A real problem

Use of fake documents by illegal workers on the rise

By Tim Vandenack

The Hutchinson News
Grand Prairie

tvandenack@hutchnews.com

Evelyn Fulton, personnel manager at a Dodge City manufacturer, once came across a Social Security card that was so obviously fake she returned it to the would-be employee with some sarcastic advice.

"I told him, 'You need to find a better place to buy your identification,' and I handed it back to him and sent him on his way," she said.

With an estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, false documents are everywhere, officials say, including Kansas.

"... Fraudulent documents have been more and more common in society, and that is a consequence of technological advances," said Carl Rusnok, spokesman in Dallas for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office. While 30 to 40 years ago, manufacturing phony paperwork required a great deal of skill, he said, "Now it takes a couple years of computer experience and desktop publishing."

Fulton's encounter with the patently phony Social Security card notwithstanding - it had a U.S. Postal Service eagle on it - she suspects high-quality fakes have landed undocumented immigrants jobs at her firm, a farm implement manufacturer.

And Brent Anderson, a federal prosecutor who handles criminal immigration cases in Kansas, says that where there are labor-intensive jobs - in southwest Kansas' thriving meatpacking industry, for instance - there's bound to be false paperwork and illegal workers.

"When there are jobs, you're going to have illegals with false documents to work them," said Anderson, who has prosecuted numerous fraudulent document cases, chiefly involving Mexicans and Central Americans. Some southwest Kansas meatpackers are laboring lawfully, he adds, but "it's obvious that many, many of them aren't."

Aside from highlighting potential chinks in efforts to maintain U.S. security, the trend burns up Fulton, who comes across phony papers a couple times a month.

"I think there are more all the time, and they're more brazen, braver," she said. "They're not afraid."

Hutchinson News Photo
Brent Anderson, assistant U.S. attorney, talks about the various forms of identity used fraudulently and confiscated by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Department. Photo by Sandra J. Milburn

But for Hispanic rights advocates, the prevalence of false documents underscores the many flaws in the nation's immigration system and the need for comprehensive reform. Mexicans and other Latinos account for the bulk of the nation's undocumented immigrants.

Robert Vinton, a member of the board of the Regional Latino Affairs Council, cites the need for a guest-worker program or some other means of legally integrating undocumented immigrants into the U.S. labor force. The council is a Dodge City-based Hispanic advocacy group.

At the same time, Melinda Lewis of Kansas City, Kan.-based El Centro, another advocacy group, says if there were a way of formalizing undocumented workers' status, document fraud would probably wither away.

From zero to 40

Back in 2004, the number of federal document fraud cases involving illegal workers in Kansas hovered around zero, according to Anderson, who operates out of Wichita under U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren. Thanks to new federal legislation creating mandatory prison terms for certain document fraud cases, those numbers have edged northward, from around 15 or 20 in 2005 to around 40 so far this year.

In some recent cases:

l Three Mexicans and two Guatemalans working at National Beef in Liberal recently received 13-month prison terms for using fraudulent Social Security cards to get work there. The men, whose arrests stemmed from tips in the plant, will be deported after serving their time and be barred from ever entering the United States again.

l A federal grand jury last month indicted five Mexican nationals living in Dodge City in connection with a phony document mill in the city. Federal officials say they were peddling phony Social Security cards and Texas birth certificates - even some real documents - and that the effort had been going on for years.

l A Wichita company, Bob Eisel Powder Coatings, the firm's owner and a top manager were assessed more than $200,000 in fines earlier last week and sentenced to probation for helping undocumented employees there, mainly from Mexico, get fake paperwork. In all, eight workers labored under 28 different names between them dating to 1998, shedding one identity for another whenever the feds pointed out problems and inconsistencies with their Social Security numbers. A company employee would buy phony documents in Wichita or Dallas when needed to aid in the effort.

"If I tell them their paperwork isn't any good, they say, 'I can get some more,' " notes Fulton, alluding to instances when she's fingered a job applicant's phony identity cards. "It's not a big deal for them."

Indeed, Anderson said once a legitimate Social Security number enters the black market, it passes from one undocumented worker to another, spread by false document vendors. In the National Beef case, for example, the Social Security numbers the five workers claimed were being used at multiple locations. In one instance, 30 workers were using the same Social Security number in 10 states.

"We see that all the time," Anderson said.

Nonetheless, he said it's hard to pursue all the cases - however easy they might be to identify - because of the sheer number, limited prosecutorial manpower and higher criminal priorities.

'Needed in our economy'

Similarly, employers have their own constraints in weeding out illegal workers. A new employee must produce proof of U.S. employment eligibility when hired, typically a Social Security card and some other document.

But employers, by law, can't be too critical when scrutinizing the paperwork, lest they be accused of selective inspections and discriminatory employment practices. Moreover, though Fulton has a keen eye and will call would-be employees on their false documents, Anderson said some high-caliber documents defy detection.

Accordingly, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office has gotten in on the act with a program aimed at helping ferret out illegal workers.

Under the Basic Pilot Employment Verification Program, participating employers input a worker's reported name and Social Security number onto an Internet site to make sure the data matches up and the number is legit. It's free and voluntary and has been available to employers in all 50 states since December 2004.

Still, only 12,000 of the United States' 12 million employers take part - including more and more meatpackers, according to industry officials - and the program isn't without its weaknesses.

Yes, the system verifies whether an employee's name corresponds with the Social Security number submitted, sending out a red flag when there's a mismatch, said Fulton, whose firm utilizes Basic Pilot. But if someone submits a matching name and Social Security number, the system won't indicate anything's amiss, even if the worker has stolen that identity.

"There are a lot of ways to try to beat the system," said Rusnok, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official.

More broadly, others - while not condoning use of false documents - note that more practical forces are at play and caution against focusing just on phony paperwork.

Vinton said the intent of immigrants clandestinely making their way to the country isn't to break laws, but to work hard and make a living. What's more, Lewis says that the downside of fake paperwork notwithstanding, undocumented workers serve a vital role.

"These people are obviously needed in our economy or they wouldn't be finding jobs," she said.

11/19/2006; 02:37:15 AM


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