http://www.kwwl.com/Global/story.asp?S=5753893&nav=2Ifu

November 30, 2006 -- Cedar Rapids
Illegal Immigrant Crackdown

Illegal immigration has become a hot button issue across the country.

And it's a problem right here in eastern Iowa. Local, state, and federal authorities are cracking down.

"They would take a valid drivers license or some other document, scan it at a very high resolution into the computer, and manipulate it..."

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials confiscated equipment used to operate one of the most sophisticated counterfeit document production schemes in the country.

It was happening right here in eastern Iowa.

"it used to be perceived that these things were just about kids buying beer underage or something. It was deemed as trivial. They really truely are a serious national security matter and a threat to our country," says Michael Vail of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency.

"The defendants admitted that there are at least 400 documents produced over about an eight month period," says Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Reinert.

They're documents like drivers licenses, birth certificates, social security cards and more.

These two defendants pled guilty to operating the false document mill out of their van.

Sheriff's deputies and state troopers also find many trucks and vans full of live bodies, sometimes stacked on top of each other.

They're illegal immigrant smuggle loads and they're most commonly found on Interstate 80.

"Alien smuggling is a dangerous business. Smugglers treat humans as cargo to be turned into profit," says Vail.

The defendant was recently sentenced to more than seven years in federal prison for smuggling 12 illegal aliens in this mini van.

He was caught in Cedar County and because of his violent criminal history was prosecuted.

Most though, are just let go because customs enforcement agents are too busy with limited resources.

"We have a limited work force as any other agency does. We work long and hard to do the most we can with what we have," Vail says.

The owners of "The Galley Restaurant" in Vinton were also just convicted of hiring and harboring illegal aliens.

They will serve time in federal prison.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents want people to know illegal employment schemes will not be tolerated, and they're stepping up enforcement.

Nationwide, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency deported a record 186,000 illegal immigrants last year.