This operation raised the stakes posing a threat to homeland security. They get work at a critical infrastructure area such as an airport or a nuclear power plant or a military base or a defense contractor and those are things we worry about.
"How much would it cost them?"
"Probably like about 50 or 75 dollars."
"Probably like about 50 or 75 dollars."
Illegal immigrants got fake green cards, Social Security cards and drivers licenses
The fake documents also fueled identity theft, since people should use them to obtain credit cards or to get bogus income tax returns.
Operation made $1.7 million in two years
abc2news.com
Posted: 05/25/2012
By: Jeff Hager
(video at source)
BALTIMORE - They are casualties of the struggling construction industry---Baltimore’s immigrants who are struggling to make a buck.
"Day by day, doing labor work... getting any piece of work they can," said Tim Oxendine who claims undocumented workers soon learned they could change that for a price, "If you came over here illegally, they said there was somewhere you could go where you could get a Social Security card, identification and to that behalf."
"How much would it cost them?"
"Probably like about 50 or 75 dollars."
Federal agents have now shut down an operation that targeted immigrants along South Broadway in Fells Point for over two years flooding the streets with fake ids of every kind, including green cards, Social Security cards and drivers licenses.
"The scope of this enterprise was just remarkable,” said U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein, “There were thousands of fraudulent identification cards that were created by this group of nine individuals. They generated up to $1.7 million in profits, and they did that by charging each individual about $160 each."
Immigrants seeking the high quality fakes could order them in the morning and pick them up that same afternoon.
While Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE routinely rounds up people who are in this country illegally, Special Agent in Charge William Winter says this operation raised the stakes posing a potential threat to homeland security.
"Our concern is that they take these documents and whether it's a member of a criminal organization or terrorist organization and then they get work at a critical infrastructure area such as an airport or a nuclear power plant or a military base or a defense contractor and those are things we worry about," said Winters.
The fake documents also fueled identity theft, since people should use them to obtain credit cards or to get bogus income tax returns.
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