Posted on 05/19/2011 2:47:30 PM PDT by JudyM
ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - New Mexico’s appeal to foreign criminals eager to exploit a state law allowing illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses is increasing.
However, state investigators are trying to blunt that trend by using new tools to track the license requests and identify possible fraud before the licenses can be issued.
“This problem is only growing bigger by the day,” said Alvan Romero, who heads up a team of fraud investigators for the state’s Taxation and Revenue Department. That department oversees the New Mexico Motor Vehicle Division.
A change in state law in 2003 allows foreign nationals to obtain drivers licenses in New Mexico regardless of their immigration status. However, the rules require applicants to live in the state of New Mexico.
“They’re always going to say, ‘I reside somewhere in New Mexico,’ because they know the law,” Romero said.
At one point, up to 18 states issued drivers licenses to illegal immigrants. Now only New Mexico and Washington do it. And while instances of fraud are up in New Mexico, the state has tweaked its policies to be able to better sniff out the bad guys.
Since July of last year, anyone applying for the state’s foreign national driver’s license has to make an appointment. That change allowed MVD to better handle the demand and collect data on people who request such licenses.
Agents at state-operated MVD offices are the first line of review. Applicants whose documents pass the test are issued a temporary driver’s license. The application is then passed on to Romero’s team of investigators, who many times catch things MVD agents may have missed.
According to a breakdown of phone numbers gathered during the application process, 37 percent of the 16,000 requests received between August 2010 and April 2011 came from out-of-state. Most came from Arizona, Georgia, and Texas.
“That simply tells me that something’s going on,” Romero said. “It’s a total red flag.”
Another breakdown shows some phone numbers used dozens of times to make appointments. One New Mexico number was used 228 times. A phone number with an Arizona area code was used 24 times.
A similar list shows the same pattern with New Mexico addresses. One address in Albuquerque was used more than 70 times in the application process.
“There’s a whole lot of work to try to protect and keep the integrity of this program as it is today,” Romero said.
Among those busted so far have been two Costa Rican nationals, who were arrested in April and September of last year, and accused of providing fake lease agreements so other Costa Rican nationals from New Jersey could get New Mexico licenses.
A group of Chinese nationals also were arrested late last year, accused of providing dozens of out-of-state Chinese immigrants with fraudulent residency documents.
Two Albuquerque women were arrested for selling their own addresses so 60 illegal immigrants could provide fake proof of residency.
“Only an investigation, an in-depth investigation on each and every one of these applications would we be able to satisfy ourselves,” Romero said.
More than 80,000 New Mexico licenses have been issued to foreign nationals since 2003. Last year alone, 24,000 were issued. That means many fakes are slipping through the system, Romero said.
“These licenses are out there,” Romero said. “They legitimize people. They’re very, very valuable.”
Here is a "tweak" for them. STOP ISSUING TO FOREIGNERS.
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So they can vote with their picture ID?
I don’t know which is worse - giving them licenses, or here in Texas were it is estimated that at least 15% of the people on the road have no license at all!
If you haven’t had any wrecks, the biggest cost on your insurance will eventually be “uninsured motorist.”
If they are unlicensed (and uninsured), hardly makes much difference whether they are legal or illegal. Almost makes you wonder why we even bother to have laws.
I thought this was one of Gov. Martinez’s campaign platforms. No DL’s to illegals. So WTF?
Ditchbank politics, pay-to-play schemes, a former Governor under investigation by FBI for fraud and corruption, judges wrecked by cocaine and selling verdicts, political appointees engaging in prostitution, drug trafficking,spousal murder and multiple illicit sexual affairs, 1 of 2 states still issuing driver licenses to illegal immigrants.
NM is the ideal place not to be. Getting out as fast as I can.
can’t they just arrest and deport when they show up to get one?
It’s a legacy of Bill Richardson. I’m glad I got out of New Mexico before he became governor. The year and a half I lived in New Mexico was enough of an insight of what a cesspool NM politics was, with Ray Sanchez and Manny Arrogant in the Roundhouse and Senate (the first deposed by an upstart, the latter in prison, both being poster children for term limits), and the corruption of Patricia Madrid and Robert Vigil (the latter just out of prison, the former I suspect of obstructing investigation of the latter).
AND WHICH PARTY SPONSORED SUCH....?
The Democrat felon won, of course, in a landslide.
Easily solved. The Federal Gov’t should cut off ALL Federal Aid to New Mexico. Same should go for states and cities that are considered “sanctuaries”. IMO, this is an issue Republicans should run on 2012. And don’t worry about that “Latino voting bloc” because it doesn’t exist. People don’t vote the same way because they share (or shared) a language.
This is one thing Arnold did for Californians: no driver’s licenses for illegals.
“Every calculation based on experience elsewhere fails in New Mexico” - Territorial Governor Lew Wallace in 1881.
Not true. Utah also engages in this idiocy. And we're paying the price, as well.
Ping!
If you live in New Mexico better raise your uninsurance limits.
“What a pathetic example of law enforcement New Mexico is...”
I guess this is how the plains tribes felt when the whites just kept coming...the shoe is on the other foot now.
I don’t think our Lenape tribe here in NJ ate burritos, though.
A similar list shows the same pattern with New Mexico addresses. One address in Albuquerque was used more than 70 times in the application process.
Yeah. I'd be suspicious, too, if 228 people claimed to have the same phone number but only 70 of them lived at the same address. I just don't think that people living at different addresses would have the same phone.
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