adopt the bill targeting illegal immigration. She described a system overrun by illegal immigrants who used false Social Security numbers and other fraudulent documents to game the system.

“I witnessed overwhelming levels of fraud and corruption resulting in the waste of millions of taxpayer dollars,” Reed told the House Judiciary Committee. “Most of the fraud was conducted pursuant to policies of the SRS, which required employees to turn a blind eye to fraud and abuse.”

Bill Miskell, an SRS spokesman, said that Reed’s testimony was “new information” to him and that it would be evaluated today.

“We have protocols and procedures in place for caseworkers to follow, established by longstanding state and federal law,” he said. “We expect them to follow those protocols and practices and … if someone has evidence that that is not happening, we would want them to bring that to our attention.”

The bill, written by Rep. Lance Kinzer, an Olathe Republican, along with Secretary of State Kris Kobach, proposes ways to stem the waves of illegal immigrants who they say have flooded into Kansas in recent years.

[Lancey Howard]

Check out this comment from the source. It was posted by “the kansascitian” and is addressed to the author of the story.

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Steve,

I noticed you rush over to Ms Reed’s attorney immediately after her testimony, so I knew this piece was coming. As one would expect, you left out so many crucial details it is borderline journalistic malpractice.

“Overwhelming levels of fraud and corruption resulting in the waste of millions of taxpayer dollars,” you quote her as saying. Why did you leave out the details? Details that revealed just how rampant this corruption is.

Ms Reed had a caseload of just over 200 cases. Of those, only 10 were for US citizens... 10. That means the vast majority of people getting assitance are illegal immigrants. In addition, 80% of her cases were domestic violence situations. She was instructed to accept obvious forged documents, ignore the existance of multiple IDs. And to add insult to injury, giving food assitance to illegals with more income and assetts than US citizens she was required to turn down.

Not only is Bill Miskell a liar, as this was brought to his attention numerous times, it was also brought to the attention of Kevin Yoder when he was in the state house and who refused to do anything.

This is major news! You won’t reveal the extent of the fraud because you know how upset the public would be and that they would immediately call for this bill to pass and a crack down.

Disgraceful.

[Dust in the Wind]

BTTT

[cradle of freedom]

It’s not just SC but every state in the union since the 1960’s. We have to get all of the states out from under the federal welfare system. This is what has dragged the country down more than anything else.