Republicans Stoop to New Low With Veteran-Eviction Scam
Republicans - and some Democrats - are stooping to disgraceful and dangerous levels to foment hatred and violence against asylum seekers at our southern border.
We should know by now it isn’t beneath the republican party to create a crisis by whipping up people’s fear and/or xenophobia.
Since it only exists to cut taxes on the morbidly rich, the only method the party has to get working-class Americans on its side is to create diversions, typically involving pitting (white) people against minorities (preferably dark-skinned or LGBTQ).
But as the Trump-era “Title 42” immigration order returns the US admittance process at our borders to pre-COVID pandemic status, republicans — and some Democrats — are stooping to disgraceful and dangerous levels to foment hatred and violence against asylum seekers at our southern border.
Some republican governors, like Texas’ Greg Abbott and Florida’s Ron Desantis, have gleefully packed newly arrived refugees on our border to northern Democratic states in stunts tailor made for right-wing hate media.
New York City Mayor, Democrat Eric Adams, last week decided to play his own round of Migrant Musical Chairs and ship asylum seekers previously shipped to his city to points north, notably New York’s Hudson Valley.
This presented republicans a fresh opportunity to spin a web of lies so deceitful, it almost defies reason.
Almost.
Despite wrapping themselves in the flag and spewing platitudes about “supporting our troops,” republican lawmakers have, time after time, clearly demonstrated their disdain for military veterans.
Not knowing any humane way of accommodating the imminent influx of migrants coming up from the city, some Hudson Valley government officials are doubling down on a proven hoax that local hotels and motels are evicting homeless veterans to make room for busloads of asylum seekers.
Executives from Dutchess, Rockland, Sullivan, Greene, and Orange Counties declared states of emergency Friday despite several unhoused men coming forward with reports they and over a dozen others were recruited at a Poughkeepsie homeless shelter to pretend to be displaced veterans from the Crossroads Hotel in Newburgh.
Behind the fraud is the non-profit organization Yerik Israel Toney (YIT) Foundation, created to raise awareness of premature births and assist unhoused and low-income veterans.
The men stated two individuals arrived at the shelter announcing they had work for 15 men between the ages of 40 and 60, for which they would be paid $100 for two or three hours of work.
They were transported in three vehicles to the Daily Planet Diner near Lagrangeville, where YIT CEO Sharon Toney-Finch greeted them.
They were then taken to the Orange County Veterans Center, where they were informed two or three were needed to go on record and camera to narrate their stories of being evicted from the Newburgh hotel.
One of the men, only identified as “William,” said:
The way they were talking, you could tell it was scripted. It was a well-orchestrated scam.
Another, Eric Brown, explained:
I agreed to help out. I’m homeless right now. I lost my wife a year ago…In July, it’ll be a year and I saw an opportunity to make some money. That’s why I got involved.
Given toiletries and other necessities, they were driven back to Poughkeepsie with just enough time to check in for a bed for the night, and promised to be given their $100 by day’s end. One of the recruiters, however, told them they would be paid $200 on Friday.
One of the men, Douglas Tery, said, “Everything was a scam. She [Toney-Finch] didn’t have the intention of paying us anything.”
William added:
We’re homeless at the shelter, they’re dangling a carrot in front of us and then they took it away. We had plans to use that money to help us and they’ve totally taken it away.
Toney-Finch told Politico reports were “a total lie,” adding:
I never paid somebody to say that they were veterans, or even offered to pay somebody saying that they were veterans. That’s something that we don’t stand for. We actually take care of veterans. I want to apologize for any confusion, but we were not trying to put veterans against asylum seekers.
But that is exactly what occurred.
As a result of the false report, the Crossroads hotel received threats, not to mention all the vitriol generated from right-wing hate media against people just trying to access a legal asylum process.
And those states of “emergency” republican county leaders issued?
Still haven’t been rescinded.