As you may remember, the findings of the 9/11 Commission determined that the 19 terrorists on 9/11 used dozens of false identities and variations of their true identities in furtherance of their terrorist objectives, paving the way for the Real ID Act.

The Virginian-Pilot article reports on the success of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) in an investigative effort that involved the infiltration of a criminal organization that specialized in cranking out false identity documents. According to the article, three suspects have been arrested and charged and all three are identified as being illegal aliens. The article did not report on the nationalities of the defendants, but it is to be presumed that they are citizens of a Latin American country. 

The article also notes that for just $150, a person could create a brand new identity for himself. The article then makes the point that these documents would enable an illegal alien to seek employment in the United States. This use of such false identity documents, in and of itself, certainly represents a crime. However, while the article failed to mention it, I will: The use of false identity documents in order to establish a phony identity is also a tactic that is used by criminals and terrorists.

One of the first things a law enforcement officer does when he arrests a suspect is to fingerprint that suspect in an effort to determine the identity of the person he has in custody.

Often job applicants are fingerprinted, especially if the prospective employee is to be bonded or work in an area that involves sensitive issues. Anyone who holds a security clearance is required to be fingerprinted to ascertain the identity of the employee to whom sensitive information may be provided.

To a criminal or terrorist, the truthful answer to one of the most commonly asked questions, “Who are you?” could uncover their malevolent intentions and unravel a criminal enterprise or terrorist attack. The use of false identity documents should be thought of as camouflage that conceals the identity and, potentially, the intentions of the person using the false documents.

I have seen arrest records that required extension sheets just to deal with the myriad false identities used by some of the criminals I have investigated and/or arrested as an INS special agent.

Yet the title of the article simply addresses the use of false identity documents by “illegal immigrants.”

Fraud can take two forms – the manufacture of false or altered identity documents and schemes by which aliens are provided with lawful status or even United States citizenship by concealing material facts that would, if known, disqualify that alien from receiving immigration benefits. In some cases, the scheme involves marriage fraud, labor certification fraud or political asylum fraud. In addition, these tactics can and have been used to secure visas from U.S. consular officials at American consulates and embassies in foreign countries.

All of these efforts to produce counterfeit or altered documents or defraud the immigration system or the visa issuance program create a true nightmare for our nation and literally open the door to the entry and embedding of criminals and terrorists in addition to those illegal aliens whose goals are limited to securing illegal employment.

In May of 2004, I testified before the House Subcommittee on Border Security and Claims, at the behest of contacted by the subcommittee’s then-ranking Democrat, Sheila Jackson Lee. The subject of that hearing was “Pushing the Border Out on Alien Smuggling: New Tools and Intelligence Initiatives.” The focus was the issue of “traditional” alien smuggling in which aliens are assisted in running our nation’s borders, as well as the issue of visa fraud and immigration benefit fraud. 

Consequently, I am certainly happy to see successes in combating those who would provide false identity documents but in the interest of clarity it is important to understand that these documents can be used for far more nefarious purposes than simply facilitating the employment of illegal aliens in the United States. It is also important to understand that these sorts of false documents were a real problem when our government naïvely implemented the amnesty of 1986. Back then, false rent receipts, pay stubs and other such “supporting documents” were cranked out at “warp speed” with the then crude tools available to such document mills that were purchased by aliens who sought to substantiate false claims to having resided in the United States for the requisite period of time in order to qualify to apply for amnesty.

The fraud rate back then was astronomical and today, with sophisticated desktop publishing available for relatively low costs, these document mills would easily provide millions of illegal aliens with credible-looking supporting documents that illegal aliens would, no doubt use to defraud the immigration system if our government is sufficiently inept and corrupt to enact another amnesty under the aegis of “Comprehensive Immigration Reform.”

In conjunction with the investigations conducted by the 9/11 Commission, 94 terrorists were identified as having operated in our country in the decade leading up to the attacks of September 11, 2001. Of those 94 individuals, 59 were determined to have used immigration fraud as a means of entering the United States and/or embedding themselves in communities around the United States.

The creation and use of false identity documents represents no less than a threat to national security. 

It is incomprehensible and unforgivable that there are but a mere handful of special agents at ICE who are dedicated to uncovering these fraud rings and putting them out of business. It is also hard to comprehend how a news report on such a document ring would fail to consider how such false identity documents represent a huge threat to the security of our nation and the safety of our citizens.

Guest columns do not necessarily reflect the views of Accuracy in Media or its staff.

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About the author

Michael Cutler
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Michael Cutler is a Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and a recognized authority who regularly appears on radio and television programs, in addition to testifying before Congress, addressing the implications of immigration on national security and criminal justice. Cutler is part of AIM's Speakers Bureau. Send inquiries to speakers@aim.org