Tag: news

Nearly Two-Thirds Of Non-Citizen Households In America Are On Welfare

Authored by Joe Schaefer via LibertyNation.com,

Another day, another revelation as the great fleecing of the U.S. taxpayer continues unabated.

A Center for Immigration Studies review of U.S. Census Bureau data reveals a stunning 63% of households in the U.S. headed by non-citizens are on some form of welfare. That’s just shy of two out of every three proving to be a burden to the American people. So much for the lie that massive immigration enriches our nation.

Dead Weight

The information CIS uncovered is infuriating in a number of ways. The 63% figure is almost twice the rate of native-headed American households that use welfare, which is a disturbingly high 35% as it is. But non-citizen households (45%) also utilize food programs at a much higher rate than natives (21%), and disproportionately tap into Medicaid programs as well (50% vs. 23%).

The most telling statistic in the review, however, is that welfare use rises among non-citizens the longer they are in our country.

“Of households headed by non-citizens in the United States for fewer than 10 years, 50 percent use one or more welfare programs; for those here more than 10 years, the rate is 70 percent,” CIS discovered.

Rather than serving as a temporary safety net, our welfare programs are proving to be a lifestyle staple for non-citizens sponging off the American taxpayer. Of course, many of these non-citizens do work, but they are low-skilled Hispanics from Central America laboring at poverty-level jobs. A 2015 CIS report found that 67% of households headed by immigrant farm workers are on public assistance of some form. Swollen-eyed Big Ag industrial farmers crying out about the need to find workers willing to do “the jobs Americans won’t do” are in fact having their cheap payrolls subsidized by the welfare programs of this nation.

Bitter Factors

At a time when native-born Americans are working long hours with less vacation time and fewer benefits, we are being forced to carry the millstone of foreign squatters on our backs. Massive immigration has led to overcrowded cities and towns, aggravating traffic congestion that leads to an even more draining daily commute for Americans just so we can we have the privilege of having our wages heavily taxed to financially support the very same invaders who are making our work day more exhausting. This is madness.

Immigrants also suppress wages, especially for low-skilled workers, so that 35% figure of natives utilizing some form of welfare may be so high in part due to the fact that the non-citizens abusing our welfare programs are also making it impossible for a portion of our citizen population to find decent-paying jobs. Thus non-native interlopers are increasing the welfare burden beyond just what they actively take for themselves.

The Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security has released a draft proposal to prevent immigration by those who are likely to be a public burden on the American people. This new CIS report overwhelmingly confirms the urgent need for such a policy. Anyone opposing this sane safeguard through hollow accusations of “racism” or self-serving pleas for cheap labor is an enemy to the American working man and woman. And we will remember them for it.

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Goldman Nearly Lost $800 Million During A Trade With Indicted 1MDB-Linked Bank

If there was any doubt that Goldman Sachs’ compliance controls “don’t work very well”, as Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad wryly stated during an interview with CNBC last month, this should put it to rest. And as the Vampire Squid’s lax compliance standards (the bank’s compliance department was unwilling or unable to stop then-CEO Lloyd Blankfein from holding a one-on-one sit down with a shady Malaysian financier accused of stealing billions from the sovereign wealth fund, all in the name of landing a lucrative deal) have emerged as a focal point in a DOJ investigation into the bank’s conduct.

On Tuesday Bloomberg highlighted another troubling detail that raises questions about when the bank’s willingness to circumvent its own internal controls to win deals of placate valuable clients.

Goldmann

According to Bloomberg, investigators are looking into a mysterious transaction involving Goldman and Falcon Bank, a Singapore-based bank that was implicated by Singaporean authorities for allegedly helping to launder money stolen from 1MDB.

Goldman suffered “unexpected losses” during the trade after Singaporean regulators shuttered Falcon Bank over its role in the 1MDB theft.

An obscure Swiss bank implicated in Malaysia’s 1MDB corruption scandal was involved in another trade with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in 2016 that exposed the Wall Street firm to unexpected losses. Falcon Private Bank had been a key player in the 1MDB drama since the end of 2015, when it first surfaced as a suspected conduit for hundreds of millions of dollars siphoned from Malaysia’s investment fund. By July of 2016, Singapore regulators found “substantial” breaches of money-laundering regulations at Falcon.

Yet even after Singapore accused Falcon during the summer of 2016 of helping to facilitate the 1MDB fraud, Goldman ignored the warnings and entered into a trade with the bank at the behest of a valuable client. But Falcon stiffed its Wall Street peer after regulators forced Falcon out of business, leaving Goldman with an $800 million hole. Investigators are trying to figure out why such a large trade with an obscure and tainted counterparty was allowed to be executed.

By July of 2016, Singapore regulators found “substantial” breaches of money-laundering regulations at Falcon. Yet weeks later, Goldman Sachs entered into a trade with Falcon at the urging of controversial businessman Lars Windhorst, people with knowledge of the matter said. Now, Falcon’s role in that trade is emerging at an uncomfortable time for Goldman Sachs. Regulators investigating 1MDB are said to be looking at how Goldman’s moneymakers allegedly dodged internal controls while helping the Malaysian fund amass more than $6 billion. The Falcon deal prompts a further question: why a sizable trade with an obscure firm mired in a money-laundering probe didn’t trip alarms.

Goldman was briefly exposed to massive losses as a result of the trade, and responded by firing a junior executive who later sued the bank, arguing that he was “scapegoated” by higher ups who had pressured him to make the deal. This is how the transaction became part of the public record.

Chris Rollins, the executive who was fired for his role in the trade, said Goldman’s compliance department wouldn’t allow traders to deal directly with Lars Windhorst, so Windhorst suggested that Rollins deal with Falcon instead. Singaporean authorities yanked Falcon’s license after its role in the scandal was exposed. Goldman has disputed Rollins’ account, saying that Rollins knew the bank had “misgivings” about the transaction.

But that still doesn’t explain how and why the transaction wasn’t blocked – which is particularly relevant after the New York Fed reportedly pressured Goldman to “tighten up” its internal controls after the first 1MDB deal closed.

With regulators breathing down its neck and the prospect of “significant” fines or sanctions looming over the bank, it is belatedly taking steps to “mitigated” its legal risks (and hopefully put a floor under spiraling Goldman shares) by intensifying oversight of “high risk” employees, according to the Financial Times.

Still, this is just one more sign that the “culture of corruption” alleged by Tim Leissner in his plea agreement is real, and that CEO David Solomon’s “outraged” was merely feigned for show.

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Sea Trials Have Started For Upgraded Russian Nuclear Submarine

Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,

Sea trials for the upgraded Borei-class nuclear submarine are underway in Russia, as the country prepares its military might for a war.  Borei-class submarines carry 16 Bulava submarine-launched missiles as their primary armament and may also fire cruise missiles from torpedo tubes.

According to RT, the Knyaz Vladimir is the first submarine built as an upgraded Borei-A variant, which has improved communication systems, lower noise levels, and better crew cabins. It was laid down in 2012 and launched in November last year. According to bmpd, a respected Russian defense blog, on November 28 the submarine was deployed for sea trials by its producer, the Sevmash shipyard base in Severodvinsk. She is expected to enter service sometime next year.

RT further reported that there are three Borei-class submarines – the Yuriy Dolgorukiy, the Aleksandr Nevskiy and the Vladimir Monomakh – which are currently on active duty in the Russian Navy. They were commissioned between January 2013 and December 2014 and are regularly used as platforms for Bulava SLBM test launches. Four other Borei-A-class submarines are in construction, with plans for two more previously announced. A Borei-B variant featuring a new propulsion system and other upgrades is being developed by the Rubin Design Bureau, the lead designer of the class.

Russia continues to prepare their military might for a war. The country has also been accused of looking specifically for a reason to start a third world war.

In addition to asking for a declaration of martial law, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has also been gathering with his top military leaders. Poroshenko is pledging that Ukraine will not take any “offensive” military actions, but he also says that they are ready to defend against any attacks from Russia.

The Russians are accusing Poroshenko of manipulating this crisis in order to pump up his flagging approval ratings for the upcoming presidential elections. There is a very real possibility that Poroshenko could lose, and he is desperate to stay in office.

Of course, the Ukrainians are blaming Russia for everything, and Poroshenko says that what happened on Sunday “was an act of war”… –Michael Snyder, The Economic Collapse

As Russia ramps up for a war, most Americans are content to sit back and allow the authoritarian political elites to steal their money and use it to enforce their leftist ideas of a “perfect” society on them. A hellish future awaits if humanity refuses to see the truth.

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Senators Convinced By CIA’s “Smoking Saw” Evidence Crown Prince Orchestrated Khashoggi Murder

Trump’s attempt to keep the Saudi Crown Prince away from the spotlight – and keep pumping as much oil as possible to keep the price of oil low – just suffered a major blow when US senators said a classified CIA memo convinced them that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman played a role in dissident columnist Jamal Khashoggi’s dismemberment, with one describing the evidence as “a smoking saw.”

Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker of Tennessee rejected Jared Kushner’s Donald Trump’s efforts to downplay the prince’s role, and according to Bloomberg said that if a jury were to consider a case against Prince Mohammed, he’d be convicted of murder in 30 minutes.

“There is zero question in my mind that the crown prince directed the murder and was kept apprised of the situation all the way through,” Corker said Tuesday after the closed-door briefing with CIA Director Gina Haspel and a handful of senators. “Zero question in my mind.”

And so with “zero questions” on their minds about MbS’ guilt, senators are already preparing their retaliation which according to Bloomberg will be to hit Trump where it hurts, namely a resolution that would restrict U.S. support for the Saudi military campaign in Yemen, which has resulted in a humanitarian disaster.

And since the debate is likely to evolve into a virtual trial over Prince Mohammed’s responsibility for Khashoggi’s murder at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and Trump’s effort to downplay it, senators could add additional amendments to further punish the kingdom.

While the Senate’s mind appears to be made up, the House hasn’t yet indicated how it plans to move forward, as it still has not seen the evidence. House members are scheduled to receive a briefing from Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Michael Pompeo on Dec. 13.

What was perhaps most surprising was the condemnation from Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s closest allies in the Senate, who echoed Corker saying that the only conclusion was that Prince Mohammed is responsible for the killing.

“There’s not a smoking gun, there’s a smoking saw,” Graham said referring to reports that the WaPo columnist was beheaded, dismembered and his fingers were severed.

And in what amounted to a jab at Trump’s reluctance to point a (non-severed) finger at the Saudi de facto ruler, Graham said that “you have to be willfully blind not to come to the conclusion and that this was orchestrated and organized by people under the command of MBS and that he was intricately involved in the demise of Mr. Khashoggi.” And like some of his Senate peers, Graham said he won’t support arms sales to Saudi Arabia while Prince Mohammed is in power.

Meanwhile, senators who weren’t invited to Tuesday’s briefing, including Rand Paul of Kentucky, Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Tim Kaine of Virginia, said more senators should also get the same briefing.

Still, while it appears that diplomatic ties between Washington and Riyadh will be severely limited as long as MbS is in charge, Corker said it’s going to be difficult to determine what measure the Senate can pass with overwhelming support.

To be sure, while there is a chance the whole diplomatic scandal blows over, Bloomberg writes that lawmakers are likely to use the debate to call for Saudi Arabia to be held accountable for its behavior and reject the Trump administration’s policy of keeping close ties with the kingdom, counting on its leaders to keep oil prices down as he ramps up sanctions on the kingdom’s rival, Iran. Senators have also demanded the White House be more forthcoming about intelligence gathered on the Khashoggi killing and have signaled they may back broader sanctions against the kingdom.

While the UN has said as many as 14 million people could be at risk in coming months as the Yemen humanitarian disaster and famine unfolds, the White House has threatened a veto of the legislation, and leaders in the Republican-controlled House haven’t shown any interest in taking it up so far.

Finally, should the Senate actively challenge Trump on his posture vis-a-vis Saudi Arabia and should Saudi Arabia then cut oil output in a rerun of the 1973 oil embargo, an infuriated Trump will look for – and find – a scapegoat, which in this case will most likely be Mike Pompeo’s CIA director replacement, Gina Haspel. Here why, from Bloomberg:

The administration last week sent Mattis and Pompeo to the Capitol, but senators emerged angrier than before, in part because Haspel didn’t participate. Graham said Tuesday the difference between the Haspel briefing and the one last week was “like darkness and sunshine” in terms of shedding light on MBS’s involvement in Khashoggi’s killing.

So if Trump wants a culprit for the upcoming collapse in ties with his closest middle eastern friend, he will find one in the current  CIA director. Should she be fired, the already open warfare between the CIA and the White House is set to get even worse.

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Choice, Consent, and Reason: Make a Difference in 2019!

Reason‘s annual webathon ends tonight. We’re asking people who like our journalism to support our efforts with tax-deductible donations. Every dollar you give helps us produce more content—more stories, videos, podcastst, media appearances, you name it—in which we make principled libertarian arguments about how society should best be organized.

In early November, Reason celebrated its 50th anniversary, but I’d like to share some footage from a different celebration right now. Here’s William “Bill” Niskanen (1933-2011), a widely respected economist who resigned from a position at Ford Motors rather than defend import quotas, served in the Reagan administration, acted as chairman of the Cato Institute, and was for a time a trustee of the Reason Foundation, the nonprofit that publishes this website (he is also the namesake of The Niskanen Center). The occasion was Reason‘s 15th anniversary in 1983:

A community is defined by its shared convictions. The dominant shared conviction of the Reason community is that the only moral basis for a social order is choice and consent. Choice without consent is meaningless and consent without choice is the consent of the prison. Only a society that is based upon both choice and consent provides the basis for a moral order….

[This] is the difference between a morality of process and a morality of end-states. All of the great tyrants of history have rationalized restricting choice, overriding consent, in the name of some higher end-state…. Reason magazine, Reason Foundation, and the community it represents is one of the most forceful and articulate representatives of the point of view that we should take consent seriously as the basis of organizing the social order. And that is what distinguishes us from the contemporary liberal and the contemporary conservative communities, each of whom has their own agendas about different end-states….

The only way which we can work together as people is to build a society in which choice is available and the basis for choice, whether it is in the economic sphere, or any sphere of our life, is consent…. For those few of us who are not anarchists, it suggests that government should be strongly restrained by an agreed-upon Constitution [and to the greatest extent possible] should be decentralized. To a great deal more than is now the case, government should be the coordinator but not the provider of a variety of goods and services….

You can watch Niskanen’s full remarks, put online by Libertarianism.org, here:

As it happens, we named a 2004 anthology of Reason articles Choice, for reasons that echo Niskanen’s insights. “Within the broadest possible parameters,” reads the introduction, “we believe you that you should be able to think what you want, live where you want, trade for what you want, eat what you want, smoke what you want, and marry whom you want. You should also be willing to shoulder the responsibilities your actions entail. Those general guidelines don’t explain everything…but they go a hell of a long way to creating a world that is tolerant, free, peaceful, prosperous, vibrant, and interesting.”

If you agree that choice and consent matter—and that Reason does a good job of making that case via great journalism—then please donate now!

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Four Out Of Five Racist Notes Were Fake At An Iowa University: School Officials

Authored by Neetu Chandak via The Daily Caller,

Officials at an Iowa university said an 18-year-old student is facing criminal charges after being believed to have written four out of five racist notes on campus.

The Drake University student, who has not been identified, admitted to writing one of the notes and also allegedly received one of the notes, the Des Moines Register reported Friday. The student reported four racist notes, which officials believe to be hoaxes.

“The fact that the actions of the student who has admitted guilt were propelled by motives other than hate does not minimize the worry and emotional harm they caused, but should temper fears,” Drake University President Marty Martin wrote in a statement to students and staff, according to the Register.

Martin added the notes reported on Nov. 13, Nov. 15 and on Nov. 28 are “copycat hoaxes of an initial campus incident.”

The initial note is not linked to the four fake notes, the Register reported. Des Moines police spokesman Paul Parizek said the female student faces harassment charges.

She could also face expulsion from the university, Drake spokesman Jarad Bernstein said, according to the Register. More than 3,000 students along with other people hosted a rally as a result of the reported notes. A student speaker at the rally believed her life was in danger at the school. Students also covered a street that is typically filled with colorful artwork with black paint.

“To demonstrate shared commitment to Drake University’s students of color, the campus community will join together to paint the Painted Street black, a powerful statement of solidarity and anti-racism,” a Paint It Black: Street Painting event on Facebook said.

The investigation is ongoing at the university.

This is not the first time a racist note’s legitimacy is questioned at a university. A Kansas State University student allegedly wrote a hoax racist note and posted it on his apartment door. The note was reported to police on Nov. 8, a day prior to the midterm elections.

Drake University did not immediately respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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Rand Paul Rages: “The Deep State Is Trying To Run Congress”

CIA Director Gina Haspel briefed leaders of multiple Senate committees Tuesday about the October murder of Jamal Khashoggi.

But Senator Rand Paul believes Haspel should share the CIA’s findings with all members of Congress.

Paul, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, exclaimed:

“To my mind this is the very definition of the deep state…”

“The deep state is that the intelligence agencies do things, conclude things, make conclusions but then the elected officials are prevented from knowing about this.”

Paul argued that if lawmakers aren’t allowed to have access to the intelligence community’s conclusions, then they can’t provide oversight.

“If we aren’t told about this and I’m not allowed to know about these conclusions, then I can’t have oversight,” he said.

“And so then state grows, the intelligence, the deep state grows and has more and more power.”

“I’ve read in the media that the CIA has said with high confidence that the crown prince was involved with killing Khashoggi,” Paul continued.

“I have not seen that intelligence nor have I even seen the conclusions. And today there’s yet another briefing and I’m being excluded. So really, this is the deep state at work … that your representatives don’t know what is going on in the intelligence agencies.”

We would be watching our back a little more than normal Senator Paul – truth like this is not acceptable in today’s America.

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9th Circuit Says a Federal Law Making It a Felony to ‘Encourage’ Illegal Immigration Violates the First Amendment

Today a federal appeals court ruled that a law aimed at curtailing illegal immigration violates the First Amendment by criminalizing the speech of anyone who “encourages” an alien to enter or reside in the United States without the government’s permission. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit concluded that the law is “unconstitutionally overbroad” because it “criminalizes a substantial amount of protected expression in relation to the statute’s narrow legitimate sweep.”

The law, 18 USC 1324(1)(A)(iv), authorizes a fine and up to five years in prison for someone who “encourages or induces an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States, knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that such coming to, entry, or residence is or will be in violation of law.” The maximum sentence rises to 10 years if the defendant acted “for the purpose of commercial advantage or private financial gain.”

This case involves Evelyn Sineneng-Smith, a San Jose, California, immigration consultant who purported to help unauthorized home health care workers from the Philippines obtain green cards through a “Labor Certification” program that expired in 2001. Sineneng-Smith, who knew that anyone who had entered the country after December 21, 2000, was not eligible for the program, was convicted of fraud as well as violating 18 USC 1324(1)(A)(iv).

But as Judge A. Wallace Tashima, notes in the 9th Circuit’s ruling, which was joined by Judges Marsha Berzon and Andrew Hurwitz, the law on its face encompasses a wide range of less nefarious and less mercenary speech, including the words of “a loving grandmother who urges her grandson to overstay his visa,” telling him, “I encourage you to stay.” In fact, Tashima says, “situations like this one, where a family member encourages another to stay in the country, or come to the country, are surely the most common form of encouragement or inducement within Subsection (iv)’s ambit.”

Another common situation, Tashima says, might involve “an attorney who tells her client that she should remain in the country while contesting removal—because, for example, non-citizens within the United States have greater due process rights than non-citizens outside the United States, or because, as a practical matter, the government may not physically remove her until removal proceedings are completed.” Under a straightforward reading of the statute, “the attorney’s accurate advice could subject her to a felony charge” and might even make her eligible for a 10-year sentence if the client is paying for her services.

Lest you think the government would never prosecute such violations of the law, Tashima notes a 2012 case in which a Massachusetts woman who hired an unauthorized immigrant to clean her house was prosecuted under 18 USC 1324(1)(A)(iv). She allegedly committed a felony when she “advised the cleaning lady generally about immigration law practices and consequences.” It seems clear, Tashima says, that the law is “susceptible to regular application to constitutionally protected speech,” and “there is a realistic (and actual) danger that the statute will infringe upon recognized First Amendment protections.”

Nor is the law limited to one-on-one conversations. Tashima asks us to imagine “a speech addressed to a gathered crowd, or directed at undocumented individuals on social media, in which the speaker said something along the lines of ‘I encourage all you folks out there without legal status to stay in the U.S.! We are in the process of trying to change the immigration laws, and the more we can show the potential hardship on people who have been in the country a long time, the better we can convince American citizens to fight for us and grant us a path to legalization.'” That also “could constitute inducement or encouragement under the statute.”

Such speech does not amount to incitement or aiding and abetting a crime, Tashima notes. Rather, it is “pure advocacy on a hotly debated issue in our society,” and “criminalizing expression like this threatens almost anyone willing to weigh in on the debate.”

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WTI Extends Loss After Surprise Crude Build

Amid doubts over global economic growth (and demand) as well as rising Russia-Saudi decisions on supply (and Alberta production cuts), WTI has rebounded modestly post-trade-truce, holding around $53 (despite today’s carnage in stocks).

In an interview Tuesday, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih walked back recent calls for 1 million barrels of cuts to daily output by OPEC and other major exporters.

“It’s premature to say what will happen” in Vienna, Al-Falih said in an interview at a United Nations climate-change conference in Poland. “We need to get together and listen to our colleagues, hear about their views on supply and demand and their projections of their own countries’ production.”

The note of caution combined with news that the Saudis had slashed the pricethey charge to Asian customers to dent traders’ optimism.

“It’s not a good price signal,” said Bob Yawger, director of futures at Mizuho Securities USA in New York. “Either demand is bad or all the talk about cutting production is just lip service.”

API

  • Crude +5.36mm (-900k)

  • Cushing

  • Gasoline

  • Distillates

API reports a surprise 5.36mm barrel build in crude inventories (expectations were for a 900k draw). The 11th consecutive crude build in a row prompted a drop in WTI prices, back below $53…

 

WTI popped up to $53 right before the API data hit but kneejerked lower on the print…

Given the market holiday tomorrow, we assume DOE data will be released on Thursday.

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D.C. City Council To Decriminalize Fare Evasion on City Buses and Trains

Today, the District of Columbia City Council is expected vote on a bill that would decriminalize fare evasion on the city’s buses and trains. The measure is likely to pass, which means people who ride the bus or train system without paying can be cited for a civil infraction and fined $50, but can no longer be subjected to arrest, 10 days in jail, or fines of up to $300 simply for evading a fare.

The city’s transit agency—the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority (WMATA, or simply Metro)—argues the change will only encourage already-rampant fare evasion. Civil rights groups counter that the current penalties are unjust, and enforced in a racially-discriminatory manner. In this rare instance, everybody’s a little bit right.

Using data provided by WMATA, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs reported in September that 91 percent of people stopped for fare evasion were black, and that 30 percent of fare evasion stops took place at just two stations with large numbers of black riders: Anacostia in Southeast D.C. and Gallery Place in the city center. (D.C.’s Metro system has some 91 stations.) Supporters of the bill have argued that enforcement of the current law disproportionately affects black people and are an example of over-criminalization.

“The criminalization of minor, unwanted conduct is significantly more harmful than the failure to pay a $2 fare,” argued Councilmember Charles Allen (D–Ward 6), who chairs the council’s Judiciary Committee. “Fare evasion do not pose a threat to public safety—and criminalizing such offenses in fact makes communities less safe and erodes trust in law enforcement,” said Nassim Moshiree, policy director of the D.C. ACLU, in an October statement.

Metro, meanwhile, claims the system cannot afford not to punish fare evaders. The agency says its bus system alone loses $25 million annually as a result of fare evasion, and Metro Board Chairman Jack Evans (who also sits on the D.C. City Council) estimates an equivalent amount is lost to fare evasion on its rail system, for a total of $50 million lost annually. Metro also claims that the current penalties aren’t that punitive, and that 92 percent of fair evasion stops result in only a fine or warning; while the 8 percent of fair evasion stops that result in an arrest are often the result of a suspected fair evader having an open warrant, committing a further offense while being stopped, or refusing to provide identification.

“Decriminalizing fare evasion in the District would be unfair to the overwhelming majority of Metro riders, including those of limited means, who pay their fares,” reads a letter from Metro’s executive board to the D.C. City Council. “Any increase in fare evasion as a result of a change in law in the District would create additional requirements for subsidy increases or fare hikes.”

Critics of decriminalization are right to point out that fair evasion is a form of theft, and civil libertarians are right to note that treating fare evasion like we would any other theft disproportionately affects D.C.’s low-income residents and contributes to a self-perpetuating cycle of poverty and petty criminality. But the current system is not working. As with most criminal behaviors, it’s highly unlikely that fair evaders understand current penalties chapter and verse. That most fair evaders are not stopped at all, or are often let off with just a warning, perpetuates the confusion around the seriousness of the offense.

What’s more, Metro says it almost never arrests anyone now for actually evading fares (only for having open warrants or some other offense), so it’s not clear how decriminalization puts the agency in a worse enforcement position. Metro officials have said that they might not be able to conduct background checks on those they are detaining for fare evasion if it’s only a civil infraction.

Ultimately, I think a lot of this dilemma would be solved by making Metro stations a lot more secure. It is incredibly easy to vault Metro’s rainbow-style turnstiles or simply walk though unlocked (and often unwatched) emergency gates. Full-height turnstiles and more closely guarded emergency gates would help to reduce fare evasion. Buses are a more difficult animal to tackle, but San Francisco’s transit agency has had some success reducing fare evasion on its buses by creating off-board payment options.

Getting rid of the jail sentence, developing a system for collecting on fines, and making it a harder offense to commit in the first place seems like the best way to balance civil liberties concerns with the needs of a (partially) user-fee funded transit system.

The decriminalization bill, initially introduced by Councilmember Trayon White (D–Ward 8) in July 2017, has the support of 11 of 13 D.C. city councilmembers. A final vote is needed to send the bill to the mayor’s desk for signing.

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