Who's watching the White House? (Michelle Malkin)

TownHall.com ^ | 1/03/03 | Michelle Malkin

[kattracks]

If you thought the New Year's Eve FBI manhunt for illegal aliens with fake passports was a disturbing sign of homeland insecurity, wait until you hear about who's been working on President George W. Bush's front lawn.

While the Secret Service has now instituted criminal and citizenship screening procedures for all tourists (including children) who visit the White House, federal agents failed to detect an illegal alien who used a false identity and fraudulent documents and was employed for at least two years as a supervisor of tent installation for White House social events.

This illegal alien had been ordered kicked out of the country by the Immigration and Naturalization Service in February 2000, but was able to evade the law and fool both his employer and the Secret Service through petty identity fraud. He was finally caught at the U.S.-Mexico border last month, but it was no thanks to the law enforcement agents in Washington who are assigned to protect the White House from unknown intruders.

Posing as "Kelvin Rodriguez," a Mexican citizen named Salvador Martinez-Gonzalez worked for HDO Productions Inc., which bills itself as "the nation's most respected provider of special event tent and accessory rentals." The company designs elaborate outdoor settings for galas, weddings and government functions.

Martinez-Gonzalez had access to the White House grounds, the Pentagon and NASA, and rubbed elbows with Washington's most powerful officials -- from former President Bill Clinton to current Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne. Martinez-Gonzalez kept festive photos of himself with Clinton and the Cheneys as souvenirs to show off his insider access.

On Dec. 2, 2002, according to a Justice Department intelligence report I obtained, Martinez-Gonzalez tried to return to the U.S. from a trip to Mexico. He showed up at the Laredo, Texas, port of entry claiming to be a U.S. citizen and provided inspectors with the photos of himself with Clinton and the Cheneys. A routine fingerprint and immigration database check showed that he had been apprehended in Brownsville, Texas, two years ago, and at that time was ordered to leave the country. He should have been immediately detained for fraudulent entry and kicked out.

But Martinez-Gonzalez was neither detained nor removed from the U.S., as required by federal law. Instead, immigration officials learned, Martinez-Gonzalez was freed and purchased a birth certificate from the real Kelvin Rodriguez, a Puerto Rican national who lent his identity to Martinez-Gonzalez. According to the intelligence report, Rodriguez helped Martinez-Gonzalez obtain a U.S. Social Security card, Maryland driver's license and a U.S. passport.

According to the report, Martinez-Gonzalez/"Rodriguez" moved to the Maryland suburbs and began to work for HDO Productions. An Associated Press article shows that the company had past problems with illegal labor at the White House. In the summer of 1998, immigration officials arrested two Mexican nationals who worked for HDO Productions and were trying to gain access to the White House grounds using fake alien registration cards. Secret Service officers detained them after they presented the fake documents. The U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia authorized prosecution for possession of fraudulent documents, and the two workers were reportedly deported.

As for Martinez-Gonzalez/"Rodriguez," he left HDO Productions sometime in the fall. Company president Jerry O'Connell said he was not aware of any immigration problems and that Martinez-Gonzalez/"Rodriguez's" departure had nothing to do with immigration-related fraud.

According to the DOJ intelligence report, the FBI and Secret Service were both contacted by immigration investigators for further interviewing of this illegal alien impostor. But an FBI spokesman in Washington, D.C., said he was unfamiliar with the case. My calls to the White House were unreturned. The Secret Service refused to comment.

Hopefully, President Bush will have better luck getting answers. For if his own guardians can't keep low-level, illegal border-crossing identity impostors out of the White House backyard, how in the world can we count on his administration to keep far more sophisticated, illegal alien evildoers -- like the five that President Bush personally ordered hunted down last week -- out of ours?

©2002 Creators Syndicate, Inc.

Contact Michelle Malkin | Read her biography

[MissAmericanPie]

This event seems kinda fitting doesn't it.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up!

[Crossbow Eel]

"Uh, since this tidal wave of lawlessness has been going on for several decade now, It's my opinion that the Repulicans and the Democrats could care less about our borders or our sovereignty. This seems painfully obvious, doesn't it?"

No, they care about their votes !

[Sabertooth]

I thought our borders were wide open?

People make up your freeking mind on this issue will you.

Either we have open borders or we don't. What's the truth ?

Right you are, they're tight as a drum

A routine fingerprint and immigration database check showed that he had been apprehended in Brownsville, Texas, two years ago, and at that time was ordered to leave the country. He should have been immediately detained for fraudulent entry and kicked out.

It's all part of the plan:

Rather than deport Illegals, we let them have access to the White House for two years and then catch them by accident in Browsville. Absolutely foolproof.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Hehehe......

[Uncle Bill]

"Rather than deport Illegals, we let them have access to the White House for two years and then catch them by accident in Brownsville. Absolutely foolproof."

LOL! You know, I was just thinking, maybe Mueller wasn't kidding. Maybe he should have summed it up on behalf of all agencies, and just said we're not looking.

"We're not looking for individuals of any particular religion or from any particular country."
FBI Director Robert Mueller - SOURCE

[TexKat]

It's my opinion that the Repulicans and the Democrats could care less about our borders or our sovereignty.

Somebody has to do the work that the high polluting Americans don't want to do. They don't care who it is just so long as they will work for FIVE DOLLA an hour.

[Sabertooth]

"We're not looking for individuals of any particular religion or from any particular country."

Feel the Security. Be the Security. Achieve oneness with the Security.

Do your part, get yourself searched, then roll over and go back to sleep.

[Mo1]

Martinez-Gonzalez had access to the White House grounds, the Pentagon and NASA, and rubbed elbows with Washington's most powerful officials -- from former President Bill Clinton to current Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne.

Well I agree the Secret Service needs to do a better job checking into who has access to the White House and the INS needs to do a better job in deporting illegals

But Michelle is over doing it a bit .. she makes it sound like this guy had lunch with Cheney everday .. he was a Tent Supervisor .. not the Prime Minister of a Country

[SwordofTruth]

Somebody has to do the work that the high polluting Americans don't want to do.

Have you ever been to Mexico City?

Looks pretty polluted to me.

[Celtic Conservative]

As my fine Irish ancestors would say:

oy givalt!

Slainte,

CC

[lainde]

Bttt...Request for being included on Michelle's ping list. Thanks!

[4Freedom]

"...so long as they will work for five dolla an hour."

What do you want to bet he was making a little more than $5.00 an hour as a supervisor?

[FreedomPoster]

In the Imperial City, he was probably making $70k a year.

[Uncle Bill]

WHITE HOUSE'S ILLEGAL ALIEN - By MICHELLE MALKIN

[Clinton Is Scum]

Salvador Martinez-Gonzalez with the Cheneys:

Salvador Martinez-Gonzalez with Bill Clinton:

[Uncle Bill]

"an illegal alien who used a false identity and fraudulent documents and was employed for at least two years as a supervisor of tent installation for White House social events."

White House Tents

Nothing like camping

[Uncle Bill]

Firms hiring illegal aliens to lose pacts

AP
By Sonya Ross, Associated Press writer
February 14, 1996

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton told U.S. businesses yesterday that he will bar them from federal contracts if they hire illegal immigrants.

He accompanied his order with a rhetorical flourish -- "American jobs belong to America's legal workers" -- but the White House denied any election-year politics were involved. Aides said the order was needed to deal with a worsening problem of illegal immigration.

The order prohibits, for one year, federal contracts for companies that knowingly hire illegal workers.

It is intended specifically to target construction companies. White House officials said the order was inspired in part by the arrests last year of 34 illegal workers who were hired as carpenters and skilled craftsmen to help build a federal building in Atlanta.

The order also applies to the thousands of vendors who provide such services as cleaning government office buildings, landscaping military bases and operating cafeterias in courthouses.

"It is against the law for businesses to hire workers who are illegal immigrants," the president said. "When it comes to enforcing our nation's immigration laws, we mean business."

Congress in 1986 passed a law aimed at restricting illegal immigration by prosecuting employers who hire illegal workers. But enforcement of the law has lagged because employers have been able to argue, for example, that they thought a bogus Social Security card provided by an undocumented worker was valid.

Government vendors have been required to abide by that law as well, but there has been no prohibition on violators competing for new federal contracts.

The order also prohibits employers from using the threat of sanctions as a reason to discriminate on the basis of ethnic origin. President Clinton instructed employers to confirm workers' eligibility by reviewing documents of all new hires, not just those who were born in other countries. The order, which aims to take away the lure of high-paying jobs, is part of a three-pronged immigration strategy that also includes strengthening border enforcement and allocating more money to detain and deport illegal immigrants with criminal records.

"We are deporting record numbers of criminals and other deportable aliens," President Clinton said. "But all this will not stem the tide of illegal immigration if we do not reduce the job magnet."

Besides the Atlanta case, the order also is based on an Immigration and Naturalization Service operation in six Southeastern states last year that removed more than 4,000 illegal workers from jobs in construction, manufacturing, food processing, farms, restaurants and hotels.

Illegal immigration is a potent political issue in a number of states, especially in the West and Southwest.

But White House press secretary Mike McCurry said, "There is no grounds to suggest that this is an executive order based on politics. This president has consistently said he would do a better job of protecting our borders and making sure that immigration to the United States occurs in a legal fashion."

---

Bush Open to Accepting Illegal Aliens

Bar the White House

[4Freedom]

"In the Imperial City, he was probably making $70k a year."

Sounds about right.

How would you like to see his tax return? He probably claimed enough dependents to qualify for a complete refund of all income tax paid and an 'earned income tax credit' check on top of that.

Think the U.S. Taxpayers made the down-payment on his house and gave him a home loan at 1% or 2% below market?

America has gone from the land of opportunity to the land of illegal opportunists. ;^)

[madfly]

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