Several open-and-shut cases were brought. In one case, the driver's license and social security cards were printed on fax paper. The defense merely stated that he had been duped and deceived by the forged documents.
That case led to an acquittal in 15 minutes. My friend in the US Attorney's office went absolutely ballistic.
Everyone said in the post-mortem that it would've been far more profitable to go after illegal aliens engaged in welfare fraud--except that doing so would annoy the American Federation of Government Employees, who are the second biggest union in the Democrats' corner (the first being the National Educators' Association).
If I'm not mistaken, these U.S. Attorneys are judged on conviction percentages.
In other words, a lot of acquittals mean no bonuses, no promotions, and no real good chances at good private-sector jobs down the line.