Anyone familiar with St. Joseph over the last several years knows that things have been getting worse with regards to illegal immigration, with the St. Joseph area becoming home to one of the fastest growing populations of illegals in the nation.
But it seems that criminal aliens haven't just been heading to St. Joseph for the work, rather they've been travelling from across the country in droves to obtain fake documents like birth certificates and social security numbers from a massive identity theft ring.
Check out the highlights from this press release fresh out of the US Attorney's Office:
14 defendants, including six members of a St. Joseph, Mo., family and three Guatemalan nationals in Carthage, Mo., have been indicted by a federal grand jury for participating in a more than $5 million conspiracy that utilized the Missouri Department of Revenue license office in St. Joseph to provide more than 3,500 fraudulent identity documents to illegal aliens across the United States.
“St. Joseph was the hub of a criminal conspiracy for thousands of illegal aliens who traveled to Missouri from across the country,” Phillips said. “Conspirators operated a vast black market where identities were bought and sold. It’s crucial for business and public safety that we maintain the integrity of government-issued IDs. Those who profited from this illegal scheme will be held accountable.”
If you ever wonder why liberals fight so damn hard to keep illegal immigration and an open border on the table, this kind of crap is the answer... they know the illegals will find a way around it all and end up on those voter rolls eventually.
That's at least 3,500 new voters Obama can court this year in Missouri.
Conspirators allegedly provided illegal aliens with birth certificates and Social Security cards in the names of others and provided them with Missouri residential addresses.
The indictment alleges that illegal aliens would travel to St. Joseph from across the United States to obtain either a Missouri driver’s license or non-driver’s license by using the unlawfully obtained birth certificate and Social Security cards. The state licenses could then be used by the illegal aliens to remain unlawfully in the United States, to unlawfully obtain employment and for other unlawful purposes.
The money involved apparently ain't bad, either:
It is estimated that more than 3,500 licenses were issued to illegal aliens by the Department of Revenue license office in St. Joseph, according to the indictment. Illegal aliens each paid $1,500 to $1,600 to obtain documents and a license, the indictment says, totaling more than $5,250,000 in gross proceeds paid by illegal aliens to members of the conspiracy.
...that is until you get caught.
St. Joseph has a major problem with illegal immigrants using the lax local government offices to scam on the government.
In fact, in many St. Joseph offices bending over backwards for illegal aliens is encouraged and even enforced.
We'll have more on this in the next several days. For now, we can be thankful this operation has been shut down.
- B.H.
Were any of these "fee" offices owned by Susan Montee? Where was Chris Koster?
Posted by: Guy White | January 12, 2012 at 06:09 AM
Susan Montee is not the operator of the license bureau/ office in St Joe. Local news reported that the operators of the office weren't part of the case.
Posted by: Wmwyeth | January 12, 2012 at 01:39 PM