16 sentenced after selling identities to illegal immigrants

May 29, 2007 03:51 PM PDT




CORPUS CHRISTI, TX (AP) - Prosecutors in Corpus Christi say 16 people convicted of selling their birth certificates and social security numbers for use by illegal immigrants received punishments ranging from more than four years in prison to probation.

All pleaded guilty in March, with several telling a federal judge they needed to make a few extra dollars and received 100 dollars or more in return for valid documents. They were sentenced Friday.

Federal investigators found that the documents were sold to illegal immigrants in Dodge City, Kansas, for as much as 700 dollars a set. The immigrants used the identities to get jobs in area meat packing plants.

The defendants were indicted in January after a six-year federal investigation. Investigators said the ring sold thousands of documents and earned hundreds of thousands of dollars.

http://www.kvia.com/global/story.asp?s=6583266