1,700 try to pass fake documents for driver's licenses

Scripps-McClatchy Western Service ^ | 05-SEP-06 | APRIL M. WASHINGTON

[george76]

More than 1,700 illegal immigrants have been caught attempting to pass fake documents at state driver's licenses offices in the first month after a tough immigration law went into effect, according to a state official.

"We're seeing evidence of individuals trying to slip through the cracks," said Michael Cooke, executive director of the Colorado Department of Revenue.

Colorado's new anti-illegal immigration laws passed by the legislature this summer set up a strict identification check meant to deny most public services to undocumented adult immigrants.

As residents come into DMV offices to get state ID cards or driver's licenses, they're asked to present birth certificates and immigration papers such as passports and green cards to prove they are in the United States legally.

Those documents are then run through the federal SAVE (Systematic Alien Verification of Entitlements) system to verify the applicant's legal immigration status.

In the past month, about 2,100 applicants at DMV were told their documents needed further investigation. Of those, 177 met with investigators and were cleared as legal residents of Colorado. But more than 1,700 cases are pending.

Cooke believes DMV will never see those applicants again because they know their documents are phony.

"We're asking them to go to our investigative unit so we can look into the matter, and we're not hearing back from them," Cooke said.

The 1,700-plus names have been sent to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials...

[Fraxinus]

I suspect it is actually a variant on a and y. The clerk doing the initial review does not have law enforcement authority and tell those with less than proper documents to go to the office where they do have enforcement authority, to have the paperwork "reviewed" and those with fraudulent documents get lost on the way there.

[flynmudd]

You need to blame Congress. Bush doesn't make laws, the Senate does. Put the blame where the blame is due. Bush isn't a king, he can't legislate from the West Wing.

[beaversmom]

THAT IS FUNNY!