Posted November 24th, 2008 at 11.59am in First Principles.
There has been a small uproar around Obama’s call for a “civilian national security force” especially one “that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded” as the military. But many have said that these words were taken out of context. If you read the whole speech, they argue, it is clear that he just wants to expand the Peace Corp a little bit.
Similarly, there was a mild uproar about his call for mandatory service from students, but many said that the programs were never intended to be mandatory. The college program was optional community service in exchange for a larger education credit, and the high-school one was no different from adding an art class or something to the public high-school curriculum. Obama initially called both mandatory on his change.gov website, but after the buzz began he changed the wording and removed several sections of the site.
But now there is new evidence that the critics are right. He does favor mandatory service and it might be worse than we thought. He has chosen Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff. Rahm Emanuel wrote a book called The Plan in 2006. On page 60-65 of the book Rahm calls for universal conscription of 18-24 year olds for civilian service in order to prepare for a potential terrorist attack.
All Americans between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five will be asked to serve their country by going through three months of basic training, civil defense preparation and community service.
In a 2006 radio interview Rahm explains more about the program. He speaks about the dangers of a chemical attack and about the wonderful common experience that all Americans could have by being drafted for 3 months into a civilian national security force training program. He seems to be using the fear of attack to justify drafting all youth into a militaristic civilian security force – something more reminiscent of a dictatorship than a democracy. And all of his calls to unity and common experience only confirm his preference for nationalism or collectivism over individualism and freedom.
That Obama has chosen this man as his chief of staff should give anyone pause. This man has a “Plan” for the country that involves training our youth like soldiers, and calls upon “a new patriotism that brings us together again in a common mission” for his plan which will “unite us in a higher national purpose.”
http://blog.heritage.org/2008/11/24/rahms-plan-for-mandatory-service/
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Dallas ISD faulted for using fake Social Security numbers
Dallas ISD... supporting illegal immigration at any cost again. Three or four years ago, they made several principals learn Spanish or be fired. I'll put the link to this story at the bottom of this entry. There's 430 comments. The ones I read were all mad as hell. -- Faye
12:04 PM CST on Friday, November 14, 2008
By TAWNELL D. HOBBS / The Dallas Morning Newstdhobbs@dallasnews.com
Years after being advised by a state agency to stop, the Dallas Independent School District continued to provide foreign citizens with fake Social Security numbers to get them on the payroll quickly.
Some of the numbers were real Social Security numbers already assigned to people elsewhere. And in some cases, the state's educator certification office unknowingly used the bogus numbers to run criminal background checks on the new hires, most of whom were brought in to teach bilingual classes.
The practice was described in an internal report issued in September by the district's investigative office, which looked into the matter after receiving a tip. The report said the Texas Education Agency learned of the fake numbers in 2004 and told DISD then that the practice "was illegal."
It's unclear how long DISD had been issuing the phony numbers, and district officials didn't know Thursday how many had been given out. But the investigative report and interviews with DISD employees indicate the practice went on for several years before it was discontinued this past summer.
DISD human resources chief Kim Olson, who came to the district in 2007, said that she learned about the false numbers this past summer around the time the district's investigative unit was looking into them and that she put a stop to the practice.
"There's no way we should be doing that kind of stuff," Ms. Olson said. "Even if your intention is good to help employees get paid, you can't use inappropriate procedures to do that."
Stopgap approach
The investigative report, obtained by The News through a records request, found "that the inappropriate procedure of assigning false SSNs has been systemic for several years" within DISD's alternative certification program, which prepares new teachers for state certification when they don't have traditional credentials.
A call Thursday to DISD's alternative certification office was not returned. In recent years, DISD has hired people from various countries, including Mexico and Spain, to deal with a shortage of bilingual teachers.
The fake numbers were assigned as a stopgap to expedite the hiring process, the report says. The numbers were supposed to serve as temporary identification numbers until employees received real Social Security numbers. Once employees got the real numbers, they were supposed to tell district officials so the fake ones could be replaced.
The investigation found no indication that the fake numbers were provided to the Teacher Retirement System, the Internal Revenue Service or the Social Security Administration.
However, according to the report, a sampling of several fake numbers showed that they had been included in a July quarterly report sent to the Texas Workforce Commission.
Also, when investigators reviewed a sampling of personnel files, they learned that the fake numbers were entered on Department of Homeland Security and IRS forms. The forms are not transmitted outside the district but are made available to the appropriate federal agency upon request.
In July, the district discovered that 26 of the false numbers were in use after matching DISD employee Social Security numbers with the Social Security Administration database. The numbers were already being used in Pennsylvania. DISD officials did not know Thursday whether the practice had caused problems for anyone holding the legitimate numbers.
The district's investigative unit, called the Office of Professional Responsibility, began looking into the fake numbers after the Texas Education Agency's division of educator investigations advised the unit in July that it had discovered the district issuing false numbers in 2004.
That year, the TEA division became aware of the practice when DISD faxed copies of about 100 new Social Security Administration cards for foreign citizens – most of whom had been assigned district-issued numbers – and asked TEA to replace the old numbers, according to the investigative report. The state office told DISD at the time that it's illegal to make up Social Security numbers and pass them off as legitimate, the report says.
'A mess'
Doug Phillips, TEA's director of investigations and fingerprinting, said his office believed the district had stopped the practice because there was no evidence that it continued. He said Thursday that he didn't know which laws forbid issuing fake Social Security numbers.
"We just knew it looked bad and smelled bad," Mr. Phillips said. "That was the first time we'd ever heard of that one."
Mr. Phillips said it created "a mess" in a state database. He said teacher applicants who don't have a Social Security number can receive a temporary identification number, which begins with a "P," from TEA until they get one from the federal government.
The DISD-issued Social Security numbers began with "200" – a prefix assigned to people in Pennsylvania, and Mr. Phillips' office noted that many ended with sequential numbers.
The investigative report also found that the district hasn't been turning in "new hire" forms to the Texas attorney general's office, which uses the information to find parents who haven't paid child support. Failure to provide the forms to the attorney general can result in a $25 fine for each employee. The district doesn't know yet whether it will have to pay any fines.
Ms. Olson said new processes have been put in place to address problems noted in the report, including making crosschecks with the Social Security Administration.
"You can't just arbitrarily issue Social Security numbers," she said. "Even if your intention is good, it's not legal."
How the process worked
Here's how the Dallas school district's false Social Security number process worked:
•Foreign educators on visas were assigned false Social Security numbers to get them on DISD's payroll.
•The foreign employees were instructed to obtain Social Security numbers from the Social Security Administration and report them to the district.
•Once employees received the real numbers, the district entered those numbers in place of the fake ones in a computerized management system.
•The fake numbers were supposed to be used temporarily until real numbers were in place. But some of the fake numbers wound up being sent to the Texas Education Agency when DISD asked TEA to conduct background checks on new hires. Those numbers stayed in the system if DISD didn't replace them with real Social Security numbers obtained by the employees.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/111408dnmetdisdsocials.3d93dbc.html?ocp=42#slcgm_comments_anchor
12:04 PM CST on Friday, November 14, 2008
By TAWNELL D. HOBBS / The Dallas Morning Newstdhobbs@dallasnews.com
Years after being advised by a state agency to stop, the Dallas Independent School District continued to provide foreign citizens with fake Social Security numbers to get them on the payroll quickly.
Some of the numbers were real Social Security numbers already assigned to people elsewhere. And in some cases, the state's educator certification office unknowingly used the bogus numbers to run criminal background checks on the new hires, most of whom were brought in to teach bilingual classes.
The practice was described in an internal report issued in September by the district's investigative office, which looked into the matter after receiving a tip. The report said the Texas Education Agency learned of the fake numbers in 2004 and told DISD then that the practice "was illegal."
It's unclear how long DISD had been issuing the phony numbers, and district officials didn't know Thursday how many had been given out. But the investigative report and interviews with DISD employees indicate the practice went on for several years before it was discontinued this past summer.
DISD human resources chief Kim Olson, who came to the district in 2007, said that she learned about the false numbers this past summer around the time the district's investigative unit was looking into them and that she put a stop to the practice.
"There's no way we should be doing that kind of stuff," Ms. Olson said. "Even if your intention is good to help employees get paid, you can't use inappropriate procedures to do that."
Stopgap approach
The investigative report, obtained by The News through a records request, found "that the inappropriate procedure of assigning false SSNs has been systemic for several years" within DISD's alternative certification program, which prepares new teachers for state certification when they don't have traditional credentials.
A call Thursday to DISD's alternative certification office was not returned. In recent years, DISD has hired people from various countries, including Mexico and Spain, to deal with a shortage of bilingual teachers.
The fake numbers were assigned as a stopgap to expedite the hiring process, the report says. The numbers were supposed to serve as temporary identification numbers until employees received real Social Security numbers. Once employees got the real numbers, they were supposed to tell district officials so the fake ones could be replaced.
The investigation found no indication that the fake numbers were provided to the Teacher Retirement System, the Internal Revenue Service or the Social Security Administration.
However, according to the report, a sampling of several fake numbers showed that they had been included in a July quarterly report sent to the Texas Workforce Commission.
Also, when investigators reviewed a sampling of personnel files, they learned that the fake numbers were entered on Department of Homeland Security and IRS forms. The forms are not transmitted outside the district but are made available to the appropriate federal agency upon request.
In July, the district discovered that 26 of the false numbers were in use after matching DISD employee Social Security numbers with the Social Security Administration database. The numbers were already being used in Pennsylvania. DISD officials did not know Thursday whether the practice had caused problems for anyone holding the legitimate numbers.
The district's investigative unit, called the Office of Professional Responsibility, began looking into the fake numbers after the Texas Education Agency's division of educator investigations advised the unit in July that it had discovered the district issuing false numbers in 2004.
That year, the TEA division became aware of the practice when DISD faxed copies of about 100 new Social Security Administration cards for foreign citizens – most of whom had been assigned district-issued numbers – and asked TEA to replace the old numbers, according to the investigative report. The state office told DISD at the time that it's illegal to make up Social Security numbers and pass them off as legitimate, the report says.
'A mess'
Doug Phillips, TEA's director of investigations and fingerprinting, said his office believed the district had stopped the practice because there was no evidence that it continued. He said Thursday that he didn't know which laws forbid issuing fake Social Security numbers.
"We just knew it looked bad and smelled bad," Mr. Phillips said. "That was the first time we'd ever heard of that one."
Mr. Phillips said it created "a mess" in a state database. He said teacher applicants who don't have a Social Security number can receive a temporary identification number, which begins with a "P," from TEA until they get one from the federal government.
The DISD-issued Social Security numbers began with "200" – a prefix assigned to people in Pennsylvania, and Mr. Phillips' office noted that many ended with sequential numbers.
The investigative report also found that the district hasn't been turning in "new hire" forms to the Texas attorney general's office, which uses the information to find parents who haven't paid child support. Failure to provide the forms to the attorney general can result in a $25 fine for each employee. The district doesn't know yet whether it will have to pay any fines.
Ms. Olson said new processes have been put in place to address problems noted in the report, including making crosschecks with the Social Security Administration.
"You can't just arbitrarily issue Social Security numbers," she said. "Even if your intention is good, it's not legal."
How the process worked
Here's how the Dallas school district's false Social Security number process worked:
•Foreign educators on visas were assigned false Social Security numbers to get them on DISD's payroll.
•The foreign employees were instructed to obtain Social Security numbers from the Social Security Administration and report them to the district.
•Once employees received the real numbers, the district entered those numbers in place of the fake ones in a computerized management system.
•The fake numbers were supposed to be used temporarily until real numbers were in place. But some of the fake numbers wound up being sent to the Texas Education Agency when DISD asked TEA to conduct background checks on new hires. Those numbers stayed in the system if DISD didn't replace them with real Social Security numbers obtained by the employees.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/111408dnmetdisdsocials.3d93dbc.html?ocp=42#slcgm_comments_anchor
Monday, November 24, 2008
GENERAL MOTORS TO INVEST $1 BILLION IN BRAZIL OPERATIONS
Money to Come from U.S. Rescue Program
Russ Dallen Latin American Herald Tribune November 21, 2008
General Motors plans to invest $1 billion in Brazil to avoid the kind of problems the U.S. automaker is facing in its home market, said the beleaguered car maker.
According to the president of GM Brazil-Mercosur, Jaime Ardila, the funding will come from the package of financial aid that the manufacturer will receive from the U.S. government and will be used to “complete the renovation of the line of products up to 2012.”
“It wouldn’t be logical to withdraw the investment from where we’re growing, and our goal is to protect investments in emerging markets,” he said in a statement published by the business daily Gazeta Mercantil.
Meanwhile, he cut the company’s revenue forecast for this year by 14% to $9.5 billion from $11 billion, as the economic crisis began to cause rapid slowdowns in sales.
GM already announced three programs of paid leave, and Ardila added that GM Brazil “is going to wait and see how the market behaves in order to know what decision to take” with regard to possible layoffs.
For Ardila, the injection in Brazil’s automobile sector of 8 billion reais ($3.51 billion) recently announced by the federal and state governments of Sao Paulo “has already begun to revive sales,” which fell by 12% in October.
The executive said that the company will operate a “conservative” scenario in 2009 with an estimated production of 2.6 million units, and another more “optimistic” that contemplates sales of 2.9 million.
This year sales will reach 2.85 million vehicles, which represents a growth of 15% over last year.
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=320909&CategoryId=12396
Russ Dallen Latin American Herald Tribune November 21, 2008
General Motors plans to invest $1 billion in Brazil to avoid the kind of problems the U.S. automaker is facing in its home market, said the beleaguered car maker.
According to the president of GM Brazil-Mercosur, Jaime Ardila, the funding will come from the package of financial aid that the manufacturer will receive from the U.S. government and will be used to “complete the renovation of the line of products up to 2012.”
“It wouldn’t be logical to withdraw the investment from where we’re growing, and our goal is to protect investments in emerging markets,” he said in a statement published by the business daily Gazeta Mercantil.
Meanwhile, he cut the company’s revenue forecast for this year by 14% to $9.5 billion from $11 billion, as the economic crisis began to cause rapid slowdowns in sales.
GM already announced three programs of paid leave, and Ardila added that GM Brazil “is going to wait and see how the market behaves in order to know what decision to take” with regard to possible layoffs.
For Ardila, the injection in Brazil’s automobile sector of 8 billion reais ($3.51 billion) recently announced by the federal and state governments of Sao Paulo “has already begun to revive sales,” which fell by 12% in October.
The executive said that the company will operate a “conservative” scenario in 2009 with an estimated production of 2.6 million units, and another more “optimistic” that contemplates sales of 2.9 million.
This year sales will reach 2.85 million vehicles, which represents a growth of 15% over last year.
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=320909&CategoryId=12396
Friday, November 21, 2008
Crackdown on 1,300 Cases of Suspected Identity Theft in Colorado
November 21, 2008
Chris Casey and Mike Peters
Weld County, Colorado authorities this month unleashed a large-scale sting they hope will net about 1,300 suspects who may have used false identification to receive millions of dollars in U.S. tax refunds.The arrests for ID theft or criminal impersonation are expected to snare hundreds of suspects. Authorities said two years worth of federally approved tax refunds from suspects' jobs — they work in agriculture, corporations and small businesses across northern Colorado — could total $2.7 million.The sweep follows the August 13th arrest of Servando Trejo, who was linked to a Texas man who told local authorities that someone working in northern Colorado had been using his Social Security number.
Trejo, a native of Mexico, told a Weld County Sheriff's Office detective that he bought the ID in Texas after he crossed the border in 1995. He used the ID to get jobs, obtain loans, get a Colorado driver's license and pay taxes, which in recent years he filed through Amalia's Translation and Tax Services, 1501 9th St. in Greeley.
Weld sheriff's deputies on Wednesday launched what they're calling "Operation Number Games." The round-up of suspects were identified through other suspicious IDs found in an October 17th search of Amalia's office. Thirteen suspects were arrested Wednesday and Thursday, and teams will work Friday and through this weekend to pick up more suspects they believe were living here with stolen identities. Authorities plan arrests for the rest of the year and much of 2009.The sting will likely have wide ramifications:
- A measure of long-sought justice for many victims — people who for years have fought the IRS over mysterious reports of underreported income in tax filings.
- A high-profile example of the national stalemate on the immigration issue. The sting brings to light the inability of government agencies to share information that would lead to the enforcement of current law.
- Backlash from the Latino community, which remains raw to the federal raid at Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in 2006. That early morning raid, which picked up 262 workers suspected of committing identity theft, left scores of households without a breadwinner as the workers were jailed and most deported.
On Thursday, one local Latino businessman called the investigation into Amalia's Tax Service "racial profiling" and a "fishing expedition."John Bach, the founder and membership director of Colorado HUG, a Greeley-based nonprofit that serves the Latino community and businesses, said the records search at Amalia's is an invasion of privacy and could result in a class-action suit."Something like this, if it continues, there will be a revolt on a local level," Bach said.Each of the suspects will be booked into the Weld County Jail, and also placed on an "ICE hold," which means they will be investigated by Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents to determine if they're living legally in the United States.Meanwhile, the governmental inter-agency stalemate is born out in the investigation's methodical pace.
Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck said his office receives a "steady stream" of complaints from out-of-state victims of identity theft.Local authorities redoubled efforts to combat identity theft around the time of the Swift raid, reflected in their successful push to get the federal government to open a local ICE office.Whether this sting puts a large dent in the identity theft problem is uncertain, considering authorities don't know how many of the local tax filings will turn up invalid Social Security numbers.Of the roughly 1,300 Social Security numbers being investigated, the Social Security Administration is, per regulations, granting only 10 names a week to the DA's Office."The only thing they'll tell us is if it's valid or fictitious. They won't tell us who the owner of the valid Social is," Buck said of each number. "It will take us 2 1/2 years to find out if these 1,300 numbers are valid or fictitious, much less find victims involved.
"Four-step system"
Weld sheriff's detective Josh Noonan began the investigation months ago, when he got a call from Jose Lopez, the man in Texas.The resulting investigation brought search warrants for Amalia's Translation and Tax Services. Authorities said owner Amalia Cerrillo prepared the irregular tax returns for more than 1,300 undocumented workers.According to investigators, the system had four steps:
- A new illegal alien arrives in the country and buys a Social Security number from someone on the street, or from criminals that specialize in obtaining ID from legal citizens.
- When the immigrant gets a job, he or she uses the Social Security number for withholding taxes from his or her paycheck. Many times in these cases, the worker claimed to have numerous children, which lowered the amount of taxes that would be owed.
- At Amalia's Translation and Tax Services, the owner would use the alien's stolen Social Security number under a phony name, secure a legal tax identification number, then fill out forms, which would result in a large tax return.
According to the DA and sheriff's investigations, many of the illegal immigrants would pay only a few hundred dollars in withholding taxes, but would receive an average of $2,000 in a tax refund.If the 1,300 suspects total about $2.6 million in refunds over the 2007 and 2006 tax years, authorities said, the amount they paid in income taxes is estimated to be less than half of that, about $1 million.
Internal Revenue Service Records show the transactions are legal, because the illegal immigrants used tax identification numbers to file for refunds and claiming children under the child tax credit system."She knows (the clients seeking a tax identification number) are illegal, but the IRS is saying we want to know everybody who is working in this country," Buck said. "They're getting a boatload of money back (in refunds), more than they're even paying (in taxes)."
'Haven't done anything wrong'
In 1996, the IRS launched the Individual Tax Identification Number program to track resident and non-resident aliens' income derived in the U.S. from sources such as investments and interest-bearing bank accounts. The number is issued to people ineligible for Social Security Numbers — more than 12.4 million ITINs were issued from 1996 to 2006 — enabling them to open bank accounts and report taxable income.By law, a person can't have both an ITIN and Social Security number.In the case of the Greeley tax preparer, the returns, typically showing both numbers, were processed and refund checks were delivered.
Cerrillo, 36, said she processes tax returns in accordance with IRS rules. She said the ITIN is issued to individuals, and their spouses and dependents, who are non-resident or resident aliens and not eligible for a Social Security number. She said it's commonplace nationally for tax preparers to process ITIN applications and subsequent tax returns. She said clients know their current Social Security number isn't a valid match to their name, so they seek an ITIN for tax purposes. Cerrillo sat behind a desk in her office Thursday morning. Nearby were some of the 49 boxes of records taken by police last month."I'm open because I haven't done anything wrong," she said. "I will continue to help these people until the IRS says something different. If I'm breaking the law, the IRS is making me break the law. I'm just doing what the IRS directions say."Bach, of Colorado HUG, stopped by Cerrillo's office Thursday morning, soon after she was contacted by the Tribune. He said the federal government devised ITINs as a "profit maker" to generate tax revenue from undocumented workers."Everybody knows the federal government says one thing and does another, and this (arrest sweep) is a prime example," he said. "The federal government says if you are an undocumented immigrant, an illegal immigrant, you don't have a right to work in the United States. But if you are (working), here's a number so you can file your tax return. That's very convenient."Cerrillo feels her 10-year-old business was targeted because she's Latino."I think (authorities) came here because of my (Latino) name," she said. "They must have thought, 'Well, a lot of these people go here.' But it's not something I'm doing that's illegal. It's something that people who do taxes do because it's an IRS thing."She said she understands authorities' desire to clean up identity theft cases, but "why don't they get their records from the IRS? That's where they're from — not just (my records)."Bach said he suspects that tax returns involving ITINs would be in greater numbers at other local tax preparers such as H&R Block and Liberty. He said the investigation into Amalia's amounts to "profiling."The search warrant presented to Cerrillo in October gave officers authority to search for 2007 and 2006 tax records, Bach said, but they took records of more than 4,000 clients dating to 2000. About half of those, according to Cerrillo, are filings by legal permanent residents."That's flat-out invasion of privacy," Bach said.Buck said Cerrillo's business was targeted because that's where the paper trail led when the Sheriff's Office looked into Lopez's complaint. When police began searching for a "Jose Lopez" in northern Colorado, they found Trejo using that identity as an employee of Five Star Cattle Co., a Kersey feedlot."He used her to file a tax return so we had probable cause based on our interview with her," Buck said. "We didn't have probable cause on other tax preparers."Buck added, however, he believes similar cases occur at other tax preparation offices. "Absolutely, I think this is a widespread problem. But (Cerrillo) was interviewed and indicated this is what the IRS wants, and she does it for a number of people. At that point we had probable cause to conduct a search at her office." He said Weld authorities will likely investigate other tax preparers, but it will be a lengthy period before that happens."We probably have 1,300 cases now," Buck said. "We're absolutely overwhelmed, as is the court system, as is the jail."Buck said the officers acted within protocol on the search warrant. The deputies began their search for only 2007 and 2006 records, but expanded their seizure of information based on the "plain view doctrine.""In looking there, they found other returns that violated the law, in their opinion, so that allowed them to take other returns as a result of them being in plain view," he said.
Tax refunds pile up
The DA's office calculated the tax filing information of 23% of the 1,300 suspected invalid Social Security numbers taken from Amalia's Tax Service. The average refund was $1,986, of which $1,309 came through child tax credits. Other averages found in the returns:
- Earned income, $27,771.
- Taxable income, $5,343.
- Number of deductions claimed, 4.8. In one instance, a client earned $51,548 and claimed eight exemptions. The suspect had $3,864 of federal income tax withheld, and received a $5,205 refund. Another client reported $33,341 in income with six exemptions. That suspect had $756 of federal income tax withheld and received a $4,062 refund ($3,306 through the child tax credit).
Jean Carl, spokeswoman of the IRS's Colorado office, said she's unfamiliar with the case in Weld County. But, she said, instances of a tax preparer handling hundreds of ITIN applications and subsequent tax returns has occurred elsewhere."It's happening all over the country," she said. "These scams are out there and people have to understand when they sign the return they're responsible for whatever's reported, not the preparer."She said the IRS is bound by law to process returns as quickly as possible, so it's typically not until after the refund goes out that inconsistencies are discovered. Electronic filing has made curbing identity tampering even more difficult, she said.Previously, when the IRS accepted paper-only forms, the data-entry person could freeze the return if a name/number mismatch appeared."A lot of these things don't come to light until after (initial processing) when we do our record matching," Carl said. Even then, it's difficult to pin down an undocumented worker to collect the fraudulent refund."It becomes a very difficult job to do when you're talking about people who are here illegally and not supposed to be working," she said. Adding to the problem is the fact that IRS code restricts the agency from disclosing tax return information. The law, which provides that tax returns and tax return information be kept confidential, was enacted as part of the Tax Reform Act of 1976.
'Could be total zero'
Marti Dinerstein, a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C., said ITINs are used as a way to get undocumented workers onto the income tax rolls. In a 2002 report "Giving Cover to Illegal Aliens:" Dinerstein said it's a laudable goal for the IRS to collect taxes from the broadest population base possible, but problems arise when the IRS determines resident alien state based on "substantial presence" in the United States, not legal residence. "Thus, illegal aliens who file tax returns are treated in the same way as legal foreign residents and receive the same tax benefits, such as spousal exemptions, child and education tax credits," her report said. And she believes the child tax credits — which bring in the largest amounts of the tax refund — amount to "invisible welfare."In a phone interview with the Tribune, Dinerstein said the government began scaling back welfare programs in the 1990s, while driving up the income tax credits for dependent children."Everybody thinks it's so wonderful that illegals are paying taxes," she said, "but what they don't understand is filing taxes is not the same as paying taxes." She said that because undocumented workers typically have low-income jobs and numerous dependents, they end up drawing more from the income tax system than they pay in."It could be a total zero (in tax revenue for the government)," Dinerstein said. "It could be a minus, if they're paying no taxes and yet they have children and they qualify for the child credits. Then the government transfers money to them."She said getting false Social Security numbers "opens the door" to undocumented workers getting employment "and almost everything a U.S. citizen can do."ITINs, meanwhile, are not valid for ID outside the tax system, but several states — not Colorado — allow their use to get a driver's license. Dinerstein said she suspects that undocumented workers, generally struggling with English, are often steered toward buying a Social Security number by a fellow immigrant. In some of the cases, "an immigrant has put an awful lot of faith in someone they know who doesn't do the right thing," she said. Rounding up sellers of the gateway identification — a Social Security card — is a difficult task, Buck said. He said when individuals with fraudulent cards are asked where they got it, the answer is often a physical description of someone who met them in a far-off city."It's difficult for Weld County law enforcement to track down the information," he said. "The information is often vague and almost always outside of Weld County." Also difficult is getting at a key player in the problem — employers who hire the workers with false ID. Buck said employers are accepting workers' documents that look valid. "Unless we can prove their state of mind" knew the documents were fraudulent, it's difficult to make a case against an employer. He noted it's important to look at employers and not just the employees in these cases. "When we start to see some patterns (with employers), we'll get into that and start making more interviews," Buck said.
Employer accountability
About 12,000 companies nationwide currently use E-Verify, a worker identity verification system. JBS Swift & Co., which had 262 employees arrested on suspicion of identity theft in December 2006, was using an employee identification system, Basic Pilot, prior to the raid and now uses E-Verify. No charges have been filed against Swift officials in the wake of the raid by Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents. Mark Everson, Commissioner, Internal Revenue Service, in July 2006 spoke Before the House Committee on Ways and Means on immigration issues. He said, " If an employer asks a worker for an accurate Social Security number or ITIN, he has performed due diligence under IRS code and is free of penalty." He told the committee that mismatched identifications on tax forms tend to occur among the lowest wage earners who have little tax liability. Based on an IRS' analysis of tax year 2004, he said, about 75% of all mismatched W-2s reported wages of less than $10,000. About 2 percent of W-2s with invalid Social Security numbers that year reported wages greater than $30,000. The average wage for all mismatches was about $7,000 annually. But, he said, many employees receive more than one W-2 in a tax year, so their gross incomes could be higher.Dinerstein, the fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, said identity theft is a growth industry that has homeland security implications."It gives documents to people who could be a real danger to the United States, and it gives cover to people who are living here illegally," she said. "It's a very dangerous thing to be able to get fraudulent documents. You can do a lot of harm. And why should they be taking advantage of tax rebates that are meant for American citizens?"
"People broke law'
In the arrest affidavit on Trejo, an agent with the Colorado Department of Revenue said Amalia's Tax Service is conducting business according to IRS guidelines and has not violated any laws. Buck said he can't speculate on whether Cerrillo, the tax preparer, will face any charges. He said the arrests could spark another wave of backlash in the community. He said some people will be upset that potentially millions of dollars were refunded to illegal residents. Others will be angry that families are again being broken up by deportations."The bottom line is people broke the law," Buck said. "At the end of the line, people will realize you can't use another person's identity or a false identity in this county."
In other Weld identity theft cases involving illegal immigrants, Buck said, an "overwhelming number" of victims have Latino surnames. Bach and Cerrillo were upset to learn about this week's sting operation. They said tax filers seeking ITINs generally got the Social Security numbers assuming they were fictitious and made up. The workers had no intent to duplicate another person's identification, they said. Cerrillo brushed away tears as she thought about the arrests of clients she believes did nothing wrong. "I don't know how many of these people will be deported or have legal issues," she said. "Why? Because they came to Amalia's Tax Service."— Tribune reporter Andrew Villegas contributed to this report.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributors Chris Casey and Mike Peters write for Colorado’s Greeley Tribune
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.1829/pub_detail.asp
Chris Casey and Mike Peters
Weld County, Colorado authorities this month unleashed a large-scale sting they hope will net about 1,300 suspects who may have used false identification to receive millions of dollars in U.S. tax refunds.The arrests for ID theft or criminal impersonation are expected to snare hundreds of suspects. Authorities said two years worth of federally approved tax refunds from suspects' jobs — they work in agriculture, corporations and small businesses across northern Colorado — could total $2.7 million.The sweep follows the August 13th arrest of Servando Trejo, who was linked to a Texas man who told local authorities that someone working in northern Colorado had been using his Social Security number.
Trejo, a native of Mexico, told a Weld County Sheriff's Office detective that he bought the ID in Texas after he crossed the border in 1995. He used the ID to get jobs, obtain loans, get a Colorado driver's license and pay taxes, which in recent years he filed through Amalia's Translation and Tax Services, 1501 9th St. in Greeley.
Weld sheriff's deputies on Wednesday launched what they're calling "Operation Number Games." The round-up of suspects were identified through other suspicious IDs found in an October 17th search of Amalia's office. Thirteen suspects were arrested Wednesday and Thursday, and teams will work Friday and through this weekend to pick up more suspects they believe were living here with stolen identities. Authorities plan arrests for the rest of the year and much of 2009.The sting will likely have wide ramifications:
- A measure of long-sought justice for many victims — people who for years have fought the IRS over mysterious reports of underreported income in tax filings.
- A high-profile example of the national stalemate on the immigration issue. The sting brings to light the inability of government agencies to share information that would lead to the enforcement of current law.
- Backlash from the Latino community, which remains raw to the federal raid at Swift & Co. meatpacking plant in 2006. That early morning raid, which picked up 262 workers suspected of committing identity theft, left scores of households without a breadwinner as the workers were jailed and most deported.
On Thursday, one local Latino businessman called the investigation into Amalia's Tax Service "racial profiling" and a "fishing expedition."John Bach, the founder and membership director of Colorado HUG, a Greeley-based nonprofit that serves the Latino community and businesses, said the records search at Amalia's is an invasion of privacy and could result in a class-action suit."Something like this, if it continues, there will be a revolt on a local level," Bach said.Each of the suspects will be booked into the Weld County Jail, and also placed on an "ICE hold," which means they will be investigated by Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents to determine if they're living legally in the United States.Meanwhile, the governmental inter-agency stalemate is born out in the investigation's methodical pace.
Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck said his office receives a "steady stream" of complaints from out-of-state victims of identity theft.Local authorities redoubled efforts to combat identity theft around the time of the Swift raid, reflected in their successful push to get the federal government to open a local ICE office.Whether this sting puts a large dent in the identity theft problem is uncertain, considering authorities don't know how many of the local tax filings will turn up invalid Social Security numbers.Of the roughly 1,300 Social Security numbers being investigated, the Social Security Administration is, per regulations, granting only 10 names a week to the DA's Office."The only thing they'll tell us is if it's valid or fictitious. They won't tell us who the owner of the valid Social is," Buck said of each number. "It will take us 2 1/2 years to find out if these 1,300 numbers are valid or fictitious, much less find victims involved.
"Four-step system"
Weld sheriff's detective Josh Noonan began the investigation months ago, when he got a call from Jose Lopez, the man in Texas.The resulting investigation brought search warrants for Amalia's Translation and Tax Services. Authorities said owner Amalia Cerrillo prepared the irregular tax returns for more than 1,300 undocumented workers.According to investigators, the system had four steps:
- A new illegal alien arrives in the country and buys a Social Security number from someone on the street, or from criminals that specialize in obtaining ID from legal citizens.
- When the immigrant gets a job, he or she uses the Social Security number for withholding taxes from his or her paycheck. Many times in these cases, the worker claimed to have numerous children, which lowered the amount of taxes that would be owed.
- At Amalia's Translation and Tax Services, the owner would use the alien's stolen Social Security number under a phony name, secure a legal tax identification number, then fill out forms, which would result in a large tax return.
According to the DA and sheriff's investigations, many of the illegal immigrants would pay only a few hundred dollars in withholding taxes, but would receive an average of $2,000 in a tax refund.If the 1,300 suspects total about $2.6 million in refunds over the 2007 and 2006 tax years, authorities said, the amount they paid in income taxes is estimated to be less than half of that, about $1 million.
Internal Revenue Service Records show the transactions are legal, because the illegal immigrants used tax identification numbers to file for refunds and claiming children under the child tax credit system."She knows (the clients seeking a tax identification number) are illegal, but the IRS is saying we want to know everybody who is working in this country," Buck said. "They're getting a boatload of money back (in refunds), more than they're even paying (in taxes)."
'Haven't done anything wrong'
In 1996, the IRS launched the Individual Tax Identification Number program to track resident and non-resident aliens' income derived in the U.S. from sources such as investments and interest-bearing bank accounts. The number is issued to people ineligible for Social Security Numbers — more than 12.4 million ITINs were issued from 1996 to 2006 — enabling them to open bank accounts and report taxable income.By law, a person can't have both an ITIN and Social Security number.In the case of the Greeley tax preparer, the returns, typically showing both numbers, were processed and refund checks were delivered.
Cerrillo, 36, said she processes tax returns in accordance with IRS rules. She said the ITIN is issued to individuals, and their spouses and dependents, who are non-resident or resident aliens and not eligible for a Social Security number. She said it's commonplace nationally for tax preparers to process ITIN applications and subsequent tax returns. She said clients know their current Social Security number isn't a valid match to their name, so they seek an ITIN for tax purposes. Cerrillo sat behind a desk in her office Thursday morning. Nearby were some of the 49 boxes of records taken by police last month."I'm open because I haven't done anything wrong," she said. "I will continue to help these people until the IRS says something different. If I'm breaking the law, the IRS is making me break the law. I'm just doing what the IRS directions say."Bach, of Colorado HUG, stopped by Cerrillo's office Thursday morning, soon after she was contacted by the Tribune. He said the federal government devised ITINs as a "profit maker" to generate tax revenue from undocumented workers."Everybody knows the federal government says one thing and does another, and this (arrest sweep) is a prime example," he said. "The federal government says if you are an undocumented immigrant, an illegal immigrant, you don't have a right to work in the United States. But if you are (working), here's a number so you can file your tax return. That's very convenient."Cerrillo feels her 10-year-old business was targeted because she's Latino."I think (authorities) came here because of my (Latino) name," she said. "They must have thought, 'Well, a lot of these people go here.' But it's not something I'm doing that's illegal. It's something that people who do taxes do because it's an IRS thing."She said she understands authorities' desire to clean up identity theft cases, but "why don't they get their records from the IRS? That's where they're from — not just (my records)."Bach said he suspects that tax returns involving ITINs would be in greater numbers at other local tax preparers such as H&R Block and Liberty. He said the investigation into Amalia's amounts to "profiling."The search warrant presented to Cerrillo in October gave officers authority to search for 2007 and 2006 tax records, Bach said, but they took records of more than 4,000 clients dating to 2000. About half of those, according to Cerrillo, are filings by legal permanent residents."That's flat-out invasion of privacy," Bach said.Buck said Cerrillo's business was targeted because that's where the paper trail led when the Sheriff's Office looked into Lopez's complaint. When police began searching for a "Jose Lopez" in northern Colorado, they found Trejo using that identity as an employee of Five Star Cattle Co., a Kersey feedlot."He used her to file a tax return so we had probable cause based on our interview with her," Buck said. "We didn't have probable cause on other tax preparers."Buck added, however, he believes similar cases occur at other tax preparation offices. "Absolutely, I think this is a widespread problem. But (Cerrillo) was interviewed and indicated this is what the IRS wants, and she does it for a number of people. At that point we had probable cause to conduct a search at her office." He said Weld authorities will likely investigate other tax preparers, but it will be a lengthy period before that happens."We probably have 1,300 cases now," Buck said. "We're absolutely overwhelmed, as is the court system, as is the jail."Buck said the officers acted within protocol on the search warrant. The deputies began their search for only 2007 and 2006 records, but expanded their seizure of information based on the "plain view doctrine.""In looking there, they found other returns that violated the law, in their opinion, so that allowed them to take other returns as a result of them being in plain view," he said.
Tax refunds pile up
The DA's office calculated the tax filing information of 23% of the 1,300 suspected invalid Social Security numbers taken from Amalia's Tax Service. The average refund was $1,986, of which $1,309 came through child tax credits. Other averages found in the returns:
- Earned income, $27,771.
- Taxable income, $5,343.
- Number of deductions claimed, 4.8. In one instance, a client earned $51,548 and claimed eight exemptions. The suspect had $3,864 of federal income tax withheld, and received a $5,205 refund. Another client reported $33,341 in income with six exemptions. That suspect had $756 of federal income tax withheld and received a $4,062 refund ($3,306 through the child tax credit).
Jean Carl, spokeswoman of the IRS's Colorado office, said she's unfamiliar with the case in Weld County. But, she said, instances of a tax preparer handling hundreds of ITIN applications and subsequent tax returns has occurred elsewhere."It's happening all over the country," she said. "These scams are out there and people have to understand when they sign the return they're responsible for whatever's reported, not the preparer."She said the IRS is bound by law to process returns as quickly as possible, so it's typically not until after the refund goes out that inconsistencies are discovered. Electronic filing has made curbing identity tampering even more difficult, she said.Previously, when the IRS accepted paper-only forms, the data-entry person could freeze the return if a name/number mismatch appeared."A lot of these things don't come to light until after (initial processing) when we do our record matching," Carl said. Even then, it's difficult to pin down an undocumented worker to collect the fraudulent refund."It becomes a very difficult job to do when you're talking about people who are here illegally and not supposed to be working," she said. Adding to the problem is the fact that IRS code restricts the agency from disclosing tax return information. The law, which provides that tax returns and tax return information be kept confidential, was enacted as part of the Tax Reform Act of 1976.
'Could be total zero'
Marti Dinerstein, a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, D.C., said ITINs are used as a way to get undocumented workers onto the income tax rolls. In a 2002 report "Giving Cover to Illegal Aliens:" Dinerstein said it's a laudable goal for the IRS to collect taxes from the broadest population base possible, but problems arise when the IRS determines resident alien state based on "substantial presence" in the United States, not legal residence. "Thus, illegal aliens who file tax returns are treated in the same way as legal foreign residents and receive the same tax benefits, such as spousal exemptions, child and education tax credits," her report said. And she believes the child tax credits — which bring in the largest amounts of the tax refund — amount to "invisible welfare."In a phone interview with the Tribune, Dinerstein said the government began scaling back welfare programs in the 1990s, while driving up the income tax credits for dependent children."Everybody thinks it's so wonderful that illegals are paying taxes," she said, "but what they don't understand is filing taxes is not the same as paying taxes." She said that because undocumented workers typically have low-income jobs and numerous dependents, they end up drawing more from the income tax system than they pay in."It could be a total zero (in tax revenue for the government)," Dinerstein said. "It could be a minus, if they're paying no taxes and yet they have children and they qualify for the child credits. Then the government transfers money to them."She said getting false Social Security numbers "opens the door" to undocumented workers getting employment "and almost everything a U.S. citizen can do."ITINs, meanwhile, are not valid for ID outside the tax system, but several states — not Colorado — allow their use to get a driver's license. Dinerstein said she suspects that undocumented workers, generally struggling with English, are often steered toward buying a Social Security number by a fellow immigrant. In some of the cases, "an immigrant has put an awful lot of faith in someone they know who doesn't do the right thing," she said. Rounding up sellers of the gateway identification — a Social Security card — is a difficult task, Buck said. He said when individuals with fraudulent cards are asked where they got it, the answer is often a physical description of someone who met them in a far-off city."It's difficult for Weld County law enforcement to track down the information," he said. "The information is often vague and almost always outside of Weld County." Also difficult is getting at a key player in the problem — employers who hire the workers with false ID. Buck said employers are accepting workers' documents that look valid. "Unless we can prove their state of mind" knew the documents were fraudulent, it's difficult to make a case against an employer. He noted it's important to look at employers and not just the employees in these cases. "When we start to see some patterns (with employers), we'll get into that and start making more interviews," Buck said.
Employer accountability
About 12,000 companies nationwide currently use E-Verify, a worker identity verification system. JBS Swift & Co., which had 262 employees arrested on suspicion of identity theft in December 2006, was using an employee identification system, Basic Pilot, prior to the raid and now uses E-Verify. No charges have been filed against Swift officials in the wake of the raid by Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents. Mark Everson, Commissioner, Internal Revenue Service, in July 2006 spoke Before the House Committee on Ways and Means on immigration issues. He said, " If an employer asks a worker for an accurate Social Security number or ITIN, he has performed due diligence under IRS code and is free of penalty." He told the committee that mismatched identifications on tax forms tend to occur among the lowest wage earners who have little tax liability. Based on an IRS' analysis of tax year 2004, he said, about 75% of all mismatched W-2s reported wages of less than $10,000. About 2 percent of W-2s with invalid Social Security numbers that year reported wages greater than $30,000. The average wage for all mismatches was about $7,000 annually. But, he said, many employees receive more than one W-2 in a tax year, so their gross incomes could be higher.Dinerstein, the fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, said identity theft is a growth industry that has homeland security implications."It gives documents to people who could be a real danger to the United States, and it gives cover to people who are living here illegally," she said. "It's a very dangerous thing to be able to get fraudulent documents. You can do a lot of harm. And why should they be taking advantage of tax rebates that are meant for American citizens?"
"People broke law'
In the arrest affidavit on Trejo, an agent with the Colorado Department of Revenue said Amalia's Tax Service is conducting business according to IRS guidelines and has not violated any laws. Buck said he can't speculate on whether Cerrillo, the tax preparer, will face any charges. He said the arrests could spark another wave of backlash in the community. He said some people will be upset that potentially millions of dollars were refunded to illegal residents. Others will be angry that families are again being broken up by deportations."The bottom line is people broke the law," Buck said. "At the end of the line, people will realize you can't use another person's identity or a false identity in this county."
In other Weld identity theft cases involving illegal immigrants, Buck said, an "overwhelming number" of victims have Latino surnames. Bach and Cerrillo were upset to learn about this week's sting operation. They said tax filers seeking ITINs generally got the Social Security numbers assuming they were fictitious and made up. The workers had no intent to duplicate another person's identification, they said. Cerrillo brushed away tears as she thought about the arrests of clients she believes did nothing wrong. "I don't know how many of these people will be deported or have legal issues," she said. "Why? Because they came to Amalia's Tax Service."— Tribune reporter Andrew Villegas contributed to this report.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributors Chris Casey and Mike Peters write for Colorado’s Greeley Tribune
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.1829/pub_detail.asp
Postville Saga Continues, Latest Batch of Disgusted Workers Leaves, New CEO Charges
This was an interesting story, beginning when ICE raided the plant and found over 300 illegal aliens working there. The proponents of illegal immigration all protested, bussing protestors in from all over. Then the stories about the working conditions at the plant and all the identity theft going on came out. Ugly, ugly story of employer greed and desperate people. The stories about the U.S. citizens affected by the identity theft have not been reported. Pity. Evidently, the employers were not held to account because they roped in these people from Palau. Another pity. If you want to know more, just type "Postville" into your search bar. -- Faye
"Agriprocessors is again losing a significant part of its workforce, but this time it's not because of an immigration raid. The meat packing plant recently hired more than 150 workers from Palau, a small island nation in the Pacific Ocean. But this weekend, the majority of those workers left, saying what they expected in Postville was far from what they found there," KCRG reports.
"The workers arrived in September on the promise from Palauan recruiters of cheap rent and decent wages, despite letters of warning from union leaders and residents. Most expressed anger at Agriprocessors, but also at its government for allowing them to make the exhausting and expensive 72-hour trip by plane and bus to a doomed situation. When Hersey Kyoto, Palauan ambassador to the U.S., arrived in Postville Friday, his countrymen had just found out they would not be paid for the most recent two weeks of work, and some had their electricity cut off," The Courier writes.
"At an initial appearance Friday on new charges of bank fraud, [former CEO] Rubashkin, 49, was ordered by Magistrate Judge Jon Scoles to be held until a detention hearing Wednesday. It appears Rubashkin faces a significant chance of being denied bail at that hearing," The Gazette reports.
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"Agriprocessors is again losing a significant part of its workforce, but this time it's not because of an immigration raid. The meat packing plant recently hired more than 150 workers from Palau, a small island nation in the Pacific Ocean. But this weekend, the majority of those workers left, saying what they expected in Postville was far from what they found there," KCRG reports.
"The workers arrived in September on the promise from Palauan recruiters of cheap rent and decent wages, despite letters of warning from union leaders and residents. Most expressed anger at Agriprocessors, but also at its government for allowing them to make the exhausting and expensive 72-hour trip by plane and bus to a doomed situation. When Hersey Kyoto, Palauan ambassador to the U.S., arrived in Postville Friday, his countrymen had just found out they would not be paid for the most recent two weeks of work, and some had their electricity cut off," The Courier writes.
"At an initial appearance Friday on new charges of bank fraud, [former CEO] Rubashkin, 49, was ordered by Magistrate Judge Jon Scoles to be held until a detention hearing Wednesday. It appears Rubashkin faces a significant chance of being denied bail at that hearing," The Gazette reports.
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MAYBE YOU CAN MESS WITH TEXAS
I found this on the Dan Stein Report under the title above. I'll give the links below the story so that you can go read the comments. Waaa! People have had enough. In fact, I'm surprised to see this in a Houston paper. I'd say they're not forgetting Rodney Johnson any time soon. Up until that time, Houston was a pretty safe place for illegals to go because nobody in Houston was going to say anything.
Probation, instead of deportation
Though eligible to be put out of the country, some illegal immigrant criminals avoid prison
By SUSAN CARROLL Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Nov. 18, 2008, 9:14AM
Bayron Orlando Euceda, an illegal immigrant from Honduras, did not serve a day in prison for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old Houston girl.
Instead, a Harris County judge sentenced the 21-year-old to eight years deferred adjudication, a form of probation. A sticky note on his plea agreement reads, "Best interest of victim."
"That's incredible," said Andy Kahan, director of the Houston Mayor's Crime Victims Office and a former probation officer, after thumbing through Euceda's court paperwork. ''The best interest of the victim would have been to have that guy locked up."
A Houston Chronicle investigation found 330 cases involving defendants sentenced to some form of probation in Harris County — despite admitting to the jailer upon their arrest that they were in the country illegally.At least 44 of those cases involved defendants who later had their probation revoked and were sent to prison or who now have outstanding arrest warrants, the investigation found.
Slightly more than half of the 330 cases involved felony charges. In a handful of cases, illegal immigrants under the county's supervision later were accused of committing serious crimes, including aggravated assault and sexual abuse of a child.
The review was based on arrest, immigration and court records for more than 3,500 inmates who said they were in the country illegally when they were booked into jail over a span of eight months, starting in June 2007, the earliest immigration documents available.
The Chronicle's investigation found:
•A shortage of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents assigned to screening inmates at the county's jails, which has allowed illegal immigrants eligible for deportation to end up on probation. ICE agents filed paperwork to detain only one in four inmates who admitted they were undocumented during the Chronicle's review period.•The Harris County District Attorney's Office lacks an official policy on offering probation to illegal immigrants.•Prosecutors and pretrial service officers frequently lack access to accurate information about defendants' immigration status when preparing reports for judges. As a result, some judges say they often know little about the immigration status of defendants before sentencing.•Once illegal immigrants are sentenced to probation, there is no streamlined process to cull them from supervision rolls. Harris County probation officers try to help ICE agents whenever possiblebut lack the means and manpower to verify probationers' immigration status, said Ray Garcia, deputy director of operations for Harris County Community Supervision and Corrections Department.Robert Rutt, special agent in charge of the ICE criminal investigation office in Houston, said ICE officials "triage and tend to go after the worst of the worst" of immigrants who are sentenced to probation and released from jail but who are eligible for deportation. ICE has improved screening in Harris County's jails in recent months and has stepped up efforts to catch immigrants who have not complied with an order from an immigration judge to leave the country.
For example, in the 2008 fiscal year, Houston's fugitive teams made 1,587 arrests, up 28 percent from 2007, ICE officials said. Nationally, ICE fugitive teams made nearly 34,000 arrests — more than double the number two years ago.
Case draws criticismThe practice of sentencing illegal immigrants to probation attracted sharp criticism after an illegal immigrant from Mexico killed Houston police officer Rodney Johnson.
Juan Quintero, who is serving a life sentence for the murder, had several DWI convictions and was sentenced to deferred adjudication for indecency with a 12-year-old girl in 1999. Quintero was deported but returned to Houston illegally and shot Johnson on Sept. 21, 2006.
Johnson's widow, Houston police Sgt. Joslyn Johnson, said she hopes for a policy change that would stop illegal immigrants from ending up on probation, saying prison time would be more of a deterrent to coming back to the U.S. illegally.
"They broke the law when they came into the country illegally, and if they've committed another crime on top of that, I think they should be automatically deported," she said. "They should not be allowed to stay in the country on probation."
Some lie about statusEuceda's case highlights the system's shortcomings in not identifying illegal immigrants early on.
Euceda told jailers when he was arrested on the sexual assault charge in July 2007 that he was in the country illegally. He filled out court paperwork saying he was from Honduras. There is no record of ICE agents filing paperwork to detain him.
In November 2007, state District Judge Jim Wallace signed off on a plea agreement that granted Euceda deferred adjudication, a form of probation that allows defendants to avoid a formal conviction if they successfully complete the terms of their supervision. The prosecutor on the case, Connie Spence, declined comment through a district attorney's spokesman.
Wallace said he did not remember the case but likely did not know Euceda was undocumented.
"My policy is not to give deferred (adjudication) or straight probation to anyone who is here illegally because I'm of the opinion that there is that much more of a reason for that person to flee the jurisdiction," he said.
Wallace said he generally asks a defendant's attorney whether the client is undocumented before signing off on a plea, but he said that is probably not a very reliable measure.
Some defendants lie about their immigration status and are sentenced to probation, "and then next thing we know, they're gone," Wallace said.
He added: "Effectively, they've committed whatever offense they've committed for free. ... It's irritated me for years."
Euceda was released from Harris County Jail after signing the plea agreement on Nov. 30, 2007, and was picked up by immigration agents five days later. He was formally deported to Honduras in April.
On Aug. 9, U.S. Border Patrol agents caught Euceda trying to sneak back into the U.S. through West Texas, court records say. He was charged with illegal re-entry after deportation. His case is pending.
Separating issuesWhile some judges said they were simply unaware of a defendant's immigration status, others said the status should not matter.
George Godwin, a Harris County district judge, sentenced 19-year-old Hugo Sanchez to eight years' deferred adjudication in February for having sex with an 11-year-old girl. Immigration officials filed paperwork to detain Sanchez within two days of his arrest in September 2007.
Godwin could not comment specifically on the Sanchez case, but he said he generally tries to keep immigration issues separate from the criminal cases.
"We don't do immigration work here," he said. "That's one reason why it gets sticky and it gets complicated. You just sort of have to divorce yourself here from the immigration problems."
Kelli Johnson, the prosecutor in the Sanchez case, declined comment through the District Attorney's Office spokesman. Sanchez's attorney did not return phone calls.
Asked whether probation or deferred adjudication is an appropriate punishment for someone facing deportation, Donna Hawkins, a spokeswoman for the Harris County District Attorney's Office, said, "I don't know how to answer that question.
"We would, as prosecutors, want to see that justice is done," she said. "If we knew the defendant was going to be immediately deported, in most cases we would not offer a probation they could not complete. If that happens, obviously, we would not feel justice is being done because they're not being punished, aside from possibly deportation."
Patrick McCann, a Houston defense attorney, said defendants should be eligible for probation regardless of their immigration status.
"Judges cannot as a matter of due process and equal protection say you're not eligible because you don't have documentation," McCann said. "First off, it's not a state judge's call, ever. It's not their business. It's not their jurisdiction."
Again and againIsrael Lopez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, finished a seven-year Texas prison sentence in July 2006 for aggravated sexual assault of a child and was turned over to ICE agents, prison records say. ICE officials confirm he was deported in August 2006.
Less than a year later, in June 2007, Lopez was arrested again on suspicion of assaulting a Harris County sheriff's deputy and told jailers he was in the country illegally, records say. Lopez was sentenced to eight months in jail. There is no record of ICE filing paperwork to detain him then.
In February, Lopez was arrested again, charged with assaulting his wife. He was sentenced to probation by a visiting Harris County Criminal Court-at-law judge. A motion was filed to revoke his probation after the Chronicle asked the sitting judge, James Anderson, about Lopez's sentence. Lopez is now a fugitive, according to court records.
Breaking their wordOther illegal immigrants have slipped through the system by not divulging their legal status.
In 2001, a federal immigration judge told Teodorico Cespedes, a native of Costa Rica, to leave the U.S. but allowed him to opt for "voluntary departure," meaning Cespedes agreed to leave on his own terms, rather than be formally deported. There is no evidence that Cespedes ever returned to his home country.
In January 2007, Cespedes was arrested and charged with assault in Houston. He never told jailers or court officials that he was in the U.S. illegally, records say. A judge sentenced him to one year of community supervision, and he was released from jail after immigration officials didn't file paperwork to detain him.
Ten months later, Cespedes was charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child, accused of raping and sodomizing a 4-year-old girl. He is being held without bail, pending his January trial date.
Harris County Criminal Court-at-law Judge Reagan Helm, who sentenced Cespedes on the original assault charge and opposes putting illegal immigrants on probation, said he was not aware of Cespedes' immigration status.
Garcia, the probation official, declined to comment on any specific cases in the Chronicle review. He said his office provides ICE with a list of probationers who have told probation officers they are foreign-born whenever ICE requests it.
Rutt, the ICE official, said the agency trained nine Harris County jailers in August to help file paperwork to detain illegal immigrants. Last month, ICE also gave Harris County jailers access to an immigration database that allows them to check inmates' immigration history automatically.
Garcia said if ICE could identify illegal immigrants before they reach probation officials, it would help ease the county's caseload and the financial burden on local taxpayers.
''If we could have more of the upfront identification of people, so you knew their status prior to placing them on supervision, I think that would save our system and the state money," Garcia said.
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Probation, instead of deportation
Though eligible to be put out of the country, some illegal immigrant criminals avoid prison
By SUSAN CARROLL Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Nov. 18, 2008, 9:14AM
Bayron Orlando Euceda, an illegal immigrant from Honduras, did not serve a day in prison for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old Houston girl.
Instead, a Harris County judge sentenced the 21-year-old to eight years deferred adjudication, a form of probation. A sticky note on his plea agreement reads, "Best interest of victim."
"That's incredible," said Andy Kahan, director of the Houston Mayor's Crime Victims Office and a former probation officer, after thumbing through Euceda's court paperwork. ''The best interest of the victim would have been to have that guy locked up."
A Houston Chronicle investigation found 330 cases involving defendants sentenced to some form of probation in Harris County — despite admitting to the jailer upon their arrest that they were in the country illegally.At least 44 of those cases involved defendants who later had their probation revoked and were sent to prison or who now have outstanding arrest warrants, the investigation found.
Slightly more than half of the 330 cases involved felony charges. In a handful of cases, illegal immigrants under the county's supervision later were accused of committing serious crimes, including aggravated assault and sexual abuse of a child.
The review was based on arrest, immigration and court records for more than 3,500 inmates who said they were in the country illegally when they were booked into jail over a span of eight months, starting in June 2007, the earliest immigration documents available.
The Chronicle's investigation found:
•A shortage of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents assigned to screening inmates at the county's jails, which has allowed illegal immigrants eligible for deportation to end up on probation. ICE agents filed paperwork to detain only one in four inmates who admitted they were undocumented during the Chronicle's review period.•The Harris County District Attorney's Office lacks an official policy on offering probation to illegal immigrants.•Prosecutors and pretrial service officers frequently lack access to accurate information about defendants' immigration status when preparing reports for judges. As a result, some judges say they often know little about the immigration status of defendants before sentencing.•Once illegal immigrants are sentenced to probation, there is no streamlined process to cull them from supervision rolls. Harris County probation officers try to help ICE agents whenever possiblebut lack the means and manpower to verify probationers' immigration status, said Ray Garcia, deputy director of operations for Harris County Community Supervision and Corrections Department.Robert Rutt, special agent in charge of the ICE criminal investigation office in Houston, said ICE officials "triage and tend to go after the worst of the worst" of immigrants who are sentenced to probation and released from jail but who are eligible for deportation. ICE has improved screening in Harris County's jails in recent months and has stepped up efforts to catch immigrants who have not complied with an order from an immigration judge to leave the country.
For example, in the 2008 fiscal year, Houston's fugitive teams made 1,587 arrests, up 28 percent from 2007, ICE officials said. Nationally, ICE fugitive teams made nearly 34,000 arrests — more than double the number two years ago.
Case draws criticismThe practice of sentencing illegal immigrants to probation attracted sharp criticism after an illegal immigrant from Mexico killed Houston police officer Rodney Johnson.
Juan Quintero, who is serving a life sentence for the murder, had several DWI convictions and was sentenced to deferred adjudication for indecency with a 12-year-old girl in 1999. Quintero was deported but returned to Houston illegally and shot Johnson on Sept. 21, 2006.
Johnson's widow, Houston police Sgt. Joslyn Johnson, said she hopes for a policy change that would stop illegal immigrants from ending up on probation, saying prison time would be more of a deterrent to coming back to the U.S. illegally.
"They broke the law when they came into the country illegally, and if they've committed another crime on top of that, I think they should be automatically deported," she said. "They should not be allowed to stay in the country on probation."
Some lie about statusEuceda's case highlights the system's shortcomings in not identifying illegal immigrants early on.
Euceda told jailers when he was arrested on the sexual assault charge in July 2007 that he was in the country illegally. He filled out court paperwork saying he was from Honduras. There is no record of ICE agents filing paperwork to detain him.
In November 2007, state District Judge Jim Wallace signed off on a plea agreement that granted Euceda deferred adjudication, a form of probation that allows defendants to avoid a formal conviction if they successfully complete the terms of their supervision. The prosecutor on the case, Connie Spence, declined comment through a district attorney's spokesman.
Wallace said he did not remember the case but likely did not know Euceda was undocumented.
"My policy is not to give deferred (adjudication) or straight probation to anyone who is here illegally because I'm of the opinion that there is that much more of a reason for that person to flee the jurisdiction," he said.
Wallace said he generally asks a defendant's attorney whether the client is undocumented before signing off on a plea, but he said that is probably not a very reliable measure.
Some defendants lie about their immigration status and are sentenced to probation, "and then next thing we know, they're gone," Wallace said.
He added: "Effectively, they've committed whatever offense they've committed for free. ... It's irritated me for years."
Euceda was released from Harris County Jail after signing the plea agreement on Nov. 30, 2007, and was picked up by immigration agents five days later. He was formally deported to Honduras in April.
On Aug. 9, U.S. Border Patrol agents caught Euceda trying to sneak back into the U.S. through West Texas, court records say. He was charged with illegal re-entry after deportation. His case is pending.
Separating issuesWhile some judges said they were simply unaware of a defendant's immigration status, others said the status should not matter.
George Godwin, a Harris County district judge, sentenced 19-year-old Hugo Sanchez to eight years' deferred adjudication in February for having sex with an 11-year-old girl. Immigration officials filed paperwork to detain Sanchez within two days of his arrest in September 2007.
Godwin could not comment specifically on the Sanchez case, but he said he generally tries to keep immigration issues separate from the criminal cases.
"We don't do immigration work here," he said. "That's one reason why it gets sticky and it gets complicated. You just sort of have to divorce yourself here from the immigration problems."
Kelli Johnson, the prosecutor in the Sanchez case, declined comment through the District Attorney's Office spokesman. Sanchez's attorney did not return phone calls.
Asked whether probation or deferred adjudication is an appropriate punishment for someone facing deportation, Donna Hawkins, a spokeswoman for the Harris County District Attorney's Office, said, "I don't know how to answer that question.
"We would, as prosecutors, want to see that justice is done," she said. "If we knew the defendant was going to be immediately deported, in most cases we would not offer a probation they could not complete. If that happens, obviously, we would not feel justice is being done because they're not being punished, aside from possibly deportation."
Patrick McCann, a Houston defense attorney, said defendants should be eligible for probation regardless of their immigration status.
"Judges cannot as a matter of due process and equal protection say you're not eligible because you don't have documentation," McCann said. "First off, it's not a state judge's call, ever. It's not their business. It's not their jurisdiction."
Again and againIsrael Lopez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, finished a seven-year Texas prison sentence in July 2006 for aggravated sexual assault of a child and was turned over to ICE agents, prison records say. ICE officials confirm he was deported in August 2006.
Less than a year later, in June 2007, Lopez was arrested again on suspicion of assaulting a Harris County sheriff's deputy and told jailers he was in the country illegally, records say. Lopez was sentenced to eight months in jail. There is no record of ICE filing paperwork to detain him then.
In February, Lopez was arrested again, charged with assaulting his wife. He was sentenced to probation by a visiting Harris County Criminal Court-at-law judge. A motion was filed to revoke his probation after the Chronicle asked the sitting judge, James Anderson, about Lopez's sentence. Lopez is now a fugitive, according to court records.
Breaking their wordOther illegal immigrants have slipped through the system by not divulging their legal status.
In 2001, a federal immigration judge told Teodorico Cespedes, a native of Costa Rica, to leave the U.S. but allowed him to opt for "voluntary departure," meaning Cespedes agreed to leave on his own terms, rather than be formally deported. There is no evidence that Cespedes ever returned to his home country.
In January 2007, Cespedes was arrested and charged with assault in Houston. He never told jailers or court officials that he was in the U.S. illegally, records say. A judge sentenced him to one year of community supervision, and he was released from jail after immigration officials didn't file paperwork to detain him.
Ten months later, Cespedes was charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child, accused of raping and sodomizing a 4-year-old girl. He is being held without bail, pending his January trial date.
Harris County Criminal Court-at-law Judge Reagan Helm, who sentenced Cespedes on the original assault charge and opposes putting illegal immigrants on probation, said he was not aware of Cespedes' immigration status.
Garcia, the probation official, declined to comment on any specific cases in the Chronicle review. He said his office provides ICE with a list of probationers who have told probation officers they are foreign-born whenever ICE requests it.
Rutt, the ICE official, said the agency trained nine Harris County jailers in August to help file paperwork to detain illegal immigrants. Last month, ICE also gave Harris County jailers access to an immigration database that allows them to check inmates' immigration history automatically.
Garcia said if ICE could identify illegal immigrants before they reach probation officials, it would help ease the county's caseload and the financial burden on local taxpayers.
''If we could have more of the upfront identification of people, so you knew their status prior to placing them on supervision, I think that would save our system and the state money," Garcia said.
mailto:susan.carroll@chron.com
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6118065.html
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Sheriffs identify 3,300 illegal immigrants
staff reports
• published November 19, 2008 12:15 am
RALEIGH – Seven North Carolina sheriff offices partnering with federal immigration officials identified at least 3,359 inmates so far this year who are in the country illegally.
All but 177 of them have been handed over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation proceedings, Eddie Caldwell, executive vice president of the N.C. Sheriffs' Association, told legislators Tuesday.
Seven sheriffs offices, including Henderson County, participate in the program known as 287(g), which trains jailers in immigration procedures.
Jailers interviewed 4,511 suspected illegal immigrants through Sept. 30, and turned over 3,182 for deportation.
Most of the charges for those slated for deportation involved driving offenses.
Of the charges, 44 percent involved criminal violations, from trespassing to murder, 23 percent involved impaired driving and 33 percent involved other driving violations.
CITIZEN-TIMES.COM, ASHVILLE, NC
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008811190334
• published November 19, 2008 12:15 am
RALEIGH – Seven North Carolina sheriff offices partnering with federal immigration officials identified at least 3,359 inmates so far this year who are in the country illegally.
All but 177 of them have been handed over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation proceedings, Eddie Caldwell, executive vice president of the N.C. Sheriffs' Association, told legislators Tuesday.
Seven sheriffs offices, including Henderson County, participate in the program known as 287(g), which trains jailers in immigration procedures.
Jailers interviewed 4,511 suspected illegal immigrants through Sept. 30, and turned over 3,182 for deportation.
Most of the charges for those slated for deportation involved driving offenses.
Of the charges, 44 percent involved criminal violations, from trespassing to murder, 23 percent involved impaired driving and 33 percent involved other driving violations.
CITIZEN-TIMES.COM, ASHVILLE, NC
http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008811190334
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