Thread: Border security: A real ID, but not their own

Border security
A real ID, but not their own
By SUSAN CARROLL Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
Aug. 25, 2009, 11:21PM

EL PASO — The woman wore a surgical mask and had her mouth packed with cotton when she arrived at the El Paso port of entry, carrying pain medication and valid Mexican border crossing card.

Inspectors rather quickly realized that the woman, who claimed to have had oral surgery in Mexico, did not closely resemble the photo on the ID card she carried.

She was, in the lingo of U.S. border inspectors, an impostor — someone who uses another person's legitimate documents to try and enter the country illegally.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers report an upswing in so-called impostors and fraudulent document cases at U.S. ports of entry in recent years, as the government has increased border enforcement and cracked down on illegal crossings.

The number of people caught at the nation's ports of entry with fraudulent, stolen or purchased documents grew from about 23,500 in 2006 to more than 28,000 in 2008 — an increase of about 19 percent, according to CBP statistics.

Warren Burr, the director of CBP's fraudulent document unit in Virginia, estimated that about 90 percent of cases involved documents seized at the ports of entry from impostors with legitimate paperwork, such as U.S. passports, green cards and border crossing cards.

On the enforcement side, the U.S. government has also stepped up prosecutions of fraudulent document cases. During the 2008 fiscal year, the U.S. government reported 1,803 new immigration prosecutions for fraud and misuse of visas and other documents, according to data compiled and analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. That is up 194 percent from 2001, when the government reported 614 such prosecutions, the data show.

In the first seven months of the 2009 fiscal year, prosecutions for fraudulent documents were up 39 percent from last year, making it the fourth-most-common immigration charge presented by federal prosecutors, according to the data.

Causes of the increase
William Molaski, director of the U.S. port of entry in El Paso, attributed the increase in detection of fraudulent and impostor documents to a number of factors, including improved technology and training at the ports, and a reduction in the number of acceptable identification documents travelers can use to prove their citizenship.

Molaski said it is “only logicalâ€

If these people are giving their valid documents to others in order to break the law, doesnt that make them accessories?

Shouldnt they have their documents taken away and be deported? (if they are here in the U S)

U.S. sees hike in immigration fraud
Published: Aug. 26, 2009 at 1:11 PM

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers are reporting more people are trying to enter the United States without proper documents.

The number of people caught with fraudulent, fake or purchased documents has increased 20 percent, from about 23,500 in 2006 to more than 28,000 in 2008, the Houston Chronicle reported Wednesday.

Warren Burr, director of the fraudulent document unit in Virginia, estimates 90 percent of cases involve impostors with legitimate paperwork, such as U.S. passports, green cards and border crossing cards, that belong to someone else.

One woman arrived at the El Paso, Texas, port of entry wearing a surgical mask and holding a valid Mexican border-crossing card that wasn't hers.

El Paso director William Molaski says an increase in the number of U.S. Border Patrol agents and the completion of longer stretches of border fences have prompted more illegal immigrants to try to sneak through.

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