Police bust South Jersey-based fake ID ring for illegal immigrants (Courier-Post)

Police bust South Jersey-based fake ID ring for illegal immigrants
1:21 PM, Mar. 17, 2011

BRIDGETON — Authorities arrested six Bridgeton residents in connection with the alleged manufacture and sale of fake identification for illegal immigrants from Mexico, according to the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office.

Investigators said the suspects also are in the United States illegally.

State, county and local law enforcement agencies cooperated in the three-month investigation that culminated in a raid at a North Laurel Street residence.

There authorities reportedly confiscated equipment used to make phony documents.

The suspects created phony Social Security cards, permanent residence cards, Mexican driver's licenses and Mexican identification cards issued by the Mexican consulate, authorities said.

Charged in the investigation in February were:

# Ofelia Lopez-Lopez, 26, of the first block of Marion Street; sale, creation and uttering of counterfeit documents.

# Virgilio Toledo, 36, of the 200 block of North Laurel Street; possession of equipment to produce government documents, and creating and issuing counterfeit government documents.

# Silviano Alvarez-Cortes, 36, of the first block of Walnut Street; sale, creation and uttering of counterfeit government documents.

# Virginio "Chucky" Alvarez-Valero, 35, of the first block of Cedar Street; sale, creation and uttering of counterfeit government documents.

# Jose A. Giron-Jimenez, 25, of the 100 block of Pear Street; possession of counterfeit documents.

# Gabriel Giron-Jimenez, 22, of the first block of Cedar Street; possession of counterfeit government documents.

The documents sold for up to $200 apiece, according to Chief Warrant Officer Vincent Solazzo of the county Sheriff's Office, one of the investigators involved in the probe.

Solazzo said the fakes weren't indistinguishable from the real thing.

"I don't think they were even that great," he said. "But if you're not trained, maybe it could pass by."

He described the clients as Mexican men in the country illegally who used the documents to get jobs and drive.

Authorities arrested two men -- Jose A. and Gabriel Giron-Jimenez -- believed to be in the country illegally for allegedly possessing fake identification as part of the investigation.

During the raid at a home on the 200 block of North Laurel Street, police reportedly seized printers, scanners, an electronic typewriter, laminating machines, shredded counterfeit government documents and assorted blank counterfeit government documents.

Solazzo said authorities started the investigation in November after police pulled over drivers in possession of fake ID cards.

He said in a case unrelated to the investigation a woman tried to retrieve a vehicle seized in Bridgeton by providing phony documents to authorities. She was arrested.

In addition to Solazzo, Sheriff's Officer Jose Rodriguez and Detective Michael Duffield of the state Attorney General's Office conducted the investigation.

The Bridgeton Police Department and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the Department of Homeland Security also assisted.

All six suspects were jailed and had federal immigration detainers lodged against them, officials said.

Woman Raised in Texas Faces Deportation After Traffic Infraction (Fox News Latino)

Woman Raised in Texas Faces Deportation After Traffic Infraction

By Emily Lopez KDFW Fox 4

A young woman raised in North Texas now faces deportation to the same city in Mexico where an American immigration agent was murdered.

Twenty-year-old Olga Zanella was brought to the country illegally by her parents when she was a young child.

“I was a baby when I came over here. I was 6 years old,” she said.

She graduated from an Irving high school and has been taking classes to become a dental hygienist.

Zanella does not have a criminal record, but started having trouble with the Department of Homeland Security in February 2009 after being pulled over for a traffic violation.

“That’s when they asked me to get off and that’s when they handcuffed me,” Zanella said.

She was arrested for driving without a license. She admits she never tried to get a Texas driver’s license because she was undocumented.

Zanella spent three days in an Irving jail cell before police turned her over to immigration authorities. They released her on bond and she went back home.

“That was the first time I saw my dad cry,” she said.

Zanella admits that before her arrest neither she nor her parents tried to become legal residents of the United States. But for the past two years, she’s been trying to do what is needed to remain in the country.

She’s gone through a series of court hearings and legal problems. She has exhausted her appeals, and now she faces an uncertain future.

Zanella would be deported to San Luis Potosi, a Mexican city with a violent reputation following the death of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata at the hands of the drug cartel members. She will live with distant relatives she’s never met.

“Right now, if Olga is not helped the alternative is her parents will see her come back to the United States in a body bag because she is not going to make it in Mexico,” said Ralph Isenberg, an activist who is helping Zanella through the murky waters of immigration law.

Isenberg has appealed to the Department of Homeland Security in Washington D.C. and filed a complaint against the director of ICE in Dallas.

The Department of Homeland Security did not return phone calls.

The local ICE office confirmed that a federal immigration judge initially issued deportation orders for Zanella. A spokesman also said Dallas ICE field office director has the authority to stop the deportation process, but that is not appropriate in this case.

Zanella is waiting in fear of the day when she will have to leave her family.

“I’ve never been apart from them," she said. "We’ve always been a close family.”

LAWSUIT ALERT: In Federal Court, Plaintiffs Move to Suspend Nashville Immigration Program (Nashville Scene)

A lawsuit worth keeping an eye on:

In Federal Court, Plaintiffs Move to Suspend Nashville Immigration Program
Posted by Brantley Hargrove
Thu, Mar 17, 2011 at 6:00 AM

Elliott Ozment, whose legal challenge questions the very legality of the Davidson County Sheriff's 287(g) agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, filed a motion for an injunction in federal court today to stop Sheriff Daron Hall's deputies from screening inmates for immigration violations. The injunction is preliminary, pending a finding on whether ICE's 287(g) agreement with DCSO violates state and local law.

As you may recall earlier this month, Ozment was forced to add ICE as a defendant by Chancellor Carol McCoy, who agreed with Metro Department of Law attorney Lora Fox that the feds were an "indispensable party" to the lawsuit.

But U.S. Attorney Jerry Martin didn't think so and said as much in a letter to the parties. This action, he wrote, turned on a question of state and local law. McCoy, however, was unswayed. For common jurisdictional reasons, once the U.S. was added, the case was whisked into the U.S. District Court — though Ozment's suit still painstakingly avoids seeking any declaratory judgment against ICE.

The plaintiffs in the case — Daniel Renteria-Villegas, a citizen, and David Ernesto Gutierrez-Turcios, a lawful permanent resident — are seeking a suspension of the program because the 287(g) agreement, the suit says, violates state and local law. The Metro Charter divested the Davidson County Sheriff of his peacekeeping authority except for what is "necessary and incidental" to the keeping of the jails. By exceeding the authority granted him by the charter, Hall is violating a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act that says immigration enforcement power may only be wielded to the extent consistent with state and local law, according to Ozment's suit.

Trio arrested in drug sweep still not identified (Nashua Telegraph)

Trio arrested in drug sweep still not identified
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
– ANDREW WOLFE

NASHUA – The federal Department of Homeland Security has refused to identify the three people, including one U.S. citizen, that its agents took into custody from Nashua.

City police divulged earlier this month that three Nashua residents were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement as part of a nationwide sweep targeting street gangs.

A spokesman with the agency in Boston, Chuck Jackson, responded to The Telegraph’s request for further information. He confirmed the three arrests but refused to name the people arrested or reveal their current custody or bail status, all of which is information routinely released by state and local police forces.

Jackson identified the people arrested as follows:

“Male, 18, from Dominican Republic, with legal permanent residence status and a non-violent member of the Folk Nation gang, arrested on 2/8 on a criminal drug charge.

“Male, 19, from Mexico, non-violent associate of the Folk Nation gang, arrested on 2/9 on administrative immigration charges.

“Male, 18, U.S. citizen, non-violent associate of the Folk Nation gang, arrested on 2/8 on a criminal drug charge.”

Police and federal law enforcements routinely, though temporarily, withhold arrest information when in the midst of an ongoing investigation. Jackson didn’t say whether that was the case, however.

Federal authorities released a press release early this month announcing the sweep and some 700 arrests nationwide.

2 in city charged with stealing baby formula (The Journal Gazette)

2 in city charged with stealing baby formula
Published: March 16, 2011 3:00 a.m.
Dominic Adams | The Journal Gazette

FORT WAYNE – Formal charges were filed Tuesday against a pair from Mexico arrested last week and accused of working together to steal baby formula.

Police allege Lidia Martinez stole baby formula from nine stores throughout Fort Wayne from Feb. 23 to March 9. Martinez would put the formula in her purse and walk out without paying, according to court documents.

Mario Contreras would be waiting for Martinez in a vehicle in the parking lot and the two would flee, court documents said.

Contreras told police they would steal the formula and give it to a man who then takes it to Mexico, according to court documents.

Martinez, 23, faces felony charges of corrupt business influence and theft in Allen Superior Court. Contreras, 22, is charged with receiving stolen property and corrupt business influence.

Martinez was recorded on security cameras stealing formula on four different occasions, court documents said.

Police caught up with the two March 9 after watching Martinez on a security camera while she removed the security tags from the formula at a Kroger/Scott’s, according to court documents.

Martinez then left the cart full of formula and ran out to Contreras’ awaiting vehicle. When police stopped the vehicle they found 150 cans of formula worth $2,425.19, court documents said.

Although it is unknown why the formula was stolen in this case, The Associated Press reports the Food Marketing Institute, an industry group that maintains a list of the 50 most stolen items from supermarkets, said that cases of Similac-brand powdered formula ranked No. 7 and individual cans of Similac followed at No. 8. Powdered formula typically costs $10 to $30 a can, depending on size and brand, and $75 and up for a case.

Formula is an attractive target for shoplifters because they can resell it on the black market at a reduced price or use it to cut drugs, according to The Associated Press.

Contreras and Martinez are being held without bail at the Allen County Lockup on an unrelated immigration hold, according to a confinement officer.