Latest news with #Lopata
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
With billions of dollars to be cut by feds, WMass elder care centers brace for the squeeze
WILBRAHAM — The Social Security system under fire. Looming nursing staff shortages. Inability to pay for medical care. While on a tour of the Life Care Center of Wilbraham on Monday afternoon, executives described what a possible future might look like without hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funding for social services. 'We're always looking at how we can continue to provide these services,' said Dennis Lopata, the executive director of the nursing home facility that has been open for almost 34 years. A majority of the Wilbraham center's clients — about 80% — pay for services with either Medicaid or Medicare, he said. 'We need them as much as they need us,' he said. House Republicans recently passed a budget resolution that would slash $880 million from federal programs, including Medicare and Social Security benefits. U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, who paid a visit to the center on Monday afternoon, said while the House GOP passed the resolution, the issue is nonpartisan. 'Red states derive a lot of Medicare patients,' he said. 'We're not going to let social services go by the wayside.' Life Care Center is just one of several care facilities that predicts it will feel the squeeze of budget cuts. While the COVID-19 pandemic brought a slew of challenges to nursing homes across the region and country, Lopata said the organization has been working hard to retain staff, including raising the wages. The facility in Wilbraham now staffs 205 people, and more than 100 people receive care there, said Lopata. 'We've been offering certified nurse assistants (the opportunity) to attend trainings. We've been making progress,' said Tara Gregorio, president of the Massachusetts Senior Care Association. 'To now pull the rug out from under us — the threats are real and alarming." Another looming concern is the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration. 'With (temporary protected status) ending, more than 2,000 of our centers' employees from Haiti will lose their jobs,' said Gregorio. 'This is profoundly concerning.' Later in the afternoon, Neal spoke to a room of elderly people who live at the facility. 'This is a community. Nobody should be abandoned or left behind,' Neal said. 'The golden years should be lived out the way we want them to be.' Last month, Neal visited Riverside Industries, a nonprofit organization in Easthampton working to empower people with disabilities, where clients and staff also were bracing for the proposed cuts. Amid annual crackdown on urban dirt bikes, Springfield mayor says city will push to make them illegal Westfield Fire Department trains at old rectory 'No tolerance': Task force to drop hammer on illegal dirt bikes on roads as weather warms U.S. Rep. McGovern demands Trump officials give answers on visa revocations
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Yahoo
Polish drug dealer avoids deportation because he ‘doesn't speak the language'
A convicted Polish drug dealer has avoided being deported because he claims he cannot speak Polish. Nikodem Lopata, who came to Britain at the age of four, was arrested when he was 16 years old for dealing cocaine. He was convicted of cannabis offences aged 18, and three months after that he was caught with more than £1,000 of crack cocaine and heroin while carrying a 'Rambo-style' knife. The Polish national was sentenced to four and a half years in prison in a Young Offenders' Institution and was told by the Home Office that he would be sent back to the country of his birth. However, after being released, Lopata appealed the decision under article eight of the European Convention on Human Rights saying that it would breach his right to a family life. He claimed that he could not speak Polish and had no close family or friends living in Poland anymore, which would mean it would be very difficult for him to reintegrate into Polish society. Despite his 'unenviable list of convictions', judges found in his favour, rejecting the Home Office's argument that he should be forced to leave the UK. The case, disclosed in court papers, is the latest example exposed by The Telegraph where migrants or convicted foreign criminals have used human rights laws to remain in the UK or halt their deportations. They include an Albanian criminal who avoided deportation after claiming his son had an aversion to foreign chicken nuggets, and a Pakistani paedophile who was jailed for child sex offences but escaped removal from the UK as it would be 'unduly harsh' on his own children. The Upper Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber in Manchester was told that Lopata – now 22 and who settled in Crewe, Cheshire – came to Britain from Poland in 2006. Summing up the case, Judge Greg Ó Ceallaigh noted: '[He] has an unenviable list of convictions given his young age.' In 2019, when 16, he got a community order for supplying cocaine, followed in 2021 by a fine and six points on his licence for possession of cannabis and motoring offences. A year later, he was convicted of possessing a knife, class A drugs and dangerous driving. Stopped by police, he was searched and found with 80 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine, a further seven grams of heroin, a small bag of cannabis, a large knife described by police as 'Rambo-style' and £673 in cash. The drugs were worth up to £1,340. After being threatened with deportation following his sentencing to 54 months custody, a lower tier tribunal upheld his human rights appeal on the basis that he had spent his 'formative years' in the UK and had built friendships outside of his family. 'It was accepted that [he] would have little physical family support in Poland given that his mother and uncles are resident in the UK, and he do[es] not appear to have had any contact with his father,' the court was told. Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, appealed the ruling, arguing there needed to be 'very compelling circumstances' not to deport foreign criminals sentenced to four years in prison. The Home Office rejected claims that there would be 'very significant obstacles' to his reintegration into Poland and that he did not speak Polish, an argument which it said was 'not adequately reasoned'. Andrew Mullen, for the Home Office, described the finding that Mr Lopata did not speak Polish to be 'very odd' and said it was difficult to imagine a 'much more serious offence' than one involving Class A drugs. However, the Upper Tribunal judges ruled that Judge Ali had carried out a 'detailed analysis' of Lopata's case. 'In our view, the conclusion of the [first tier tribunal] that Mr Lopata did not speak Polish was one properly open to him on the facts. The fact that he visited Poland for a week-long holiday when he was nine does not further the Secretary of State's case in this regard,' they said. 'The [first tier tribunal's] conclusion in substance was that a person who had lived in the United Kingdom since the age of four, who does not speak Polish and would have little or no family support in Poland, would face very significant obstacles to reintegration into Poland. In our view this is a conclusion that was adequately reasoned.' Upholding the original decision, Judge Ó Ceallaigh ruled that Lopata's appeal against the Secretary of State's decision to refuse his human rights claim was allowed. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
28-02-2025
- Telegraph
Polish drug dealer avoids deportation because he ‘doesn't speak the language'
A convicted Polish drug dealer has avoided being deported because he claims he cannot speak Polish. Nikodem Lopata, who came to Britain at the age of four, was arrested when he was 16 years old for dealing cocaine. He was convicted of cannabis offences aged 18, and three months after that he was caught with more than £1,000 of crack cocaine and heroin while carrying a 'Rambo-style' knife. The Polish national was sentenced to four and a half years in prison in a Young Offenders' Institution and was told by the Home Office that he would be sent back to the country of his birth. However, after being released, Lopata appealed the decision under article eight of the European Convention on Human Rights saying that it would breach his right to a family life. 'Difficult to reintegrate into Polish society' He claimed that he could not speak Polish and had no close family or friends living in Poland anymore, which would mean it would be very difficult for him to reintegrate into Polish society. Despite his 'unenviable list of convictions', judges found in his favour, rejecting the Home Office's argument that he should be forced to leave the UK. The case, disclosed in court papers, is the latest example exposed by The Telegraph where migrants or convicted foreign criminals have used human rights laws to remain in the UK or halt their deportations. They include an Albanian criminal who avoided deportation after claiming his son had an aversion to foreign chicken nuggets, and a Pakistani paedophile who was jailed for child sex offences but escaped removal from the UK as it would be 'unduly harsh' on his own children. The Upper Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber in Manchester was told that Lopata – now 22 and who settled in Crewe, Cheshire – came to Britain from Poland in 2006. Summing up the case, Judge Greg Ó Ceallaigh noted: '[He] has an unenviable list of convictions given his young age.' In 2019, when 16, he got a community order for supplying cocaine, followed in 2021 by a fine and six points on his licence for possession of cannabis and motoring offences. A year later, he was convicted of possessing a knife, class A drugs and dangerous driving. Stopped by police, he was searched and found with 80 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine, a further seven grams of heroin, a small bag of cannabis, a large knife described by police as 'Rambo-style' and £673 in cash. The drugs were worth up to £1,340. After being threatened with deportation following his sentencing to 54 months custody, a lower tier tribunal upheld his human rights appeal on the basis that he had spent his 'formative years' in the UK and had built friendships outside of his family. 'It was accepted that [he] would have little physical family support in Poland given that his mother and uncles are resident in the UK, and he do[es] not appear to have had any contact with his father,' the court was told. Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, appealed the ruling, arguing there needed to be 'very compelling circumstances' not to deport foreign criminals sentenced to four years in prison. The Home Office rejected claims that there would be 'very significant obstacles' to his reintegration into Poland and that he did not speak Polish, an argument which it said was 'not adequately reasoned'. Andrew Mullen, for the Home Office, described the finding that Mr Lopata did not speak Polish to be 'very odd' and said it was difficult to imagine a 'much more serious offence' than one involving Class A drugs. However, the Upper Tribunal judges ruled that Judge Ali had carried out a 'detailed analysis' of Lopata's case. 'In our view, the conclusion of the [first tier tribunal] that Mr Lopata did not speak Polish was one properly open to him on the facts. The fact that he visited Poland for a week-long holiday when he was nine does not further the Secretary of State's case in this regard,' they said. 'The [first tier tribunal's] conclusion in substance was that a person who had lived in the United Kingdom since the age of four, who does not speak Polish and would have little or no family support in Poland, would face very significant obstacles to reintegration into Poland. In our view this is a conclusion that was adequately reasoned.' Upholding the original decision, Judge Ó Ceallaigh ruled that Lopata's appeal against the Secretary of State's decision to refuse his human rights claim was allowed.
