Free Republic

The head of a Mexican forgery ring was convinced he could make phony documents that illegal aliens could use to indicate fraudulently that they were eligible for a new amnesty, says a government affidavit recounting wiretapped phone calls the man made. Julio Leija-Sanchez, who ran a $3 million-a-year forgery operation before he was arrested in April, was expecting Congress to pass a legalization program, which he called "amnesty," and said he could forge documents to fool the U.S. government into thinking illegal aliens were in the country in time to qualify for amnesty, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)...

Confident that Congress would pass an amnesty bill, the head of a multi million-dollar Mexican forgery ring bragged that he could create fake documents to prove that illegal immigrants were in the country in time to qualify for the legalization. Instead, Julio Leija-Sanchez, who ran a $3 million-a-year forgery operation was arrested but not before immigration officials recorded him laying out his big business plans after U.S. lawmakers passed a bill granting amnesty to the nation’s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. A U.S. immigration official’s lengthy affidavit details how Leija-Sanchez assured clients and associates that he could easily forge documents...

NEW YORK -- A man accused of cheating Hispanic immigrants out of $280,000 by posing as a federal agent and promising them green cards and other documents he never delivered was sentenced Monday to three to six years in prison. John Nevarez, 55, of Manhattan, was sentenced after state Supreme Court Justice Edward McLaughlin refused to let him withdraw his prior guilty plea. Last month, Nevarez pleaded guilty to third-degree grand larceny for the immigration fraud. Nevarez, who worked out of an East Harlem basement, used a fake badge and identification to convince immigrants he was a federal agent who...

A Winston-Salem woman who was a key player in a fake ID ring pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court to making and distributing fake IDs. Laura Bello-Castanada was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Greensboro to nine months in prison for her role in the illegal operation. Judge William Osteen, who handed down the sentence, also placed Bello-Castanada on probation for three years. Bello-Castanada, who is from Mexico, took telephone orders from illegal immigrants for fake IDs and offered delivery service to customers, court documents show. After receiving a passport-size photograph and $250 to $400, Bello-Castanada provided the fake IDs....

A Seattle man convicted of supplying Taliban fighters with cash and computers returned to federal court Tuesday to face charges that he violated his parole by traveling overseas with a false Mexican passport. James Ujaama denied the multiple federal counts that could land him back in prison for two years. Arrested in Belize one month ago, Ujaama had only four months left on his parole stemming from the 2003 conviction. His attorney, Peter Offenbecher, said he hadn't yet gathered all the information that led to his client's arrest. "I'm investigating the facts to determine the appropriate course of action," he...

Tensions are building between Latino community leaders and Weld County Social Services after a sign placed in the front the department's building threatens to take action against those who provide false documentation. Residents say the sign is discriminatory and that the county doesn't have jurisdiction to post the sign without a statue code, which allows people to verify such enforcement is legal. The county says it posted the sign because of the high number of false documents county workers were given. After a special session last August, the Colorado Legislature mandated the county to verify the documents of those receiving...

A fake ID operation that was manufacturing immigration green cards, Social Security cards and employment papers for more than 1,000 people is out of business, said Prince William County detectives. Northern Virginia Gang Task Force Detective Brian Wing said this was the largest fake ID operation seen in the county so far, and the men involved had been selling fake employment documents for some time. Police arrested three Woodbridge men on Saturday when they allegedly sold a fake Social Security card and an employment authorization card to a woman for $100, according to arrest warrants filed in Prince William General...

It is this reporter's opinion that if the following story – revealed in testimony before the Senate Finance Committee concerning the vulnerability of our borders with Mexico and Canada – won't shock you, nothing will. Our own U.S. undercover investigators have repeatedly entered the United States using fake documents; in some cases, Homeland Security agents didn't ask for identification. At nine border crossings, on the Mexican and Canadian borders, U.S. agents never questioned the authenticity of counterfeit documents, according to Government Accountability Office (GAO) testimony. In testimony obtained by the Associated Press, undercover investigators crossed unhindered into the U.S. at...

WASHINGTON - Undercover investigators entered the United States using fake documents repeatedly this year — including some cases in which Homeland Security Department agents didn't ask for identification. At nine border crossings on the Mexico and Canadian borders, agents "never questioned the authenticity of the counterfeit documents," according to Government Accountability Office testimony to be released Wednesday. "This vulnerability potentially allows terrorists or others involved in criminal activity to pass freely into the United States from Canada or Mexico with little or no chance of being detected," concluded the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, in testimony obtained Tuesday by...

WASHINGTON - Undercover investigators entered the United States using fake documents repeatedly this year — including some cases in which Homeland Security Department agents didn't ask for identification. At nine border crossings, on both the Mexico and Canadian borders, agents "never questioned the authenticity of the counterfeit documents," according to Government Accountability Office testimony to be released Wednesday. "This vulnerability potentially allows terrorists or others involved in criminal activity to pass freely into the United States from Canada or Mexico with little or no chance of being detected," concluded the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, in testimony obtained Tuesday...

A former worker at a DMV office in Bridgeport, Conn., has pleaded guilty to charges of issuing hundreds of phony licenses.......and to charges of receiving bribes, forgery and racketeering. She and two female colleagues had begun selling a few licenses to illegal aliens working locally........The operation soon grew to dozens of licenses and IDs being sold every day by the women......... By the summer of 2004, police said, the trio had sold 1,579 driver's licenses and 930 ID's, at an average of $100 per card.

WASHINGTON — Acknowledging widespread security lapses within the nation's immigration system, the Bush administration announced Wednesday it is opening anti-fraud task forces in 10 cities, including Atlanta, to crack down on fake driver's licenses, passports and other methods used to obtain immigration benefits. "Millions have used fraudulent documents" to obtain work permits or to provide cover for criminal or terrorist activities, said Julie Myers, assistant Homeland Security secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who cited "an epidemic" of bogus identification documents generated by highly sophisticated crime networks. The enforcement initiative, which combines Homeland Security immigration agencies, the U.S. Department of...

NORFOLK -– Three Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles employees were arrested today on charges of selling phony driver’s licenses across the counter to “customers” for $2,000 each, authorities said Tuesday. Two facilitators were also charged. Sisters Teshara L. Sykes and Tonita S. Sykes and the third employee, Jamille C. Lowther, were arrested today at DMV offices in Norfolk. They were making their initial appearances this afternoon in federal court. The case unfolded when FBI agents in New York discovered a suspected illegal immigrant talking about his ability to obtain phony driver's licenses in Norfolk, according to court records unsealed today....

<p>WASHINGTON -- An illegal alien from El Salvador pleaded guilty Monday to helping one of the Sept. 11 hijackers fraudulently obtain a Virginia identification card.</p> <p>Victor Lopez-Flores also pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., to illegally re-entering the United States after being deported. He faces a maximum sentence of 35 years in prison and fines of $500,000. Sentencing was set for next Feb. 2.</p>

AUSTIN, Minn. — In Minnesota towns where hogs and turkeys meet their ends at the hands of workers from foreign lands, local officials often find themselves asking newcomers a simple question.Who are you?A worker with questionable immigration status may be carrying equally questionable identification. In Austin, where immigrants are lured by pork processing jobs, Mower County Attorney Patrick Flanagan has seen enough bad-ID cases to worry about a sizable "ghost'' population of misidentified residents."If you're a ghost, how can we help you? How can anyone help you?" he asked.Imagine a small, rural community where people are used to knowing one...

BRIDGEPORT (AP) -- Six Bridgeport residents have pleaded guilty to participating in a scheme to illegally obtain Connecticut driver's licenses, prosecutors said Thursday. Jose Cesar Zhispon, 40; Francisco O. Rosales, 41; Glexy Y. Solano, 21; Marta Alecia Aldana, 42; and Rolando Solano, 45, pleaded guilty in Bridgeport Superior Court on Wednesday to criminal attempt to commit forgery and were sentenced to six months in prison, suspended on the condition they not violate any laws for one year. In accepting the plea agreements, Judge Roland Fasano cited the cooperation of the five men in the investigation of Carlos Hernandez, who was...

Twenty-one people allegedly supplied fake government documents to individuals throughout the United States while operating along a busy street in Queens described by the prosecutor as the East Coast ``epicenter'' of fraudulent documents. District Attorney Richard Brown said Wednesday that the suspects had been indicted on charges they operated a $1 million-a-year criminal enterprise that included production of phony Social Security cards, driver's licenses and resident alien cards. Four of the suspects remained at large; the others have been arraigned in the past few days and are being held without bail. ``What this shows is the vulnerability we have to...

BETHESDA LAWYER AND WASHINGTON, D.C. LAW FIRM PLEAD GUILTY TO IMMIGRATION FRAUD Law Firm Submitted Over 100 False Documents to the Department of Labor and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service BALTIMORE, Maryland -- United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein announces that today attorney Irwin Jay Fredman, age 73, of Bethesda, Maryland, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit immigration fraud in Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Virginia during a four-year period. Fredman also entered a guilty plea to the same charge on behalf of the law firm he owns and manages, the Law Offices of I. Jay...

Even though Los Angeles is considered the epicenter of the fake ID trade, for years the problem didn't register as a high priority for an already burdened police force. The lack of consistent enforcement allowed the underground industry to build up until it was "out of control," said LAPD Officer Fernando Flores. [snip] "When you first get here, you don't know where to go," said Flores, 25, who lives in Huntington Park. "The people who have been here a long time tell you. Everybody knows you can buy papers in MacArthur Park." [snip] Mica [slang for laminated ID cards] mills...

Illegal aliens charged with making fake IDs Monday, November 21, 2005 RANDLEMAN — Two men authorities said are illegal aliens were charged with making fake IDs, the Randolph County Sheriff's Office reported today. On Friday, sheriff's investigators searched a home at 380 Kings Ridge Road in Randleman. They found fraudulent IDs including Social Security cards, alien resident cards, Hispanic marriage certificates, passports, tax identification cards, fictitious drivers license and a forged inspection sticker, according to the sheriff's office. Also seized was computer equipment including printers and scanners, laptop computers, a typewriter, Polaroid camera, a heating machine, laminator, adhesive and several...