Posted on 02/06/2002 12:08:30 AM PST by sarcasm
Two workers who were given the highest security clearances at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport were charged with immigration violations yesterday in a case that illustrates the ease in which they allegedly obtained sensitive jobs by lying on their applications.
The men, foreign nationals who had overstayed their visas for years, had unfettered access to commercial jets, one as a fueler and the other as a food-service employee, federal prosecutors said in charging documents filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle.
Neither man was accused of having terrorist connections, but both were arrested last month as part of "Operation Tarmac," a nationwide effort by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to tighten security at airports. The operation was launched after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The men, one from Ivory Coast in Africa and one from Mexico, signed immigration forms stating they were permanent residents authorized to work in the United States. One provided a counterfeit ID.
Both were given "blue badges," the highest of three security clearances at the airport, after they were fingerprinted and their names were submitted to the FBI for criminal-history checks, said INS spokesman Garrison Courtney.
They passed the FBI checks because they didn't have convictions for any of about 35 crimes that would have excluded them from the jobs, Courtney said.
But at the time they were checked, the FBI wasn't linked to INS computers that would have showed both were in the country illegally. After Sept. 11, the two agencies linked their computers, Courtney said.
Both men were hired before Sept. 11 and represent a tiny fraction of the overall work force of about 18,000 contract workers at the airport.
They were among 20 Sea-Tac airport employees who were arrested last month for immigration violations. Most were referred for deportation proceedings, but prosecutors decided to charge the two because they possessed the highest security clearances, a federal law-enforcement official said.
Federal prosecutors charged the workers, both of whom no longer work at the airport, with one felony count of falsely stating they were permanent residents and one misdemeanor count of failing to register with the INS.
The two men, Koffi Justin N'Goran, 34, of the Ivory Coast and Clemente Ortiz-Alvarez, 52, of Mexico are scheduled to appear in court today, where they are to plead guilty to the misdemeanor charges under a deal in which prosecutors would drop the felony counts, said their attorney, Antonio Salazar.
If the deal is accepted by the court, both would be given credit for time served, Salazar said.
In addition, Ortiz-Alvarez has agreed to voluntarily leave the country within four months and N'Goran would be allowed to seek asylum in the United States on the grounds he faces persecution in his homeland, Salazar said.
N'Goran was hired last July as a fueler at Aircraft Service International Group, which provides fueling services for most of the major airlines at Sea-Tac airport, according to the charging papers.
Ortiz-Alverez worked since December 2000 for LSG Sky Chefs, which provides food and beverage services for most of the major carriers.
The two companies that hired them and the Port of Seattle, which oversees operations at the airport, followed proper procedures, Courtney said.
Ortiz-Alvarez presented a counterfeit Alien Registration Receipt card to support his application, an INS agent said in the charging papers. It wasn't clear what identification N'Goran offered. Representatives of Aircraft Service International Group, based in Orlando, didn't respond to inquiries yesterday.
A spokesman for LSG Sky Chefs, Bill Slay, said that since Sept. 11 his company has voluntarily submitted the names of its employees to the FBI for criminal-history checks.
LSG, which is based in Arlington, Texas, and operates at other airports, also has used INS hotlines set up since Sept. 11 to identify INS violators, he said.
"All the extra precautions that can be taken ... have been done," he said.
Bob Parker, a Port of Seattle spokesman, said security badges are only issued for areas in which contract workers need to work.
"Nobody goes and wanders through the airport," he said.
N'Goran has been in the United States since 1993 and Ortiz-Alvarez since 1995, both on visitor visas that expired after six months.
Before working at the airport both were employed in various jobs, said Salazar, their attorney.
The plea deals offered to them are the same as one accepted in November by a former security screener at Sea-Tac airport, who faced deportation to Colombia after pleading guilty to an immigration charge.
All three cases represent the first time in his 27 years of practice in Seattle that federal prosecutors in Western Washington have invoked a statute requiring aliens to register with the INS within 30 days, Salazar said.
But prosecutors have used the statute since Sept. 11, citing changed circumstances since the attacks.
Yep, this administration is really serious about cracking down on visa violators.
It's good, though, we are moving in the right direction.
Twenty-seven years of ignoring the law. Why should I obey them?
U.S., Mexico move forward on push for immigration accord Presidents will meet on issue next month
By Karen Branch-Brioso
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 4, 2002
WASHINGTON -- Once-stalled talks on a U.S.-Mexico guest-worker accord gained significant momentum last week with a White House announcement that the nations' presidents will discuss the issue on March 22 - and public assurances from the immigration chief.
"Some people believe that our talks with Mexico have died in the wake of Sept. 11. I assure you that this is not the case," Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner James Ziglar told a crowd of immigration advocates and lawyers gathered Friday at a Washington forum. "We should move forward - not because it's in Mexico's interest, but because it's in the United States' interest. These workers are important to the U.S. economy." The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, carried out by foreign visitors, put temporary brakes on President George W. Bush's vow to bring "normalization" for some of the millions of undocumented Mexican workers in the United States. But the talks returned among mid-level administration officials Nov. 20, right after a three-day visit to Mexico by House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.
Although it hasn't publicly set a deadline, the administration appears on track to produce an agreement this year. With intensively competitive elections this fall that could shift control of the House and Senate to either party, the issue has implications far beyond the economic. The significant growth in the Latino vote may prove decisive. Such immigration pacts - long associated with Democrats - have found a Republican ally in a president who hails from a border state.
"Bottom line, it's become a major battleground between the two parties," said Sergio Bendixen, a consultant and pollster who specializes in the Hispanic market. If the 2001 elections showed anything, he said, it is that "the Hispanic electorate has become one of the major battlegrounds in American politics."
Mayoral elections in Houston, New York and Los Angeles showed the "fluidity" of the Hispanic vote, Bendixen said, with large blocs voting for conservative mayoral candidates in New York and Houston and liberals in L.A.: "Immigration has proven to be the baseline issue for Hispanic voters. Immigration for Hispanics is what civil rights is to blacks."
But the post-Sept. 11 strategy is distinct. Before Bush travels to Monterrey, Mexico, to meet with Mexican President Vicente Fox, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge will go to Mexico City to establish border security. Ziglar, who participated in the latest round of U.S.-Mexico talks Wednesday in Washington, said the law-enforcement accord will go hand-in-hand with an immigration pact.
"If we could find a way to move a substantial portion of the current illegal flow from Mexico into legal channels via some kind of temporary-worker program and combine that with a new cooperative law enforcement arrangements with Mexico, we could benefit the U.S. economy, we could substantially reduce illegal immigration," Ziglar said. "And, it could enable the Border Patrol and other law enforcement agencies to focus on the bad guys coming across - not on the flow of people who just want to get into this country to work."
Democrats, too, have continued the call. In a Democratic response tailored to Hispanic media, Gephardt answered Bush's Saturday radio address with a call "to bring justice to our immigration laws - to reward those families who work hard, pay taxes, and contribute to our economy and our culture."
Despite the efforts by both parties, plans for the accord will hit some resistance by longtime proponents of immigration curbs who have been emboldened in the post-Sept. 11 atmosphere. The Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus, led by Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., has grown to 50 members from a pre-Sept. 11 membership of 15. Among the new members are Rep. Todd Akin, R-Town and Country, and Rep. David Phelps, D-Eldorado.
Offering amnesty to workers employed illegally in the United States will be a central sticking point on either side of the aisle, according to Steven Camarota, research director for the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors stricter immigration controls.
"If it's a straight guest-worker problem, the Democrats are going to balk, and if you bring in the green cards (that provide legal access for non-citizens to work anywhere), the Republicans will balk," said Camarota, who believes a guest-worker program would only serve to lower wages for all unskilled workers - U.S. citizens or no. "The bottom line here is Mexican immigration generally makes poor people poorer without creating significant economic benefits."
Also at issue will be whether to extend any guest-worker program to other undocumented workers, something Ziglar did not address. Working with Mexico, the source for an estimated 3.9 million of the 8.7 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States, is clearly his focus.
"We need to bring those folks into the light," Ziglar said, "to give them a status that makes sense."
Any and all pension monies for all Fed prosecutors during that time should be seized immediately. Some other punishments should be levied too, perhaps sharing a jail cell with the illegals for about 30 years...JFK
Congressman Billybob
Billybob just finished his half hour: Phil is still on the air.
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