Fake-ID operation busted
Thousands of documents, blank plastic cards seized
Cincinnati.com

HAMILTON [ Ohio]- An illegal immigrant with guts – but maybe not smarts – unwittingly launched the investigation that produced Ohio’s largest-ever fake-ID bust, Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones said Friday.

Gregorio Cruz presented a doctored-up ID card to the sheriff’s office, which is known for its anti-illegals stance.

“He came to really the wrong place,” Jones said.

Cruz had to walk past the jail’s “illegal immigrants here” sign when he visited the sheriff’s headquarters Nov. 28 to ask officials to run a criminal background check on him. A native of Mexico, Cruz wanted to be able to show a clean criminal record to a prospective employer.
But an alert clerk noticed something odd about Cruz’s ID card. Those concerns led to an investigation.

The results: Cruz, 31, of Hamilton, and two other Hamilton men are in the county jail on felony charges as officials continue sorting through boxes of evidence – including more than 4,000 blank plastic cards – that could lead to more arrests.

The local fake-ID operation “may have tentacles everywhere,” Jones said. Investigators were trying to figure out how long it had been active.

Jones said the bust highlights national security problems that make the U.S. vulnerable to terrorists and criminals. Some of the bogus IDs were of such high quality that police officers, airline ticketing agents and others likely would be duped, Jones said.

“It’s totally out of control, and we’d better get a grip on it,” he said.
Jones said society pays many costs for tolerating illegal immigration.
“This investigation isn’t free,” Jones said. “It’s costing us all – the jails, the courts, the hospitals, the schools.”

A retired federal immigration agent who was hired to work for Jones several weeks ago played a key role in the bust by working undercover, Jones said.

Cruz is charged with one count of tampering with records. He was a customer of Ernesto Escalante-Bartolon, 29, who was renting a Fairfield apartment for the sole purpose of making fake documents and IDs, police say.

The rest of the story – and photos – here, but it reads much like the scores that I read each week.

Here is my letter to this newspaper [ I was tired of trying to figure out this laptop]:

Dear editor, a note from Georgia on your report on arresting illegal aliens for using fraudulent documents…

Arresting illegals for using fraudulent documents is mean-spirited, xenophobic and racist.

We can all see that they are only looking for a better life and that we as a nation are creating a climate of fear for newcomers when we apply our rule of law. Because they are victims of geography, illegal aliens should be treated more equally than real immigrants who waited in line and joined the American family according to American laws.

We should continue to ignore the example set by Mexico, a nation that secures its own borders and enthusiastically enforces its employment and immigration laws.

The clear answer to the crisis is to erase the borders and allow everyone on the planet to live in the U.S. – that would lower wages to the most common denominator and eliminate illegal immigration and any old -fashioned nonsense about common language, security and soverignty entirely. Si?

D.A. King