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  1. #1
    Administrator Jean's Avatar
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    TX - Area horse farm harbored illegal workers, feds say

    Published: 24 February 2014 07:36 PM
    Dianna Hunt
    dentonrc.com


    An Argyle horse farm is under federal investigation for allegedly using undocumented workers who reportedly were paid substandard wages and were not allowed to leave the property unsupervised, according to court documents.

    Fossil Gate Farm, described as a multimillion-dollar horse farm operated by Gary and Linda Gordon in Argyle, had six undocumented workers living and working at the farm as recently as September, according to court records.

    The federal government is seeking forfeiture of $6,091 in cash seized in September, saying it was derived from illegal activities at the farm, according to the records.

    “Gary and Linda [Gordon] are aware of the illegal status of their alien workers, take measures to keep them on Fossil Gate property to conceal the fact that they are employing and harboring aliens, and employ an unauthorized alien worker to oversee the other alien workers,” according to the court documents. “Fossil Gate benefits financially by paying alien workers less wages while avoiding taxes and insurance as required by law.”

    The court papers say the money seized was “derived from and traceable to criminal activities.”

    Attorney Ken Carroll of Dallas, who is representing the Gordons, said they could not comment at this point about the federal allegations.

    “Gary and Linda Gordon are respectful and care deeply about the well-being of workers at Fossil Gate Farms,” Carroll said in a written statement. “From the start, the ranch has been both a family passion and a larger team operation. The reputation that Fossil Gate Farms has earned in the horse community and in North Texas is a reflection of the commitment and hard work of everyone on that team.

    “The Gordons cannot comment in detail about the federal complaint beyond saying that they will respond to the allegations at the appropriate time,” he said in the statement.

    The farm’s website describes it as being home to American Quarter Horse Association and American Paint Horse Association world champion stallions, mostly in halter classes. The website says about 100 horses are maintained on the farm’s 150 acres, and it promotes the farm’s high-tech breeding program.

    Gary Gordon is described on the website as a national director of the American Paint Horse Association and a member of the APHA’s judge’s committee. The APHA website lists both Gary and Linda Gordon as members of the organization’s board of directors for 2013.

    The farm website notes that Gary Gordon was raised on a cattle and horse ranch in Canada, and that Linda Gordon is a native Texan who has been active with the Texas Paint Horse Club.

    According to the documents filed Feb. 13 in federal district court in the Eastern District of Texas in Sherman, the Gordons harbored illegal workers beginning about January 1996 and continuing until Sept. 23, the same day the cash was seized by the federal government.

    The court filings say the couple brought the undocumented workers to the U.S. to work at Fossil Gate.

    The workers lived in a mobile home on the property, were not allowed to leave the property without supervision and did not have their own transportation, according to the documents.

    The undocumented workers were paid an average $3.47 an hour and were required to work 12 hours per day, six days a week, according to the documents. They were paid $1,000 in cash per month and their wages were not reported to the Texas Workforce Commission, according to the filings.

    The Gordons avoided paying an estimated $31,068 per undocumented worker by not paying Social Security, Medicare, state and federal unemployment taxes, workers compensation insurance and health insurance, according to the documents.

    Steve M. Williams, a special agent with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, filed a sworn statement with the court stating that the facts contained in the documents were accurate and included details from his investigation of the case.

    Davilyn Walston, a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office in the Eastern District of Texas, declined to comment on the case because it is under investigation.

    http://www.dentonrc.com/local-news/l...s-feds-say.ece
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  2. #2
    Super Moderator Newmexican's Avatar
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    If they became hurt or ill their medical was paid by ALL the Gordon's neighbors.

    Medicaid Helps Hospitals Pay For Illegal Immigrants’ Care
    By Phil Galewitz
    KHN Staff Writer
    FEB 12, 2013

    Federal law generally bars illegal immigrants from being covered by Medicaid. But a little-known part of the state-federal health insurance program for the poor has long paid about $2 billion a year for emergency treatment for a group of patients who, according to hospitals, mostly comprise illegal immigrants.

    The lion's share goes to reimburse hospitals for delivering babies for women who show up in their emergency rooms, according to interviews with hospital officials and studies.



    Carmelita Alejandria of the Philippines receives a dialysis treatment at University Medical Center in Las Vegas in 2010. Because of her immigrant status, Alejandria receives her dialysis through emergency care rather than going to a dialysis center (Photo by Laura Rauch/AP).



    The funding -- which has been around since the late 1980s and is less than 1 percent of the cost of Medicaid -- underscores the political and practical challenges of refusing to cover an entire class of people. Congress approved the program after lawmakers required hospitals to screen and stabilize all emergency patients regardless of their insurance or citizenship status.
    Some groups say the services encourage people to cross the border for care, while advocates for immigrants say the funding is inadequate because it doesn't pay for prenatal care and other vital services.

    "We can't turn them away," said Joanne Aquilina, the chief financial officer of Bethesda Healthcare System in Boynton Beach, Fla., which sees many illegal immigrants because of its proximity to farms where they harvest sugarcane and other seasonal crops.

    Nearly one-third of Bethesda Hospital East's 2,900 births each year are paid for by Emergency Medicaid, the category that covers mainly illegal immigrants. The category includes a small proportion of homeless people and legal immigrants who've been in the country less than five years.
    Hospitals can't ask patients whether they're illegal immigrants, but instead determine that after checking whether they have Social Security numbers, birth certificates or other documents.

    "We gather information to qualify patients for something and through that process, if you really hit a dead end, you know they are illegal," said Steve Short, the chief financial officer at Tampa General Hospital.

    A 2007 medical article in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported that 99 percent of those who used Emergency Medicaid during a four-year period in North Carolina were thought to be illegal immigrants.
    The Federation for American Immigration Reform, which seeks to limit immigration, said the funding led more women to give birth in the United States, especially since they knew that children born here would be American citizens. The group believes that tens of thousands of "anchor babies" are born each year to illegal immigrants who hope that giving birth to children recognized as citizens will help the women gain legal status themselves.

    Anyone born in the United States is a U.S. citizen. It’s unclear how many mothers later get green cards or become citizens.

    The Federation for American Immigration Reform doesn't dispute hospitals' right to be reimbursed for care they're required to provide.

    "Our focus should be that you could save this money if you prevent the illegal immigration from happening in the first place. You can't do it after the fact," said Jack Martin, the special projects director for the organization.
    Groups that advocate for immigrants say it’s foolish for Medicaid to pay only for the births and not for the prenatal care that might prevent costly and long-term complications for American children.

    "It’s a lose, lose, lose," said Sonal Ambegaokar, a health policy lawyer at the National Immigration Law Center, which advocates for low-income immigrants. She said denying broad insurance coverage to legal immigrants hurt doctors and hospitals financially, prevented patients from getting needed care and increased costs for the health system.

    "There is no evidence that Emergency Medicaid is the cause of migration," Ambegaokar said. "Immigrants migrate t the U.S. for job opportunities and reunifying with family members."

    Data that Kaiser Health News collected from seven states that are thought to have the highest numbers of illegal immigrants show that the funding pays for emergency services delivered to more than 100,000 people a year.
    California hospitals get about half the $2 billion spent annually on Emergency Medicaid. The rest is spread mainly among a handful of states.
    In 2011, for example:


    • New York spent $528 million on Emergency Medicaid for nearly 30,000 people.
    • Texas reported 240,000 claims costing $331 million. (One person could be responsible for multiple claims.)
    • Florida spent $214 million on 31,000 patients.
    • North Carolina spent $48 million on about 19,000 people.
    • Arizona spent $115 million. It couldn't break out the number of people.
    • Illinois spent $25 million on the cost of care to nearly 2,000 people.


    The federal government doesn’t require states to report how many people receive services through Emergency Medicaid payments to hospitals.
    Legal immigrants who’ve been in the United States less than five years aren't eligible for regular Medicaid coverage, though states have the option of extending it to children and pregnant women.

    Despite the surge in overall Medicaid spending in the past decade, Emergency Medicaid costs have been remarkably stable. A 2004 study by the Government Accountability Office that looked at data from the 10 states with the highest expected Emergency Medicaid costs, reported $2 billion in spending. State officials say spending varies depending on immigration patterns and that during the economic slowdown, the number of illegal immigrants dropped.

    The definition of emergency care and the scope of services available through the Medicaid programs vary by state. For example, in New York, Emergency Medicaid may be used to provide chemotherapy and radiation therapy to illegal immigrants. In New York, California and North Carolina, it may be used to provide outpatient dialysis to undocumented patients.
    Other states have tried to narrow the definition of "emergency" to limit what's covered. "Each state has its own interpretation," said Jane Perkins, the legal director of the National Health Law Program, which advocates for the working poor.

    Last year, for instance, Florida changed its policy to pay for emergency services for eligible undocumented immigrants only until their conditions had been "stabilized." Previously, its policy was to pay for care that was "medically necessary to relieve or eliminate the emergency medical condition."

    Many hospitals -- particularly those in the immigrant areas of Miami and Tampa -- feared the change would cut millions of dollars in funding. An administrative law judge ruled in December that Florida had enacted the change improperly because it didn't go through a public hearing process; the state is appealing.

    Short, the chief financial officer at Tampa General Hospital, said the $10 million the hospital collected each year to treat illegal immigrants was "very important to us." He noted that Medicaid pays the hospital about $1,500 for each day a Medicaid patient is in the hospital.

    Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami collects about $50 million a year in Emergency Medicaid funding, according to the state Agency for Health Care Administration.

    http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stor...ency-care.aspx


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