On Dec. 28, 2008, the "El Paso Times reported that terrorist and Lebanese national Mohammad Kamal Elzahabi is (finally) facing deportation. Elzahabi has been held by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement since his conviction on three counts of possession of false immigration documents in August 2007. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Minnesota, evidence "showed that on Sept. 6, 2001; Sept. Read more »

Last week saw a big win for prosecutors and the FBI with the conviction of three illegal immigrant brothers and two permanent legal residents for the plot to commit a terrorist attack against military personnel at Fort Dix. The convictions for conspiring to kill military personnel (but acquitted of attempted murder) indicate that aggressive pursuit of terrorist plots before they happen can result in convictions. Yet no one is talking about the fact that informants were able to infiltrate the group of five in part because they were able to present the conspirators with something most of them didn’t have – a legal form of U.S. identification. Read more »

As states move forward with more secure driver’s license issuing standards, DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff on Dec. 16, 2008, released $48,575,000 to all 56 U.S. jurisdiction Motor Vehicle Departments. A total of $100 million was made available by Congress in the Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance and Continuing Appropriations Act of 2009. The remaining dollars are set aside for competitive grants “that improve state capabilities consistent with the requirements of the REAL ID rule” submitted via www.grants.gov no later than Feb. 27, 2009. Read more »

On January 11, 2008, Ohio became the first state to agree to comply with the REAL ID law. Under REAL ID, states will conduct more thorough identity verification, including review of source documents provided by the applicant. That Ohio is moving in the direction of more-secure ID issuance is a good thing; and just last week it was reminded that its driver’s license issuing system was abused for at least four years by two U.S. nationals living in Harrisonburg, Va., plus a Puerto Rican and a Mexican.  Read more »

In 1993, Tina Turner lamented about love in What’s Love Got to Do with It?

Fifteen years later, in 2008, Maryland is publicly lamenting about the effect of permitting illegal immigrants to get driver licenses. A bit tongue in cheek—please—Maryland’s lyric might go something like this: Oh what’s illegal immigration got to do, got to do with driver licenses? Read more »

New York State is a leader in assuring more stringent standards in identity verification at its Department of Motor Vehicles. Being at the forefront of taking seriously the 9/11 Commission recommendations regarding secure identification, for the past five years state authorities have worked to continually upgrade their license application process to enhance public safety and national security and reduce fraud. In fact, New York is one of the first states to have implemented the 9/11 Commission recommendation on secure IDs at the DMV level without congressional or administration prodding. Read more »

On September 9, 2008, Manoj Kargudri, a 36-year-old Indian national, was arraigned in U.S. District Court in San Antonio on charges of visa and immigration fraud. Considered a flight risk, he was held pending trial. Kargudri was not just another run-of-the-mill illegal immigration case. This one had patterns of terrorist travel in it, taking advantage of vulnerabilities in U.S. border systems for the purpose of entering and embedding in the United States. Read more »

I have been using E Verify for over 3 years. It takes away all of the guess work in determining if documents presented are valid or not. Being close to the border you would be surprised at the amount of fake IDs that look real until they are run through the program. For the first time in my 20+ years in HR I am comfortable in knowing that we are hiring only employees who are authorized to work in the United States.
Ginny Priborsky, online comment in response to "E-Verify: Is it about to die?," HR Morning, July 11, 2008

The E-Verify program is well on its way to fixing a 20-year-old problem of determining legal employment eligibility in a manner employers can support. (The quote above is an endorsement from an end-user.) Read more »

Last week I wrote about the top ten reasons why a heist of 3,000 blank UK e-passports matters. In that piece, I laid out the many reasons why this heist is a concern to the US, mostly stemming from how these e-passports – even assuming the blank chips that hold biographical and biometric data are not susceptible to counterfeit – still present multiple opportunities for undercover terrorist travel and identity theft. Read more »

The UK Guardian report today of an old-fashioned criminal heist of a van carrying 3,000 just-printed blank UK passports and "vignettes" (used for visa inserts) from Oldham, England (just outside of Manchester) southwest to London should give us pause here in the United States. UK law enforcement says these passports have a street value of about $5 million, or over $3,000 each. Read more »

Two weeks ago, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Ombudsman released his 2008 Annual Report. Today the Ombudsman, Michael Dougherty, was at the Heritage Foundation with former INS Commissioner Doris Meissner and Heritage's James Carafano discussing the report's findings. Read more »