Trump FCC Using False Claims Of Immigrant Fraud To Drive Up Costs Of Broadband For Everyone

Broadband

from the the-'fraud'-is-coming-from-inside-the-house dept

Back in February the Trump FCC announced it was launching new “reforms” of a major bipartisan FCC program that helps poor people afford broadband. Dubbed Lifeline, the program provides a modest $9.25 stipend to help low-income Americans afford either broadband or phone service.

Lifeline, developed and supported as a popular bipartisan initiative, is one of countless government programs being gutted by the Trump administration under the pretense of reform and cost savings. Earlier this year, FCC boss Brendan Carr falsely claimed that the “reform” (read: destruction) of the program was necessary due to a bunch of fraud by immigrants. From his original press statement:

“Lifeline providers received nearly $5 million in federal dollars to provide phone or Internet service to more than 116,000 dead people in the three optout states. Over 80% of those scams took place in California alone. That type of waste, fraud, and abuse is completely unacceptable.”

This was, you’ll be surprised to learn, a lie. One that mirrors similarly racist claims made by the Trump administration as it targets what’s left of the U.S. social safety net. It didn’t take long for Carr’s lie that “California immigrants are stealing taxpayer dollars” to bounce around the right wing propagandaverse.

But as the California Public Utilities Commission noted shortly thereafter, the 116,000 people cited died while on the program. There was no fraud. There’s not even coherent evidence they were immigrants (as if that would matter one way or the other):

The Trump FCC reforms aren’t finalized yet. There’s first a public comment period where Brendan Carr will pretend to listen to outside parties and the public. So groups like Public Knowledge and the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) recently filed their complaints about the proposed changes with the FCC (spotted first by Light Reading).

They make several excellent points, one being that historically, most of the fraud occurring in the Lifeline program has been at the hands of private companies:

“The Q-Link case in 2025, the Armstrong Group in 2024, and the 2022 San Francisco whistleblower complaint each illustrate that providers, not eligible and subscribing Lifeline households, are the primary entities engaging in fraud and abuse concerns within USF programs.”

Brendan Carr’s policies generally involve a strange fusion of racism and gutting oversight of corporations. U.S. broadband wouldn’t be so expensive if regulators like Brendan Carr actually believed in holding regional monopolies accountable. Instead, Carr’s policies generally involve mindless deregulation of industry, resulting in muted competition, high prices, spotty access, and poor customer service.

Groups say Carr’s goal of imposing new Lifeline restrictions are particularly problematic because only somewhere between 19 and 22 percent of all eligible homes sign up for the program, suggesting it could benefit from improved outreach and education, not cumbersome new barriers to participation.

The groups also stated they were “extremely concerned” about the potential that data collected will be used to harass minority Americans:

“For a program that garnered bipartisan support and cooperation for decades, it is difficult to ignore the timing of this proposal alongside expanded federal data-sharing initiatives targeting immigrant communities among other anti-immigrant strategies deployed by the Trump Administration.”

The Trump administration attacks on Lifeline mirror other simultaneous efforts to make broadband less affordable for everyone, whether they’re fresh immigrants or Trump supporters in the deepest red state. In just the last year or two, Republicans and the Trump administration have:

• Rewritten the infrastructure Act at the behest of telecom giants, ensuring that they can take $42.5 billion in taxpayer money without worrying about making sure the resulting broadband is affordable.
• Illegally threatened to withhold broadband grants from states that try to hold telecom monopolies accountable for overbilling or anti-competitive behavior.
• Destroyed a popular program that provided free Wi-Fi to poor rural school children (Ted Cruz and Brendan Carr were particularly proud of themselves for this).
• Destroyed the FCC Affordable Connectivity Fund program, which provided low income Americans a $30 discount off of broadband. Republicans claimed the program was killed to save money; subsequent studies showed it generated far more financial benefits to taxpayers than it cost.
• Tried relentlessly to destroy the FCC’s Universal Service Fund program that provides cheaper broadband to schools, libraries, and rural communities (many of which voted for Trump).
• Dismantled the FCC’s ability to stop telecom giants from ripping you off with hidden fees and usage caps.
• Illegally destroyed a law passed by Congress (the Digital Equity Act) mandating the fair deployment of broadband to poor people and minority communities.
• Hijacked the BEAD infrastructure bill broadband grant program so they could redirect money intended for rural fiber to instead slather Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos with subsidies they don’t need, for satellite broadband services they already planned to deploy.

You can probably see why Brendan Carr and Donald Trump would want misinformed voters focused on “immigrant fraud.”

Filed Under: affordability, bigotry, brendan carr, broadband, cpuc, fcc, fraud, immigrants, lifeline, racism, telecom, wireless