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June 03, 2006
A New Identity For $300
In today's Houston Chronicle:
Dealer in bogus IDs scoffs at crackdownNew technology thwarts efforts to find and arrest document dealers
LOS ANGELES - Luis Hernandez laughs as he sells fake driver's licenses and Social Security cards to illegal immigrants near a park known for shady deals.
The joke, to him and others like him, is the government's promise to put people like him out of business with a tamperproof national ID card.
"One way or another, we'll always find a way," said Hernandez, 35, who is part of a complex counterfeiting network around MacArthur Park, where authentic-looking IDs are available for as little as $150.
AP writer Peter Prengaman goes on to detail how most of Hernandez's clients are illegal immigrants who need working papers, and for a price of $300 or so they can obtain a package that contains not only a driver's license, but also a Social Security card and green card.
Such a deal.
"We are not trying to do anything bad," said Sergio Guitierrez, 35, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who sells IDs. "Immigrants just need to work."
Maybe the Treasury Department needs to take some time out from redesigning our currency and get to work on some of these documents. Of course, the most foolproof document in the world is worthless unless someone is actually verifying them as a means of enforcing our existing immigration and labor laws.
Meanwhile, Vicente Fox's good buddy has turned his attention to more relevant topics.
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