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SUSSEX: Immigration agents arrest six in Georgetown raid
By Terri Sanginiti
The News Journal

Jan 29, 2008

GEORGETOWN — Six Guatemala nationals were arrested late Monday in Georgetown during a federal raid by immigration agents in an ongoing investigation into document fraud in the state.

William Lowder, resident agent in charge of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Wilmington, said the suspects – five men and a woman – all lived in Sussex County.


The arrests bring to 34 the number of immigrants arrested in the state since last year for being in this country illegally, agency spokesman Mike Gilhooly said.

Lowder said Rafael Chilel-Chilel, 37; Bonifacio Chun-Esteban, 45; Timiteo Agustin Laynes-Tomas, 23; Celemias Joel Laynes-Tomas, 27; and Ervin Geobani Monterroso-Garcia, 20, were all charged with immigration-related illegal entry.

The five men are in the custody of immigration officials and will be deported.

The woman, Victoria Ramirez-Felipe, 38, who was also processed for removal, was provided with a court date and released on her own recognizance because she has small children, Lowder said.

In November, immigration officials arrested four document vendors/brokers in Sussex County on federal charges of identity theft and unlawful transfer of Social Security cards and birth certificates.

The four suspects, accused of buying about 129 valid Social Security cards and birth certificates belonging to residents in Puerto Rico and illegally selling them to undocumented workers in Sussex County, are being criminally prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware.

Gilhooley said the sale and use of these valid identity documents presents both a national security problem and public safety concern.

“The documents confer all the rights and privileges of a United States citizen on the individual using them,â€