Thread: Feds to target illegals' fake IDs

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Feds to target illegals' fake IDs
Atlanta among 10 cities cited in crackdown

By JULIA MALONE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/06/06

WASHINGTON — Acknowledging widespread security lapses within the nation's immigration system, the Bush administration announced Wednesday it is opening anti-fraud task forces in 10 cities, including Atlanta, to crack down on fake driver's licenses, passports and other methods used to obtain immigration benefits.

"Millions have used fraudulent documents" to obtain work permits or to provide cover for criminal or terrorist activities, said Julie Myers, assistant Homeland Security secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who cited "an epidemic" of bogus identification documents generated by highly sophisticated crime networks.

The enforcement initiative, which combines Homeland Security immigration agencies, the U.S. Department of Justice and other federal and local agencies, is to operate in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Newark, N.J., Philadelphia and St. Paul, Minn.

Many agencies involved

Details about the initiative were sketchy. But led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the task forces build on existing partnerships to bring investigators together from a variety of agencies with expertise in different aspects of document and benefit fraud, a news release announcing task forces said.

Some of the participants in the task forces include the Department of Justice, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General, State Department Office of Inspector General, State Department Bureau of Diplomatic Security, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, U.S. Secret Service, and numerous state and local law enforcement agencies.

The announcement came the day before a former Homeland Security official was scheduled to tell Congress that the department is now awarding immigrant benefits, including citizenship, without proper background checks and has failed to investigate nearly 600 cases of alleged bribery, money laundering and other criminal activities by its own employees.

Just last week in Georgia, supporters and critics of the newly approved Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act agreed the state law could be undermined by bogus documents.

A key provision of the act, which passed both houses of the state Legislature last week by big margins, is the section dealing with private employers verifying that their workers are legally in the country. Some say the proliferation of fake documents makes that section of the law, and possibly others, difficult if not impossible to enforce.

Security concerns cited

Michael J. Maxwell, who quit in February as director of the U.S. Office of Security and Investigations for immigration services, is scheduled to testify today to the House Subcommittee on International Terrorism.

"The integrity of the United States immigration system has been corrupted, and the system is incapable of ensuring the security of our homeland," Maxwell said in a statement prepared for the hearing.

That statement is accompanied by more than 70 pages of documentation, internal e-mails and memos he said show an agency awash in security problems and lacking the resources "to open investigations into even the relatively small number of national security cases."

Maxwell's written testimony describes increasing vulnerabilities in the Citizenship and Immigration Services division, which oversees the distribution of work visas, permanent "green card" residency permits and citizenship.

The former official quit in a dispute with his bosses after he briefed members of Congress about security problems.

Among the complaints prepared for his testimony, Maxwell says that employees assigned to perform checks on would-be citizens or permanent residents were increasingly denied access to FBI crime and terrorism databases that record allegations of criminal behavior or security problems.

Case backlog

Maxwell's documentation also indicates that regional immigration offices, including those in Atlanta and Philadelphia, have a backlog of cases of applicants who have been denied residency because of ineligibility or criminal prosecutions. Although these applicants should have been notified and put into removal procedures, their cases are "in limbo" and their official "notices to appear" in immigration court have not gone out, Maxwell says.

Asked about the backlogs, the director of Citizenship and Immigration Services, Emilio Gonzalez, said the caseload is so large that his agency has to take care so they "don't clog up the court system."

"We have to prioritize" the cases, Gonzalez said.

The immigration services director brushed off Maxwell's criticism of security at the agency. "He has his opinions, and I have mine," said Gonzalez, who joined in the announcement of the task forces.

Paul L. Jones, director of homeland security and justice investigations for the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan arm of Congress, said the new anti-fraud effort is a response to a recent GAO report that found extensive fraud in the granting of immigrant benefits.

The government's anti-fraud task forces do not go far enough, Jones said, adding that the system does not penalize the people who use fake IDs and other illegal schemes to obtain immigration permits and visas. Under current practices, a person can lie on an immigration benefit application, be turned down, and later try again and again, Jones said.

The GAO official said that his agency reviewed Maxwell's allegations and found them to be serious. "Our folks say there's enough smoke there," Jones said, adding that the GAO has referred his complaints to the FBI.

and the senate thinks they can give guest worker status to millions of unknowns and do background checks? Wen pigs fly. THey can't even handle what they have now! What a joke!

Task Forces To Target Immigration Fraud

http://www.wral.com/apnationalnews/8489373/detail.html

WASHINGTON -- The government said Wednesday it was stepping up efforts to stem illegal immigration, creating task forces in 10 cities to crack down on those who commit fraud to enter and stay in the country.

The task forces bring together investigators from several agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Justice and Labor departments, to prosecute growing cases of immigration fraud. The fraud includes the use of fake Social Security cards, drivers licenses and passports.

Investigators also will seek to arrest _ and deport if warranted _ those who lie on government applications to obtain benefits such as U.S. citizenship, political asylum or a visa, said Julie Myers, assistant secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is headed by Homeland Security.

"One of the lessons from 9/11 is that false identities and fraudulent documents present serious risks to national security," said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. "We must deny criminals the identification tools they need to threaten our country."

In the last two years, the number of immigration fraud investigations has jumped 54 percent to 3,591 cases and arrests have risen from 1,300 to 1,391, officials said. They cited the growing sophistication of technology such as high-resolution digital scanners, which make it easier to produce fraudulent documents, for the increased number of cases.

At least seven of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers submitted fraudulent Virginia residency certificates to obtain legitimate ID cards to clear airport security and board airplanes for the terrorist attacks. Most recently, ICE agents seized seven counterfeit document labs and arrested 11 individuals on charges of supplying fake ID and immigration documents that were sold on the streets of Los Angeles.

The Document and Benefit Fraud Task Forces will be located in Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Newark, N.J., Philadelphia and St. Paul, Minn. It is modeled after a Washington, D.C.-area task force coordinated by the U.S. attorney's office.

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On the Net:

Immigration and Customs Enforcement: http://www.ice.gov/graphics/index.htm

Justice Department: http://www.usdoj.gov/