Thread: Criminal immigrants use fake documents to avoid justice syst

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Phony IDs 'so easy to get'
Criminal immigrants use fake documents to avoid justice system

By Daniel J. Chacón, Rocky Mountain News
June 12, 2006
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GREELEY — After being arrested, imprisoned and deported repeatedly for more than two decades, Juan Jimenez finally figured out a way to dodge immigration laws.

On a mild Saturday night last July, Greeley police busted Jimenez, who had a stash of crack cocaine.

The arrest, coupled with his rap sheet and stints in federal prison, warranted a hold by immigration authorities.

But the violent felon from Mexico managed to get a low $3,000 surety bond and walked away a free man.

How did he do it?

Jimenez, 51, posed as someone else using fraudulent documents, illustrating one of the many challenges authorities face when they encounter foreign-born residents.

"This guy is a bad dude," said Rick Dill, bureau chief of the Weld County Jail, where Jimenez was booked and released the next day. "It's very clear that this is the kind of person that a lot of resources need to be dedicated to locate and remove from this country because of the victimization that has occurred."

Many undocumented immigrants obtain phony IDs, such as resident alien cards, driver's licenses, birth certificates and Social Security cards, primarily to get jobs.

But Jimenez and other illegal immigrants with a criminal history use their fake documents to avoid the justice system and elude authorities.

Immigration officials say bogus documents are easy to find.

Drug dealer Christian Galeas, for example, has provided authorities 10 different names and five dates of birth, records show.

The Honduras native, who has been arrested at least 10 times, is serving two years in a Colorado prison for selling heroin to an undercover detective.

Another repeat offender is Jose Andazola Sandoval, who was first arrested in the U.S. in 1977 trying to cross the border near El Paso, Texas.

An FBI report showed the Mexican national has used 15 names, six dates of birth and three Social Security numbers. He is serving a five-year prison sentence for a 2003 drug conviction.

Using counterfeit IDs or aliases is not unique to undocumented immigrants, but their illegal status promotes it, said Joe Morales, executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Safety.

"I don't know the percentages, but I would say that probably a large number, or a substantial number, do acquire some level of illegal documentation so that they can at least somewhat function here in the United States," Morales said.

"Plus, it's so prevalent, and they're so easy to get. There's places in Denver where they can buy this stuff."

Building a portfolio

Federal agents say illegal immigrants looking for phony papers set their sights first on a so-called breeder document. It's a fraudulent form of identification, such as a fake birth certificate, that can be exploited to accumulate legitimate papers, such as a valid Colorado driver's license.

"They want to get that breeder document," said Jeff Copp, special agent in charge of investigations in the Denver ICE office. "Then they can go and they can set up a whole portfolio of documents that are legitimate or look legitimate."

Sold in flea markets, laundries, parks and street corners, fraudulent documents cost as little as $30, though $300 will fetch a much more convincing ID.

"With the technology we have today, because it is so sophisticated and advanced, they can virtually counterfeit just about anything, and they do," said Lon Garner, special agent in charge with the Secret Service in Denver.

In Los Angeles, police have uncovered document mills with laminates for every state driver's license in the U.S., said Lt. Mathew St. Pierre, who heads the L.A. police department's Fraudulent Document Unit.

"Depending on the level of sophistication of what you're going to make, you can set up a mill for $600 and a trip to Staples," he said.

The counterfeiting problem hit close to home last year when federal agents raided an Aurora apartment and seized several hundred fraudulent documents and the equipment to make them.

A search of a storage unit netted 21 silk-screen printing templates and negatives that had produced bulk quantities of counterfeit documents with security seals and holograms.

"Those are the guys we really want to go after," Copp said. "These guys make you the whole portfolio."

The Aurora case is part of an ongoing, multiyear investigation of a major international counterfeiting ring that infiltrated the Denver area.

At the time, ICE called it "one of the largest and most sophisticated document-fraud rings ever uncovered."

"This is a franchise like McDonald's, for goodness sakes," said Carl Rusnok, a spokesman for ICE. "We put some dents into their operation, but it's not exactly defunct."

In Denver, phony documents were being sold out of a coin-operated laundry on West 30th Avenue and Zuni Street and a flea market near West Eighth Avenue and Federal Boulevard, according to court documents. Employees at both businesses told the Rocky Mountain News they had never heard about the scheme.

Buying at the border

Not all illegal immigrants wait to get phony documents in the U.S.

Jorge Villa-Gutierrez, 25, in prison for the gang rape of an 18-year-old woman in Douglas County in July 2003, said he paid $100 in Juarez for a fake ID with a Social Security number.

But Villa-Gutierrez is probably in the minority.

Most illegal immigrants seek out fake documents after they touch American soil, said Paul Maldonado, assistant special agent in charge in the Denver ICE office.

"There's a certain amount of risk of coming across the border with fake IDs," he said. "Administratively, we can choose to press additional charges of not simply entering the United States without inspection, but being in possession of a counterfeit document while entering the United States."

Besides, bogus documents from outside the U.S. are usually easier to detect as fakes, Maldonado said.

Those caught with a first-rate forgery — at the border or inside the country — will face an extensive investigation, he said.

"That individual would be studied and investigated a whole lot more thoroughly than the random $30-document individual," he said.

But with today's technological advances, the fight against counterfeiting can be daunting, said Garner.

When he was a Denver police officer, fake IDs were easy to spot, Garner said.

No more.

"Most police officers who make these traffic stops daily, routinely, don't know a counterfeit when they see one," Garner said.

"As soon as you put a safeguard in place, the cyber criminal has defeated it, and we're off to a new game."

Colorado lawmakers are trying to temper the problem. A law approved this year would slap counterfeiters with a $50,000 fine.

Looking for solutions

St. Pierre said a national ID would help in the fight against counterfeiting. He acknowledges that a national fingerprinting system would be costly and met with resistance by civil libertarians, but he said it's worth it.

"If you're in California and you present an ID card from Florida, there's no way for me to verify that's a valid ID," he said. "Unless I fingerprint you and run your prints through the California system and the federal system, there's no way for me to actually identify you, and I can't do that unless I'm arresting you for a valid charge."

Last year, Greeley police arrested Juan Jimenez on a valid charge — possession of more than 2 grams of crack cocaine — but he still managed to slip through the immigration net.

Jimenez, who was caught trying to cross the border the first time in 1980, has been convicted of numerous aggravated assaults since then, including against a minor.

When confronted by officer Roy Smith outside a car wash, Jimenez claimed to be Ernesto Villezcas, of Chihuahua, Mexico. He had a Mexican ID with that name, and a computer check revealed no criminal record for Villezcas in Colorado.

Later, Smith searched Jimenez's wallet and found an alien registration card with the name Juan Jimenez-Baeza. He also had a Social Security card identifying him as John Jimenez.

"Officer Smith asked the man what his true name was and the man said it was Ernesto Villezcas, and that he only uses the Jimenez identification to get jobs, as he is in the country illegally," according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

Juan Jimenez, who has served time in two federal prisons, has identifiable characteristics: two middle fingers on his left hand are missing.

Despite his three different IDs, Jimenez was booked into jail as Ernesto Villezcas, whose only known infraction was being one of the estimated 225,000 to 275,000 illegal immigrants living in Colorado.

The next day, he was released on a $3,000 bond.

"If he had given the name Juan Jimenez, there is certainly the chance that his bond would've been set higher, given all the criminal history under that name," said Thea Mustari, a spokeswoman for the Weld County district attorney.

And chances are that Jimenez would have been ineligible for bond had immigration been called about his arrest and ordered a hold. But he didn't give his real name.

Dill, the bureau chief at the Weld County Jail, said ICE is immediately notified when an inmate discloses being an illegal immigrant.

"In this case, it sounds like (Jimenez) wasn't picked up (by ICE) because he had a clean identity when he came through the facility," he said.

Investigators made the connection later, but by then, Jimenez had slithered into obscurity.

Staff writer Rosa Ramirez contributed to this story. chacond@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5099

But Bush is so sure he can do background checks on 12 million illegal aliens and be sure that only honest, law abiding, family values type illegals will be allowed to get legalization. Yeah right, if the same group of dimwitted bureaucrats will be doing the checking as are running the show now, I'm sure we can all feel safe and secure that none of these criminal felon illegals gets amnesty. What a crock!

An FBI report showed the Mexican national has used 15 names, six dates of birth and three Social Security numbers. He is serving a five-year prison sentence for a 2003 drug conviction.

Using counterfeit IDs or aliases is not unique to undocumented immigrants, but their illegal status promotes it, said Joe Morales, executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Safety.

"Plus, it's so prevalent, and they're so easy to get. There's places in Denver where they can buy this stuff."

And Homeland Security is going to be able to keep track of 20-30 million illegal immigrants IF there is a temp-worker plan is approved?

Yeah, security checks, and with Pence's bill they'll be done in a week! Go figure that one. Pence is in a killer fog.