Thread: Woman gets 46 months in license case

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/ ... 12,00.html

Woman gets 46 months in license case

Judge hands down maximum sentence for 'egregious' acts

By JAMIE SATTERFIELD, satterfield@knews.com
April 20, 2006

A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced a New Jersey grandmother to 46 months in prison for her role in a plot to secure Tennessee driver's licenses for illegal immigrants.

The sentence was the maximum available under federal sentencing guidelines and more than even Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Theodore had pushed for.

Calling Zeneida Concepcion Rivera, 55, exploitive, U.S. District Judge Thomas Phillips said he would have stacked even more time on Rivera's sentence if prosecutors had urged him to do so.

"Quite frankly, I think it is egregious what (Rivera) has done," he said. "She has been making a lot of money from these transactions."

Defense attorney Mike Whalen called the sentence ridiculous and said he plans to appeal.

"I think it's friggin' crazy," Whalen said. "I think it's completely out of control. We've had people with drug cases get lesser sentences."

Pointing to window washers toiling outside Phillips' courtroom, Whalen added, "My client wasn't taking advantage of anyone any more so than the federal government."

Rivera was arrested last year on charges she and her boyfriend, who has never been charged, helped illegal immigrants get Tennessee driver's licences for $950 each.

Court records and testimony show that Rivera helped the illegal immigrants get bogus proof of legal residency in Tennessee, aided them in getting translated birth certificate documents, transported them to Knoxville and even supplied a car for them to drive during the state Department of Safety road test.

Theodore contended Rivera, who is a legal immigrant, saw a chance to cash in on illegal immigrants' plights. He presented testimony to convince Phillips that Rivera had, in less than a year, shuttled more than 100 and as many as 500 illegal immigrants to East Tennessee.

Rivera insisted that she was not turning a profit from the venture.

"I did not force anybody to come to this state to get a license," she said through an interpreter. "I was not doing business with these people, I was helping them."

Tennessee is one of only two states in the country that issue special driver's licenses, known as certificates, without proof of legal U.S. residency. All the immigrants had to show was proof that they lived in East Tennessee.

However, the program was suspended recently, in part, because of Rivera's case and a second ring discovered in East Tennessee that had illegal immigrants being shuttled from Georgia to Knoxville to get driver's licenses. A third case in Middle Tennessee included allegations that workers at driver's license testing centers were cashing in on the demand by illegal immigrants for the special certificates.

Jamie Satterfield may be reached at 865-342-6308. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Is this woman going to get deported? I wonder why the article doesn't comment on her "legal" status, don't you think it should be revoked?

Pat Buchanan suffers from a surfeit of common sense. Foreign in Washington as you all know. He would have made a great president as he is concerned about America and Americans...he doesn't pull any punches. I liked that...playing politics with our national security and our tax dollars is not popular in this household. Tell it like it is..and stop wasting our money and our boy's lives in foreign wars.

MJ

Theodore contended Rivera, who is a legal immigrant, saw a chance to cash in on illegal immigrants' plights. He presented testimony to convince Phillips that Rivera had, in less than a year, shuttled more than 100 and as many as 500 illegal immigrants to East Tennessee.

Aiding and abetting illegals to obtain fraudulent documents in this country should be a felony and if that was the case she would be deported.