Due to the Y2K computer conversion eligibility information
retained in your 1999 food stamp file was lost. Unless we
can re-create the lost information, your benefits will be
terminated.
Earlier this month about 450 people on food stamps received
a letter from the federal government containing the statement
above. The notice went on to say that there would be a
cash bonus for the people who met with a "program specialist"
about their case at the Gus J. Solomon building in downtown
Portland on Jan. 24 and 25. About 30 people showed up.
The letters were part of "Operation Talon," a stepchild
of 1996's federal welfare reform act, and they were a
lie. The New Year didn't wipe out anyone's files, and
there was no cash bonus. Instead, every person who showed
up was arrested. All the recipients had an outstanding
felony warrant for their arrest, and the letters were
a dupe to lure them in.
County Commissioner Serena Cruz is outraged at the duplicitous
tactics of the sheriff's department and the Feds.
"I think arresting people with outstanding warrants is
completely appropriate," she says. "However, it's the
connection to food stamps and data exchange that's insidious.
The letter is also a bad portrayal of government...that
we have to lie to trap someone."
Tim Danaher of the U.S. Department of Agriculture defends
the sting. His office began setting up Operation Talon
with the Multnomah County Sheriff last year.
"[In] most of the cities where this has been conducted,
the response has been good because we've been able to
arrest people who have previously been fugitives," he
says.
Since 1997, in at least 30 cities, he says, the feds
have cross-referenced their list of food-stamp recipients
with local law enforcement's list of outstanding felony
warrants, then thrown out some bait to lure them in.
The people receiving the letter are wanted on class A
or B felonies, which include rape and other violent crimes,
but the majority are wanted for drugs or theft violations.
For law enforcement, the benefits of using the trick letter
are obvious. Instead of police having to walk into a potentially
dangerous situation in an unfamiliar setting, the crooks
show up of their own volition at the former federal courthouse.
Cruz and other critics of Talon, however, say it could
have a chilling effect on people's trust of the government,
which is particularly disturbing during a census year.
There is no place on the application form for food stamps
that indicates that personal information could later be
used against them.
"I'm out there partnering with the government on Census
2000, and I'm trying to convince people that the government
will not share [the data it collects]. Not share it with
the IRS, not the INS," Cruz says. "This flies in the face
of everything I'm telling them."
Sheriff Dan Noelle says he has no problem with Operation
Talon. He says that the people who got the notice were
the most dangerous criminals in Multnomah County. Giving
them food stamps, he says, enables them to stay on the
lam all that much longer.
The duplicity doesn't bother him in the least. "I don't
think the possibility that we actually fooled them with
a letter is a problem," he says. "I think I'll sleep pretty
soundly over it."
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Willamette Week | originally
published February 2,
2000
