Corpus guilty pleas show different side of work document fraud...

      An article in my local newspaper, via the Associated Press wire reports today Saturday March 3, 2007.

     "When a federal judge in Corpus Christi asked twenty two year old Rosie Medellin why she sold her birth certificate, she said she needed money and didn't really think it through.
     Margarita Moya, sixty eight and her son Felix thirty seven, told the judge that they sold their documents to buy medicine for a loved one., Bobby Joe Flores twenty two said he sold his birth certificate and Social Security card to support a drug habit"
     "It is known that millions of illegal immigrants hold jobs thanks to fraudulent identities. Government raids at meatpacking plants in six states in December, 2006 stemmed from an investigation that uncovered up to four thousand three hundred workers with questionable documentation.
     But the government's focus has been on theft or fabrication of identity documents and federal officials say they know little about people who sell their own legitimate documentation. In all, seven defendants from the Corpus Christi area pleaded guilty this week to selling their birth certificates and Social Security cards for one hundred dollars each."
     "Seven more defendants pleaded guilty to buying or reselling the documents as part of a ring that sold documents to illegal immigrants seeking jobs in Dodge City, Kansas."
      This one is new to me. This is the first time I am hearing this, but on the other hand it does not suprise me. Guess I just find it so difficult to understand the "why" in all of this.
     "The defendants continued on in their own jobs and life, just with doubles, at least on paper, holding jobs in Kansas."
      Now, it makes me wonder if anyone can be trusted anymore. Maybe, just maybe this is not as wide spread as some would have us to believe. Time will tell.