Alleged Robbers in U.S. Illegally (Killed Denny's Employee)

Albuquerque Journal ^ | June 24, 2009 | Jeff Proctor

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Remember folks, the mother of cop-killer Astorga, (Story Here) along with another relative worked at the MVD and had a scam going during which they were selling driver's licenses.

Here's an article from the Tribune in 2007 regarding this driver's license subject:

"Brickbat: ID mojo

We want to tread a fine line here, because both the Democrats and the GOP are trying to make political hay out of the issue of providing New Mexico driver's licenses to foreign nationals.

State Motor Vehicle Division Director Ken Ortiz is understandably pleased with the results of a recent audit by the state Department of Taxation and Revenue. The audit of 30,000 New Mexico driver's licenses issued to foreign nationals since 2003 showed that 65 raised questions - and 21 so far have had to be canceled because of identification problems. The rest need further scrutiny.

The audit was ordered by Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson, after the GOP began challenging the licensing in the Legislature and in court, arguing New Mexico isn't being stringent enough about verifying IDs. The audit appears to show the current system - at the least - could be a lot worse.

The problem we have is with Ortiz's reaction: "We feel very confident with our numbers; we think it's very successful. We're doing everything we can to verify people are who say they are."

Well, maybe not.

In this border state, in these post-9/11 times, when terrorists as well as undocumented workers have the motivation to sneak into the United States, when all sorts of scammers - including methamphetamine abusers - are practicing identity theft to raise money, in which buildings have been robbed of MVD driver's license blanks and processing equipment, in which MVD employees - such as accused murderer Michael Astorga's mother - have been suspected of issuing fake licenses to people, it's probably a good idea to be a lot more pessimistic than Ortiz lets on.

It is to New Mexico's and the nation's benefit to find that issuing 65 questionable driver's licenses is unacceptable, that 21 cancellations are far too many, and that there's a lot more the state can do to verify people are who they say they are. Let's not leave well enough alone."

Wanna bet someone else is issuing those fake licenses in Astorga's place?