County Unit Designed to Combat Welfare Fraud by Asian Refugees

County officials in recent months have formed a special investigative unit and stepped up educational efforts in an attempt to combat welfare fraud in the Southeast Asian refugee community.

A team of three investigators in the Department of Social Services is focusing on an underground economy in which Southeast Asian welfare recipients have illegally taken jobs as seamstresses, cooks and beauticians. While many of these refugees are being paid cash wages below the legal minimum, others are earning as much as $25,000 a year in unreported income on top of their monthly welfare checks, state and county officials acknowledge.

The illegal work is seen as a major reason behind the emergence of a long-term welfare-dependent population in refugee communities in Los Angeles and around the state.

Bryce Yokomizo, director of welfare fraud investigations for Los Angeles County, said the new unit has already undertaken an investigation. He did not elaborate, but he stressed that increased enforcement and prosecution are only part of a broader plan that includes public education and the cooperation of the refugee community.

“We wouldn’t be able to do what we are doing without the help and involvement of the refugee community,” Yokomizo said.

Ethnic language posters publicizing a welfare fraud hot-line number and telling refugees of their legal responsibility to report outside income have been placed in social service agencies throughout the county. The same information will be mailed out in notices early next year to the county’s estimated 50,000 Southeast Asians on public assistance.

In addition, eligibility workers are receiving additional training as a way of encouraging them to report fraud that they may have encountered but have not reported because of fear or cultural pressures.

“The county is making a good-faith, concerted effort to reach the public and that includes the refugee welfare recipients, the eligibility workers and the public at large,” Yokomizo said.

Last week, Yokomizo and a group of welfare fraud investigators from counties throughout the state met in Sacramento to discuss additional ways of combatting welfare fraud among Southeast Asians. A major theme of the meeting was that an underground economy organized along ethnic and family lines is extremely difficult to counter. Several favored an educational approach over increased law enforcement.

Investigations ‘Difficult’

“The bottom line was that these investigations are very difficult and time-consuming,” said Ray Cereghino, senior welfare fraud investigator for Fresno County. “Trying to determine an income is virtually impossible because of the use of false names and payment in cash.”

The state Office of Refugee Services will include the recommendations in a report to be issued early next year when the agency plans to decide on a course of action. Already, the state has begun a program in which a 24-hour refugee welfare hot line is manned by trained personnel who speak Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian, among other languages.

Local and state officials began examining the problem of refugee welfare fraud after articles in The Times in February documented a vast underground economy in which thousands of Southeast Asian refugees throughout California are earning unreported income while receiving welfare payments.

The Times reported that 50% of California’s estimated 400,000 Southeast Asian refugees, or 43,500 families, are fully reliant on welfare, according to state figures. As many as half of these families have one or more members working illegally in the underground economy, according to a number of government officials, private resettlement workers and refugees.

Many refugees say legitimate but low-paying jobs hold little attraction when they can take in considerably more by combining welfare benefits, Medi-Cal and unreported income. The underground economy has given Southeast Asians, who make up 90% of the state’s refugee population, a compelling reason to remain on public assistance for several years. State figures show that nearly three of 10 refugee families on public assistance have received aid for a period ranging from four to 10 years.