Thread: 15 foreign workers at LNG construction site arrested, charged with identity theft

15 foreign workers at LNG construction site arrested, charged with identity theft

KBMT 3:19 PM. CDT May 08, 2017




BEAUMONT - A dozen Mexican nationals , two Guatemalan nationals and a Honduran found working at a liquefied natural gas facility construction site in Cameron Parish have been arrested and charged with identity theft.

From the U.S. Attorney's Office...
Fifteen illegal aliens working under false identities have been arrested on charges out of the Eastern District of Texas, announced Acting United States Attorney Brit Featherston today.

On the evening of May 4, 2017, federal and state agents arrested 15 illegal aliens working under false identities at the LNG facility under construction in Cameron, Louisiana.

Earlier in the week, a federal grand jury in Beaumont returned indictments charging the individuals with identity theft, using social security numbers of actual citizens, and making false claims of United States citizenship in order to obtain jobs at the facility over the past three years.

The defendants, who are in the United States illegally, were all working under assumed names obtained through the possession of fraudulently obtained legitimate social security numbers and matching birth certificates, primarily issued in Puerto Rico.

With such primary identifying information the defendants obtained State issued identification cards from Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Texas, and other states.

The use of such documents allowed the illegal aliens to pass the E-verify systems used by their employers to ascertain U.S. citizenship or alien lawful work permits.

All 15 aliens were identified after being arrested under their assumed names.

Some had previous encounters with immigration authorities and had returned to the United States, which can lead to further charges being added or increased sentences upon conviction of the current charges.

The defendants had all been hired by subcontractors who used hiring offices in Port Arthur, Texas, to accept applications, interview, and E-verify employees who then report to the jobsite in Louisiana upon hiring.

Those arrested and making initial appearances in federal court today are:
• Miguel Roblero-Morales, 36, of Guatemala;
• Mario Arnulfo Pantaleon-Castaneda, 30, of Guatemala;
• Luis Angel Pulido Cervantes, 29, of Mexico;
• Joel Pulido-Gutierrez, 27, of Mexico;
• Juan Manuel Zavala-Leon, 30, of Mexico;
• Rigoberto Romo Martinez, 41, of Mexico;
• Jose De Jesus Vega-Gutierrez, 31, of Mexico;
• Juan Alexis Juarez-Coto, 46, of Honduras;
• Felix Jiminez-Ruiz, 25, of Mexico;
• Jose Gutierrez-Valencia, 27, of Mexico;
• Bernardo Hernandez-Gallo, 37, of Mexico;
• Elizar Alvarez-Barajas, 43, of Mexico;
• Roberto Carlos Cruz Cruz, 28 of Mexico;
• Guily Tenorio-Sierra, 21, of Mexico; and
• Arturo Rebollar-Osorio, 34, of Mexico.

“Protecting critical infrastructure is a national security priority for law enforcement,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Brit Featherston.

“To do so we must make sure that workers in our community, and especially those working in proximity to vital national interests like our oil and chemical industries, are legal and properly vetted as required by law. Further, we must remain vigilant to these concerns to protect the economy and the law abiding worker.”

If convicted, the defendants each face up to five years in federal prison.

The statutory sentence prescribed by Congress is provided here for information purposes, as the sentencing will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.

A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the U.S. Probation Office.
This case is being investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations, Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General, Coast Guard Investigative Service, and the Texas Department of Public Safety and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert L. Rawls.

An indictment is not evidence of guilt. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

http://www.12newsnow.com/news/local/...heft/437877053

Louisiana: Plaquemines Parish Lands $8.5-Billion LNG Export Complex

15 more jobs for American's created!

These are jobs that American citizens won't do? I don't think so.

The defendants, who are in the United States illegally, were all working under assumed names obtained through the possession of fraudulently obtained legitimate social security numbers and matching birth certificates, primarily issued in Puerto Rico.

With such primary identifying information the defendants obtained State issued identification cards from Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Texas, and other states.

More Puerto Rican birth certificates? In 2010 Puerto Rico scrapped all existing birth certificates because of fraud yet it appears that illegals from Mexico and South American are still using able to buy them.

From 2010.

Puerto Rican Officials Scrap Millions of Birth Certificates

Puerto Rican Officials Scrap Millions of Birth Certificates
Mara Gay

AOL News (April 21) -- In a dramatic bid to end fraud, identity theft and illegal immigration, Puerto Rico is voiding all birth certificates issued before July 1, 2010 -- forcing more than 5 million people to apply for new ones.

The move will "protect the identity of all Puerto Ricans born on the island, and at the same time help the federal government with national security issues," Luis Balzac, spokesman for the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration, said in a phone interview with AOL News.

According to the U.S. departments of State and Homeland Security, Puerto Rican birth certificates account for about 40 percent of all cases of passport fraud every year, ABC reports.
Luis Balzac, spokesman for the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration, said the decision to void the birth certificates will "protect the identity of all Puerto Ricans.

https://www.alipac.us/f12/puerto-ric...icates-185773/

Puerto Rico Scraps Birth Records

In 2008, federal agents confiscated 14,000 stolen birth certificates in an investigation that resulted in five convictions, says Ivan Ortiz, a spokesman for the federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency in PuertoRico. In a previous case, birth certificates were bought from drug addicts for $25 and then sent to the U.S. mainland to be sold for $5,000 each. "I don't know if the new law is going to shut this down, but it will definitely make it more difficult to obtain an original of this document," Ortiz says.

Validity of Puerto Rico Birth Certificates Extended 10/30/10

Beginning Oct. 31, 2010, employers may only accept certified copies of PuertoRicobirth certificates that were issued on or after July 1, 2010. This means that if an employee presents a birthcertificate issued by the Vital Statistics Office of the Commonwealth of PuertoRico, the employer must look at the date the certified copy of the birthcertificate was issued to ensure that it is valid.

Existing Employees
Employers must not re-verify the employment eligibility of existing employees who presented a certified copy of a PuertoRicobirthcertificate for Form I-9 purposes prior to Oct. 31, 2010.

Federal Contractors
Employers awarded a federal contract that contains the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) E-Verify clause may need to update an existing I-9 or complete a new I-9 before submitting the information to E-Verify.

https://www.alipac.us/f12/validity-p...0-10-a-203490/


From 2009.
FBI: Thousands of PR children victims of ID theft

SAN JUAN, PuertoRico — An identity-theft ring that catered to illegal immigrants seeking to establish themselves in the U.S. stole the personal data of 7,000 public school children in PuertoRico, officials said Tuesday.
Members of the ring broke into about 50 schools across the U.S. island territory over the past two years to steal birth certificates and Social Security numbers to sell to the illegal immigrants, the FBI and other agencies announced at a news conference.

The victims were largely unaware their information had been stolen – and likely would not have learned of the thefts until they became adults and tried to buy something on credit, said assistant U.S. Attorney Julia Diaz Rex.

https://www.alipac.us/f12/fbi-thousa...-theft-143885/


The latest.
Puerto Rican birth certificates are sold to undocumented immigrants

Six years ago, PuertoRico passed a law that invalidated all existing birth certificates and required people born on the island to obtain a new “security-enhanced” certificate.

U.S. officials said the new birth certificates would thwart the illicit sale or theft of old certificates so undocumented foreign nationals could no longer use them to obtain U.S. passports or driver licenses. Undocumented immigrants with Puerto Rican birth certificates could then pose as U.S. citizens since Puerto Ricans are Americans by birth.

Whether the program has been successful is unclear.

Over the last 12 months, half a dozen cases have popped up in Miami federal court involving defendants who have illegally procured Puerto Rican birth certificates to obtain passports or driver licenses.

https://www.alipac.us/f12/puerto-ric...grants-318953/

The defendants had all been hired by subcontractors who used hiring offices in Port Arthur, Texas, to accept applications, interview, and E-verify employees who then report to the jobsite in Louisiana upon hiring.

Another sub contractor scam.

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It is obvious that LNG has a large Human Resources presence. Why use labor subcontractors?

Read.

Taken for a Ride: Temp Agencies and ‘Raiteros’ in Immigrant Chicago

CHICAGO — Ty Inc. became one of the world's largest manufacturers of stuffed animals thanks to the Beanie Babies craze in the 1990s.
But it has stayed on top partly by using an underworld of labor brokers known as raiteros, who pick up workers from Chicago's street corners and shuttle them to Ty's warehouse on behalf of one of the nation's largest temp agencies.

The system provides just-in-time labor at the lowest possible cost to large companies — but also effectively pushes workers' pay far below the minimum wage.
Temp agencies use similar van networks in other labor markets. But in Chicago's Little Village, the largest Mexican community in the Midwest, the raiteros have melded with temp agencies and their corporate clients in a way that might be unparalleled anywhere in America — and could violate Illinois' wage laws.
The raiteros don't just transport workers. They also recruit them, decide who works and who doesn't, and distribute paychecks.
And it's the low-wage workers — not the temp agencies or their clients, corporate giants like Ty — who bear the cost. Officially, the raiteros' fee, usually $8 a day, is for transportation. But, workers say, anyone who doesn't pay doesn't get work.

https://www.alipac.us/f12/taken-ride...hicago-277334/

Illegals working with false social security numbers is the norm in the residential construction industry and has been for years, ever since the housing boom began. It used to be mostly American subcontractors hiring the illegals , but now illegals are running their own businesses and hiring other illegals and anchor baby family members.
Sure do wish ICE would start to target residential construction businesses as they have operated for years with no fear of punishment!

And those construction jobs are good jobs, too. ICE shows up and shuts down a few of those residential projects and fear in that industry will spread like a prairie fire. The cost to those developers of even a few days down is enormous, a few days or weeks on completion, and it's near bankruptcy, word spreads they were shut down for hiring cheap foreign labor and no one will want their crappy homes with uneven ceilings and bad wiring.

GO GET 'EM ICE!! SHUT 'EM DOWN!!