Thread: Why in Framingham?

Why in Framingham?

By Liz Mineo/Daily News staff
The MetroWest Daily News
New! Sun Sep 16, 2007, 12:11 AM EDT

Immigration officials said they didn't target Framingham or Brazilians, but several investigative leads pointed to Framingham as a place where a black market for fake documents thrives on a growing demand.

"Document fraud is a systemic problem across the country, because of a need for illegal aliens to have these documents," said Bruce Foucart, special agent in charge of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigations in Boston.

"There are organizations not only involved in manufacturing fraudulent IDs around that area," Foucart said of Framingham. "It's home to an appetite, a real desire for legitimate documents."

Because of the large illegal immigrant population in the Boston area, which includes Framingham - home to 15,000 to 20,000 foreign-born, many of whom are illegal immigrants - immigration authorities set up a Document Benefit Fraud Task Force in Boston, one of 11 across the country, said Foucart. Led by ICE, the Boston task force includes other government agencies.

"The Boston area is a target-rich environment," he said.

Brazilian community leaders have decried the Framingham-based operation as "entrapment."

"ICE created a situation in which they made people violate the law," said Fausto da Rocha, executive director of the Brazilian Immigrant Center in Allston. "They induced people to purchase those documents, and make them commit a criminal act."

Da Rocha also criticized the arrest of the 27 Brazilians at a supermarket parking lot, where more than 20 ICE agents were waiting inside trucks for their arrival.

According to testimony, the 27 Brazilians were told by the undercover agent to meet him at the Market Basket parking lot in Chelsea, where a bus was supposed to take them to Rhode Island to give them the documents they bought. When the bus was almost full, the agents came out of two trucks nearby and arrested all in the bus.

"They told them to go to Chelsea because they wanted to confront the city's decision to become a sanctuary for illegal immigrants," said da Rocha. "They were trying to send a message to immigrants."

http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x1212853573

"ICE created a situation in which they made people violate the law," said Fausto da Rocha, executive director of the Brazilian Immigrant Center in Allston.

Nothing quite like the Third World mentality. They don't seem to be aware they were already violating the law!

"ICE created a situation in which they made people violate the law," said Fausto da Rocha, executive director of the Brazilian Immigrant Center in Allston.

The so-called "sting operation" is a very useful law enforcement tool. I'm glad to see it put to use in this way.