Illegal alien steals from SNAP program in massive fraud scheme



As more than 40 million Americans prepare for a disruption to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program handouts amid the Democrat-led government shutdown, a member of a fraud conspiracy related to SNAP has been brought to justice.

On October 15, an Italian illegal alien living in Oregon was sentenced to federal prison after previously pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States.

'By siphoning millions of dollars in government funds intended for food-insecure households, this illegal criminal alien proved to be one of the worst of the worst.'

Over the course of 14 months between August 2023 and October 2024, Giovanni Spirea, 29, and his co-conspirators purchased over 120,000 pounds of groceries using electronic skimming devices to steal SNAP benefits.

"Spirea shared stolen account information with other members of the organization, who, along with him, used the stolen benefits to purchase large quantities of infant formula, energy drinks, and other SNAP-eligible nonperishable food items from grocery stores ... and through websites associated with grocery stores offering curb-side pickup," the DOJ said in a press release.

The stolen items were then sold on the black market, the DOJ added.

RELATED: Democrats’ shutdown blame game backfires — even Jake Tapper calls them out on SNAP benefits

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Spirea and his co-conspirators operated in Oregon, Washington, and California. The estimated value of the stolen goods is $2.4 million.

“By siphoning millions of dollars in government funds intended for food-insecure households, this illegal criminal alien proved to be one of the worst of the worst,” said April Miller, Homeland Security Investigations Seattle acting special agent in charge.

“Protecting government-funded programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program isn’t just about preserving funds — it’s about safeguarding trust in a vital lifeline that millions of families depend on to put food on the table,” said U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon Scott Bradford. “Today’s sentencing should deter perpetrators from defrauding American families and the federal government for personal gain.”

Spirea was sentenced to two years in prison, three years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay $61,874.32 in restitution. Sixteen others were charged in the conspiracy.

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Trump can’t call it ‘mission accomplished’ yet



With a divided Congress and the clock likely running out on GOP control, President Trump’s decision to forgo a second budget reconciliation bill is puzzling. Reconciliation is the only tool available to pass major priorities without a filibuster. So why refuse another chance to make the America First agenda permanent?

At a recent meeting with Senate Republicans, Trump told lawmakers, “We don’t need to pass any more bills. We got everything” in the big, beautiful bill earlier this year. “We got the largest tax cuts in history. We got the extension of the Trump tax cuts. We got all of these things.”

The first Trump presidency showed what executive courage can do. The second must prove what lasting law can achieve.

Really? That answer ignores reality. Tax cuts were never the full measure of the Trump revolution. The movement promised structural reform — from securing the border to dismantling bureaucracies. Limiting the victory to tax relief leaves unfinished the hard work of codifying executive policies into law before the next Democrat in the White House wipes them out with the stroke of a pen.

Biden’s first weeks in office in 2021 proved how fragile executive action can be. Nearly every Trump-era reform — on immigration, energy, education, and national security — vanished within days. The same will happen again if core policies remain tied to presidential discretion instead of actual statutes.

Immigration is the clearest example. Trump moved the country in the right direction, but many key policies remain blocked by courts or enjoined indefinitely. These include:

• Ending birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants,
• Defunding sanctuary cities,
• Cutting federal assistance for noncitizens,
• Requiring states to verify lawful status for benefits under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act,
• Expanding expedited removal of gang members under the Alien Enemies Act,
• Authorizing ICE arrests at state courthouses,
• Deporting pro-Hamas foreign students,
• Returning unaccompanied minors to Central America,
• Suspending refugee resettlement, and
• Ending “temporary” protected status for long-term illegal residents.

Each of these reforms can and should be codified through legislation. Courts can’t enjoin what Congress writes into law.

The same applies beyond immigration. Critical Trump policies remain trapped or reversible, including:

• Abolishing the Department of Education,
• Keeping male inmates out of female prisons,
• Blocking federal funding for hospitals that perform gender “transitions” on minors,
• Removing Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, and
• Requiring proof of citizenship to vote and restricting mail-in ballots in federal elections.

All of these measures would fulfill campaign promises. All of them will vanish the instant Democrats reclaim the White House — unless Republicans act now to make them permanent.

RELATED: While the lights are off, let’s rewire the government

Photo by Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images

Meanwhile, the economic front remains unsettled. Inflation continues to crush families, and Washington’s spending addiction keeps prices high. Health care remains broken, with no Republican alternative to stop Democrats from reinstating Biden’s Obamacare subsidies. The challenges are mounting, not receding.

The reconciliation process exists precisely for moments like this. It allows a governing majority to bypass the filibuster and pass budget-related priorities with a simple majority — the same procedure Democrats used twice under Biden to jam through massive spending and climate legislation. Refusing to use it again would be an act of political negligence.

Trump has accomplished much, but claiming “mission accomplished” now risks repeating the failures of his first term — executive orders that were erased within weeks and policies undone overnight.

The task ahead is to legislate the revolution. Codify the border. Dismantle bureaucratic strongholds. Rein in judicial activism. Secure election integrity. Cement economic reform.

The first Trump presidency showed what executive courage can do. The second must prove what lasting law can achieve. If Trump wants his achievements to outlive his term, he must act now — not by declaring victory, but by legislating it.

Russell Vought’s quiet war on big government



The government is shut down again, and the usual panic is back. I even had someone call my house this week to ask if it was safe to fly today. The person was half-joking, half-serious, wondering if planes would “fall out of the sky.”

For the record, the sky isn’t falling — at least not literally. But the chaos in Washington does feel like it. Once again, we’re watching the same old script: a shutdown engineered not by fiscal restraint but by political brinkmanship. And this time, the Democrats are driving the bus.

This shutdown may be inconvenient. But it’s also an opportunity — to stop funding our own destruction, to reset the table, and to remind Congress who actually pays the bills.

Democrats, among other things, are demanding that health care be extended to illegal immigrants. Democratic leadership caved to its radical base, which would rather shut down the government for such left-wing campaign points than compromise. Republicans — shockingly — said no. They refused to rubber-stamp more spending for illegal immigration. For once, they stood their ground.

But if you’ve watched Washington long enough, you know how this story usually ends: a shutdown followed by a deal that spends even more money than before — a continuing resolution kicking the can down the road. Everyone pretends to “win,” but taxpayers always lose.

The Vought effect

This time might be different. Republicans actually hold some cards. The public may blame Democrats — not the media, but the people who feel this in their wallets. Americans don’t like shutdowns, but they like runaway spending and chaos even less.

That’s why you’re hearing so much about Russell Vought, the director of the United States Office of Management and Budget and Donald Trump’s quiet architect of a strategy to use moments like this to shrink the federal bureaucracy. Vought spent four years building a plan for exactly this scenario: firing nonessential workers and forcing reauthorization of pet programs. Trump talks about draining the swamp. Vought draws up the blueprints.

The Democrats and media are threatened by Vought because he is patient, calculated, and understands how to leverage the moment to reverse decades of government bloat. If programs aren’t mandated, cut them. Make Congress fight to bring them back. That’s how you actually drain the swamp.

Predictable meltdowns

Predictably, Democrats are melting down. They’ve shifted their arguments so many times it’s dizzying. Last time, they claimed a shutdown would lead to mass firings. Now, they insist Republicans are firing everyone anyway. It’s the same playbook: Move the goalposts, reframe the narrative, accuse your opponents of cruelty.

We’ve seen this before. Remember the infamous "You lie!” moment in 2009? President Barack Obama promised during his State of the Union that Obamacare wouldn’t cover illegal immigrants. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) shouted, “You lie!” and was condemned for breaching decorum.

Several years later, Hillary Clinton’s campaign platform openly promised health care for illegal immigrants. What was once called a “lie” became official policy. And today, Democrats are shutting down the government because they can’t get even more of it.

This is progressivism in action: Deny it, inch toward it, then demand it as a moral imperative. Anyone who resists becomes the villain.

RELATED: The dog that caught the car

Photo by Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images

Stand firm

This shutdown isn’t just about spending. It’s about whether we’ll keep letting progressives rewrite the rules one crisis at a time. Trump’s plan — to cut what isn’t mandated, force programs into reauthorization, and fight the battle in the courts — is the first real counterpunch to decades of this manipulation.

It’s time to stop pretending. This isn’t about compassion. It’s about control. Progressives know once they normalize government benefits for illegal immigrants, they never roll back. They know Americans forget how it started.

This shutdown may be inconvenient. But it’s also an opportunity — to stop funding our own destruction, to reset the table, and to remind Congress who actually pays the bills. If we don’t take it, we’ll be right back here again, only deeper in debt, with fewer freedoms left to defend.

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The world cut the cord. Government won’t.



The world is cutting cords at every opportunity. Wireless has become the default. Faster, cheaper, and more convenient beats wired every time. Consumers know it. Industry knows it. Government, as usual, lags far behind.

Americans used a record 132 trillion megabytes of wireless data in 2024. That follows 100 trillion in 2023, 74 trillion in 2022, and 53 trillion in 2021. The trajectory isn’t slowing. Artificial intelligence alone will accelerate demand.

Cutting cords makes life easier. Cutting government waste would, too.

Why the stampede to wireless? Because the technology now outpaces wired service. Fifth-generation networks can deliver speeds 20 times faster than 4G LTE. Sixth generation promises to be up to 100 times faster still.

Consumers are responding. More than one million Americans cut the cord on cable internet in 2024. Less than half of all cord-cutters now rely on cable providers for home service. The trend is irreversible.

Even cable companies acknowledge it when they install Wi-Fi routers after stringing fiber into a home. Wireless is the product people actually use.

Government’s fiber fetish

Everyone is adapting — except government. Because government is just that stupid.

State officials still funnel billions into fiber even as private-sector wireless has already done the job.

Barack Obama himself declared victory in 2015: 98% of Americans connected to high-speed wireless. At the time, average speeds were 10 Mbps. Today, average wireless speeds reach 155 Mbps — more than 15 times faster. The private market delivered that progress.

RELATED: Trump nukes Biden’s broadband gimmick, saving taxpayers billions

imagedepotpro via iStock/Getty Images

Yet in 2025, states like Louisiana and Virginia plan to spend 80% of their federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program dollars on fiber. That program carries a $42.5 billion price tag. Fiber may be reliable in limited contexts, but it is costly and slow to deploy. Starlink has flagged projects with per-household connection costs exceeding $10,000. That’s not infrastructure — it’s idiocy.

The mismanagement is staggering. The BEAD program, launched in 2021, has yet to connect a single person. By late 2024, the score was still zero. Another year has passed, and states remain bogged down in bids and bureaucracy. Meanwhile, nearly every American has been online for a decade.

The market already won

Wireless continues to do the work. It connects homes, cars, and devices at ever-increasing speeds. The private sector solved the access problem years ago. The government now wastes hundreds of billions pretending to fix a problem that no longer exists.

That money buys ribbon-cuttings, not results. It funds reports and grants, not connections. It props up a fiber fetish that ignores how people live and work.

The pattern is clear: When consumers get to choose, they choose wireless. When politicians get to spend, they throw billions at fiber networks no one needs.

The market has spoken. Government refuses to listen. Cutting cords makes life easier. Cutting government waste would, too.

Democrats Move To Hold US Hostage Unless GOP Gives Into $1 Trillion In Demands

'Democrats are determined to undo all of President Trump’s efforts'

Exclusive: GOP slams Democrat spending plan as 'stale leftovers' riddled with radical left-wing policies



The Republican Study Committee is taking aim at House Democrats for proposing a last-minute funding plan chock-full of "radical left-wing" policy proposals.

House Republicans are set to pass a clean continuing resolution Friday to keep the lights on through November 21 ahead of the September 30 funding deadline. The GOP proposal includes minimal anomalies with the exception of increased security funds in light of Charlie Kirk's horrific assassination.

'Democrats are recklessly threatening a shutdown unless we bend the knee.'

Despite this, Democrats have taken it upon themselves to propose their own funding bill, which RSC Chairman August Pfluger (R-Texas) called "stale leftovers" from former President Joe Biden's administration.

"The Democrats' continuing resolution proposal is nothing more than stale leftovers from the Biden-Harris administration that nobody wanted the first time around, and microwaving them won't make them any more appetizing to the American people," Pfluger told Blaze News.

RELATED: Why did Cory Mills come to Ilhan Omar's rescue?

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

In a memo obtained exclusively by Blaze News, the RSC contrasted the Democrats' bloated spending plan that would help fund abortion and illegal aliens with the GOP's straightforward, clean CR.

Democrats put forth a funding plan that would increase spending by nearly $1.5 trillion, including a continuation of $350 billion worth of Biden-era subsidies. The Democrats' spending bill would also continue to funnel millions in benefits to illegal aliens and left-wing media companies like PBS and NPR and would reverse nearly $5 billion in spending cuts.

"While House Republicans offer a responsible plan to keep government open at current funding levels, Democrats are recklessly threatening a shutdown unless we bend the knee to their $1.5 trillion spending spree that provides illegal aliens with access to Medicaid and spends $350 billion on extending Biden COVID credits that subsidize abortion," Pfluger told Blaze News.

RELATED: Exclusive: GOP lawmaker leads push to counter CCP influence in global telecommunications

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

"The American people handed President Trump and congressional Republicans a decisive mandate to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse — not to capitulate to the same leftists who drove our country toward bankruptcy and were soundly rejected at the ballot box," Pfluger said.

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Jasmine Crockett funds lavish lifestyle off taxpayer dollars; staff calls her an ‘influencer’ and a ‘diva’



Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) has been heavily criticized by the right for changing her accent and persona based on who she’s speaking to — and now, not even her congressional aides can take it anymore.

“She is never in the office and is very disengaged. She does her b**ls**t that goes viral, and then freaks out over the most random things,” one aide told the New York Post.

“It is widely known that she’s not nice to staff and is just not a really dedicated member focused on constituents,” a second source said.

A third source who has worked with Crockett accused her of being “focused almost exclusively on being an influencer, not a member of Congress” and described her as “all diva, no wow.”


And apparently, when Crockett does go to the Hill, she forces her staffers to pick her up in rented vehicles — which she requires to be an Escalade or a similar higher-end vehicle. Most lawmakers allow their staff to pick them up in their own cars.

She then makes them open the door for her as she gets in the back seat.

“‘That’s the type of persona that I want to give the rest of the country,’” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales mocks on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.” “I mean, that is really embarrassing and that certainly is not indicative of someone who believes that they are there to serve the people.”

And that’s not even the worst of it.

According to the official congressional expense report for January through March of this year, her staff total was $293,198.61. Her travel total for those two months was $129,301. Other services totaled $18,679, rent/communication/utilities were $30,679, and her office was almost $383,000.

“Grand total, almost a million dollars. $854,313.75, just over a time of three months, which averages to $9,492.37 of your tax dollars spent per day,” Gonzales says.

“You see the way she carries on. You see the way she conducts herself,” she says, adding, “Of course she thinks that she’s entitled to all of that.”

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Not Just California High-Speed Rail: Taxpayers Are on the Hook for $163 Billion in Delayed Infrastructure Boondoggles, Ernst Report Shows

California's long-troubled high-speed rail project is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to taxpayer-funded infrastructure boondoggles, according to a new report from Sen. Joni Ernst (R., Iowa) first obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

The post Not Just California High-Speed Rail: Taxpayers Are on the Hook for $163 Billion in Delayed Infrastructure Boondoggles, Ernst Report Shows appeared first on .

Cutting Government Spending Does Not Have To Be Political Suicide

After securing the border and enacting mass deportations, Trump and the GOP should indeed turn their attention to balancing the budget and paying down the debt.

Schumer Requests $600k in Taxpayer Funds for Left-Wing Group Accused of Training Illegal Immigrants To Avoid ICE

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer is seeking taxpayer funds for a left-wing group facing a congressional investigation for advising illegal aliens how to evade federal immigration agents. The New York Democrat requested $600,000 for the Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC), a New York City-based nonprofit, as part of the congressionally directed spending program, according to documents his office released last week. Members of Congress submit the spending requests each year for causes "reflecting their federal funding priorities," according to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The post Schumer Requests $600k in Taxpayer Funds for Left-Wing Group Accused of Training Illegal Immigrants To Avoid ICE appeared first on .