Free Republic

AUGUST 15, 2011 Immigration Audits Drive Illegal Workers Underground BY MIRIAM JORDAN MINNEAPOLIS—In 2009, Alba and Eugenio were making almost twice the federal minimum wage, plus benefits, cleaning a skyscraper for a national janitorial company. With two toddlers, the Mexican couple enjoyed relative prosperity in a tidy one-bedroom duplex in a working-class neighborhood here. Late that year, federal agents audited employee records of ABM Industries Inc., forcing it to shed all the illegal workers on its payrolls in the Twin Cities. Among them was the couple, undocumented immigrants who had worked at ABM for more than a decade.

Senator Snowe said a proposed rule by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) limiting total servings of starchy vegetables (potatoes, corn, green peas, and lima beans) to one cup per week and eliminating these vegetables from breakfast meals is not grounded in scientific data and does not make economic sense. In letters to First Lady Michelle Obama, founder of the Let’s Move campaign, and USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, Senator Snowe urged reevaluation of the nutritional and economic impacts of this proposal. Senator Snowe recently joined her colleagues in calling on President Obama to resolve a discrepancy within the Administration regarding...

...Census Bureau data reveals that most U.S. families headed by illegal immigrants use taxpayer-funded welfare programs on behalf of their American-born anchor babies. Even before the recession, immigrant households with children used welfare programs at consistently higher rates than natives, according to the extensive census data collected and analyzed by a nonpartisan Washington D.C. group dedicated to researching legal and illegal immigration in the U.S...The majority of households across the country benefitting from publicly-funded welfare programs are headed by immigrants, both legal and illegal. States where immigrant households with children have the highest welfare use rates are Arizona (62%), Texas,...

Welfare Use by Immigrant Households with Children: Panel to Examine New Report with Latest Data– Tue Mar 29, 7:50 am ET WASHINGTON, March 29, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new Center for Immigration Studies report finds that, 13 years after welfare reform, the share of immigrant-headed households (legal and illegal) with a child (under age 18) using at least one welfare program continues to be very high. This is partly due to the large share of immigrants with low levels of education and their resulting low incomes – not their legal status or an unwillingness to work. The major welfare programs...

I'm an auto parts delivery driver, I drive hundreds of miles a day. I live near Pittsburgh. Last week, I had to go to Alliquippa, PA to pick up parts and when I was on my way back eastbound on Brodhead Road, I saw a billboard that got under my skin. I saw on there a cute little girl, 2 or 3 years old, smiling. She seemed to be of Hispanic or Mexican descent, I'd look closer but I had to mind traffic and control of my truck. Her origin is of no importance, it doesn't matter, it could be...

More than a third of California's African American public high school students dropped out before graduation day, a startling number and one that's on the rise, according to 2009 data released Tuesday. The 37 percent African American dropout rate, up three percentage points from the prior year, was far above that of any other ethnic subgroup. Hispanic students had the second highest rate at 27 percent. Locally, San Francisco cautiously celebrated a 9 percent overall dropout rate, a stark contrast to Oakland's 40 percent, numbers still under review for accuracy. The statewide statistics highlight a pervasive achievement gap in test...

The so-called "Great Recession" has left Americans depending on the government dole like never before. Without record levels of welfare, unemployment and other government benefits as well as tax cuts last year, the income of U.S. households would have plunged by an astonishing $723 billion — more than four times the record $167 billion drop reported last month by the Commerce Department. Moreover, for the first time since the Great Depression, Americans took more aid from the government than they paid in taxes.

Alamance County, NC— As excitement builds among children and parents for the upcoming new school year, the Alamance County Health Department's WIC Program is also preparing for exciting changes that will take place in the coming weeks. WIC, the special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants and children, is changing for the better! Starting in October, the foods available to WIC participants will reflect the diversity of individual and family dietary needs. The new food package is designed to increase the variety of healthy foods in the diets of participants. Additions to the WIC food package include: * Fresh, frozen,...

Katie Paul at Newsweek alerted me that Newsweek printed a correction to their story claiming that Palin cut funding for teen mothers and the state WIC program. I blogged about it here and had extensive conversations with Alaska officials about the claims. Ms. Paul was also diligent to work with Alaska officials to correct the story once I made her aware of the facts. Here is the correction (at the end of page 2): Clarification (updated Sept. 11, 2008) : A number of readers have challenged the assertion in this story that Gov. Palin “cut by 20 percent the funding...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Poor women and children need food, health care and education, but the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program is coming under fire for giving them abortions instead. The program's web site features a link to Planned Parenthood, the business that does about 25 percent of U.S. abortions. Pro-life blogger Dawn Eden, author of The Thrill of the Chaste, found the link at the USDA's WIC Learning Center, the official web site for the federal government's program."That's because a hefty chunk of the $5 billion in taxpayer funds for the program designed to help feed and...

It’s long been known that family break-up inflicts massive social costs on communities and children. But what about the burden it imposes on the American taxpayer? It’s a proven fact that family dissolution places children at greater risk of poverty, mental and physical illness, juvenile delinquency, abuse, substance abuse, and educational failure. A few years ago Wade Horn, former director of the federal Administration for Children and Families, revealed, “My agency spends $46 billion per year operating 65 different social programs. If one goes down the list of these programs… the need for each is either created or exacerbated...

WASHINGTON -- Breast-feeding is less frequent among mothers who get federal help from the Women, Infants and Children program, known as WIC, congressional investigators said Wednesday. The General Accountability Office didn't criticize WIC, which distributes free formula but also heavily promotes breast-feeding. Even outside the WIC program, breast-feeding in the United States fell short of federal goals, the report said. Instead, investigators said limits are needed on advertising by infant formula companies. Babies who are breast-fed are less likely to develop diabetes, asthma and other health problems. Mothers get benefits, too; breast-feeding moms are considered less likely to get certain...

I had an interesting encounter today while at my sil's house. First, let me start by saying that we were out in very rural Ohio visiting my sil. As we were leaving, 2 college age men came by with "Americans Coming Together" shirts on knocking at my sil's door. Big deal, right. The dems had their stooges out hitting the pavement trying to muster up votes. Well, here is the big deal about it... They come up to the door as we were leaving, asking for my sil's oldest daughter BY NAME! This girl does not attend college, does not...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government wants to end the stigma of food stamps -- by giving them a new name to add to their new look. After decades of issuing paper coupons, the government now gives people the same sort of plastic card and computer password that many shoppers use at the grocery store. Each month, the card's account is refilled electronically. The government marked the nationwide conversion to anti-hunger plastic cards on Tuesday that began 20 years ago with a pilot project in 1984 in Reading, Pennsylvania. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, who oversees the program and announced the...

WASHINGTON, June 22 — The Bush administration announced Tuesday that it had completed one of the biggest changes in the history of the food stamp program, replacing paper coupons with electronic benefits and debit cards. At the same time, the administration said it wanted to rename the program because the term "food stamps" had become an anachronism. It is inviting the public to suggest how to update the name of a program that became a permanent part of the government, and the nation's vocabulary, during Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society era. Electronic benefits have replaced food stamp coupons in all...

SACRAMENTO — Some of California's poorest children could soon be shut out of a government food program due to an explosion of stores that cater to low-income mothers but charge top dollar for milk, eggs and other staples. Prices at the stores — most in the Los Angeles area — are as much as 16% higher than at supermarkets and other retailers. Many have sprung up in clusters near offices where young mothers go for food vouchers and nutrition classes. .... Although the WIC program is a quarter-century old and most state retailers accept its vouchers, the growth of stores...

<p>The law has divided pro-life and pro-family groups. Some pro-family groups oppose welfare and extra public funding for welfare moms, while pro-life groups say the family caps have been proven to encourage poor women to have abortions.</p> <p>The court, in a 7-0 decision, upheld the family caps.</p>

Over six years ago, Congress overhauled much of the nation's welfare system. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 19961 replaced the failed social program called Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). The reform legislation had three primary goals: (1) reduce welfare dependence and increase employment, (2) reduce child poverty, and (3) reduce illegitimacy and strengthen marriage. At the time of the law's enactment, many liberal groups made dire predictions about the terrible effect these reforms would have on America's children. In particular, the Children's Defense Fund claimed that welfare...