Three illegal immigrants try to get badges for construction jobs at nuclear lab
By The Associated Press
Las Cruces Sun-News
Article Launched:09/13/2007 03:26:59 PM MDT

By The Associated Press

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. — Three illegal immigrants who used fake documents to try to get badges that would let them work on a construction job at Los Alamos National Laboratory have been turned over to federal immigrant agents.

Security officers were suspicious of documents presented to the lab's badge office Wednesday by the three men from Mexico, and faxed the documents to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Albuquerque.

ICE officials confirmed that the documents presented by the men were false. Lab security officers contacted local police, who escorted the trio off lab property and held them for immigration authorities.

Police said it's a federal offense to falsify identity to federal agencies.

The three men worked for a construction company that had recently gained a lab contract.

But getting jobs with that firm was only step one, said Kevin Roark, a spokesman for the lab.

"Step two is you've got to get a badge, and that means you have to prove you're who you say you are," he said.

It's rare for someone to attempt to obtain a LANL badge under false pretenses, Roark said. In fact, he said, he cannot remember anyone presenting forged paperwork to the nuclear weapons lab.

"The badge office has a procedure that is thorough but so efficient that it appears easy," Roark said. "The truth is, it isn't easy at all. So anyone thinking about falsifying documents should forget about doing that."

Los Alamos lab has a variety of badges, depending on such things as a person's clearance level and what areas they have access to.

Construction workers would receive uncleared badges, meaning they would have no access to any secure areas, Roark said. Such a badge is gray if the person is a U.S. citizen and red if the person is a foreign national, he said.

Michael Wismer, group leader for S-5, which oversees the lab's guard force, said the catalyst in the incident "was an alert and very competent security specialist who checked the documents, was suspicious and contacted immigration."


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