Thread: ICE-led document and benefit fraud investigation leads to ar

ICE-led document and benefit fraud investigation leads to arrests in eastern Washington
Published at 2:00 am, January 26, 2011

Fourteen individuals will make their initial appearance Friday morning in federal court here after being arrested by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) on criminal charges related to an investigation into the manufacture and purchase of counterfeit identity and employment documents.

ICE’s HSI agents were joined by other federal and local law enforcement agencies as they served 11 criminal search warrants Thursday morning at 22 locations in and around Ellensburg, Wash. All of those arrested on criminal charges were indicted by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Washington earlier this month.

Of the 14 defendants who are appearing in federal court Friday morning, 13 are charged with visa fraud and government identification fraud; three of those have the additional charge of false claim to U.S. citizenship. One has been charged with re-entry into the United States after deportation.

“Those who create and sell fraudulent documents compromise our nation’s legal identification system and provide counterfeit identities to those who may otherwise be ineligible to live or work legally in the United States,â€

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