I can't believe the editor of the newspaper thought that these drivers licenses were legal! There's a video at the link.

Illegal Drivers Licenses Are Targeting Hispanics

Posted: April 7, 2008 11:26 PM CDT

Updated: April 8, 2008 11:23 PM CDT

Illegal Drivers Licenses Are Targeting Hispanics

The Federal Trade Commission says the licenses are fake. The drivers licenses are selling for $200 in some states, and promise illegals they can drive, buy and sell cars.

The alleged creator of the drivers license scam was just in Grand Island last week, according to Oscar Erives, publisher of the Buenos Dias Nebraska. The man bought space in Erives' bi-weekly Spanish newspaper. Erives said he would never have run the spot if he knew it was fraud, and he's pulling the ads immediately. He said he would also run an article in Tuesday's paper warning Hispanics about the fraud. The G.I. Independent and Trade West both said they have never run the ads.

The Grand Island Police Department and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said they haven't come across any of these illegal licenses yet, but people will be arrested.

G.I. Police Sgt. Jim Duering said the scams are unfortunate. "There are a lot of case laws out there, but ignorance of law is not a valid offense. If they're found to be in posession of a forged document, even if they weren't aware, they will be charged," he said.

He said a fictitious document made to represent a state or fedreal document is considered a counterfeit, which is considered the same thing as counterfeit money in Nebraska. But after they arrest suspected illegals, the must first turn them over to U.S. Immigration and Customs.

Juana Lopez, a bi-lingual crisis counselor at the G.I. Crisis Center, said this type of fraud hurts the entire Hispanic community. "It's too bad, they take advantage of our people. It hurts the whole community because we're trying to protect people from these scams," she said.

"It sounds like a dream come true, but sometimes we don't realize how important these papers are to some people. They think they now have a chance to be here finally."

Reporter's Notes: Stacia Kalinoski

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement P.R. Spokesperson Tim Counts in Bloomington, MN said he received calls about this scam on Monday, but he hasn't seen any of the illegal licenses yet. He said the ad's promise of legal entitlement to drive, buy and sell cars should be a give-away that it's a scam. He said the ad seems misleading, but he can't say now if a federal law has been violated.

I tried calling the phone number listed on the ad five times throughout the day Monday. An answering machine picked up everytime. The number is 713-894-9300, the ad is in Spanish, and they claim to be 100 percent legal.
http://www.nebraska.tv/Global/story.asp?S=8132863