Thread: Company ordered to stop selling licenses to immigrants

April 11, 2008, 6:03AM

Company ordered to stop selling licenses to immigrants

By R.G. RATCLIFFE and JAMES PINKERTON

AUSTIN — A state judge has issued a restraining order against a Houston-based business that sold international driver's licenses to unsuspecting Hispanic immigrants for $225 each with the promise they would allow them to drive legally.

"Todos Nuestros Documentos son Originales y 100% Legales," said a newspaper advertisement by Centro de Identificaciones.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott on Thursday said it was all a lie designed to defraud immigrants.

"These so-called international driver's licenses are not worth the paper they are written on," Abbott said.

Abbott announced he has obtained a restraining order halting the sale of the fake licenses by Centro de Identificaciones and its owners, Guillermo R. Robles and Hernan C. Trujillo. The order was issued late Wednesday by 129th District Judge Grant Dorfman.

Abbott said people who bought the licenses were led to believe they were an international license that would allow them to drive in the United States and buy and sell vehicles.

Abbott said federal law allows only the American Automobile Association and the American Automobile Touring Alliance to sell international driver's licenses to U.S. citizens who will be traveling in foreign counties that participate in an international treaty.

He said international driver's licenses for non-U.S. citizens must be obtained from their home country.

Besides restitution, Abbott is seeking $20,000 in penalties for each violation of Texas law and attorney's fees. He also is requesting civil penalties of up to $250,000 for any licenses sold to individuals aged 65 or older.

According to county records, Robles and Trujillo were doing business in a building in the 7400 block of Harwin in Houston and at a second location in downtown Conroe.

There was no one home Thursday afternoon at the residence listed by Robles when he registered his firm in the county clerk's office, and no listing for his telephone. A woman who answered Trujillo's home phone said he no longer lived there.

Several messages left at the Houston company's office phone were not returned.

Investigators who went to the Houston location said it appeared the company was no longer in operation there.

The address listed for the company's Conroe site is a storefront on South Frazier Street surrounded by other Hispanic businesses south of downtown. The building houses three businesses but no identification office.

The driver's license sales violated the Texas Deceptive Trades Practices Act, Abbott said, adding that the fake documents gave "a false appearance of legitimacy on those who are in the United States illegally."

Tim Counts, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, called the licenses "fantasy documents or novelty documents" that are frequently carried by illegal immigrants.

"People who are here illegally realize quickly they need documents to move through society," Counts explained.

Last week, state authorities in Nebraska warned consumers about the Houston firm's marketing of the licenses in Omaha, Grand Island and Lincoln.

Abbott promised to obtain restitution for anyone harmed by the sales. He declined to say whether his office would ask about the legal resident status of anyone applying for the restitution or whether his office would report anyone in the country illegally to federal immigration authorities.

"That's a different legal issue," the attorney general said.

Abbott said not everyone who bought a license may be an illegal immigrant, but he said the marketing targeted a Hispanic audience. He did not know how many licenses were sold or how many states they were sold in besides Texas.

Texas does not issue driver's licenses to individuals who cannot document their legal resident status.

Maj. Rhonda Fleming, head of the Texas Department of Public Safety's driver's license fraud unit, said international licenses are issued to legal visitors to the U.S. who have a valid license from their home country. The legitimate license costs only $2 or $3, she said.

"The international driver's license is way that a lot of folks believe they can get around the driver's license requirement," Fleming said. " If they're not getting it through the proper channels, it's a scam."

Renée C. Lee contributed to this report.

r.g.ratcliffe@chron.com

james.pinkerton@chron.com

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hea ... 90852.html

Maj. Rhonda Fleming, head of the Texas Department of Public Safety's driver's license fraud unit, said international licenses are issued to legal visitors to the U.S. who have a valid license from their home country. The legitimate license costs only $2 or $3, she said.

So why arent Laratza, lulac, mecha, spcl and all them warning the illegals about these scams? Hmmm, I wonder.

Duplicate post. Please refer further comments to:
http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-111328-greg.html+abbott