Black market for fake documents thrives among illegal immigrants

Metro West Daily News ^ | November 18, 2002 | Liz Mineo

[gubamyster]

By Liz Mineo Monday, November 18, 2002

FRAMINGHAM - The dream of a better life in the United States is pushing illegal immigrants to buy fake documents on the black market in order to drive and hold a job.

Some are paying up to $2,000 for phony Social Security numbers, according to sources in the local Brazilian community.

The illegal activity comes to light at Framingham District Court, where as many as five people a day are cited for driving without a license.

Most of them drive with international or out-of-state driver's licenses or with none at all.

Massachusetts law requires a Social Security number to issue a driver's license. Undocumented immigrants cannot get a Social Security number because they have no legal residency or permission to work, so they go to the black market or fall prey to Internet scams selling worthless international driver's licenses.

"It's quite common," said Judge Robert V. Greco. "There is a great misunderstanding about the use of the international driver's license, which is not valid. Even a license from a different state is not good. Once they take residency here, they need to get a license issued by the state of Massachusetts."

According to immigration law, only federal immigration officials can investigate the legal status of immigrants. Local police and courts can only address, in these cases, the traffic and license violations.

Although cases of driving without proper licenses are common, Greco said, they're not clogging the court system. They aren't time-consuming, he said, and first-time offenders are dismissed after paying a $100 fine.

Court statistics don't differentiate between traffic cases involving undocumented immigrants and those of U.S. citizens. But for probation officer Lenny McLean at the Framingham District Court, the number of cases is growing and becoming more of a social problem.

"When we do our intakes in the morning, there seems to be more volume," said McLean. "Various communities need to get together and discuss this issue. People are here trying to make a living, but they need licenses to work."

The need is huge, said advocates, and it's pushing illegal immigrants to buy counterfeit documents. In Framingham, birth certificates sell for as much as $900. The birth certificate clears the way for a person to get a Social Security card.

In MetroWest, home to a large immigrant population, state and federal officials have investigated three cases in the past two years involving immigrants selling phony Social Security and immigration "green cards." Two cases took place in Framingham and the other in Marlborough and Hudson.

Local lawyers are concerned with the predicament of many of their clients, who, they said, are desperate to work and are willing to take any risks to do it.

"It's a slippery slope," said lawyer Charlene Oliveira Cabral. "They want to drive to work, and they feel they have no choice but to make up Social Security numbers, risking charges of fraud and worsening their situation."

Allowing undocumented immigrants to get driver's licenses would benefit not only immigrants but the general public, said Cabral.

"It's a public safety issue," said Cabral. "The way the situation is now is not helping anybody. People are driving without insurance, and not knowing the rules of the road."

Like Cabral, attorney James Espinosa hopes for a change in the state Legislature to eliminate the requirement to have a Social Security number to obtain driver's licenses.

"People need to drive back and forth to work," said Espinosa. "They need to go to the hospital or go shopping. It's not joyriding."

It's not so for a 47-year-old Brazilian immigrant who has been stopped by the police three times in the past three years. The man works as a janitor and drives with an international driver's license he bought through the Internet.

"I drive in fear," said the man, who declined to be identified because he's in the country illegally. "I came from Brazil to escape from hunger and unemployment. I'm not afraid of work, but I'm afraid of driving. But I have no choice."

[gubamyster]

ping

[Texas_Jarhead]

deport them all - don't give them licenses

[Tripleplay]

And when they get in an accident, who pays the medical bills?

And when they give birth, who pays the medical bills?

And when they get cancer, who pays the medical bills?

I agree, deport'em all!

[Wright is right!]

There are several types of fake documents. There's the kind mentioned in this article, barely good enough to get a DL if no one looks too closely at them - and then there are the really excellent fakes that are almost undetectable. These involve things like passports made on genuine paper with validated info that won't flag an INS port-of-entry computer, authentic visas that really aren't, and drivers licenses that come from the inside after dark. You don't get documents like this for $900.

Michael

[38special]

An international driver's license? Isn't thal like world government or something?