September 10, 2005

California driver's licenses for sale at Oakland DMV, no questions asked

There have been several posts about corrupt DMV employees here, including from Arizona, Michigan, Connecticut, and other states. But, this tale is different in a few ways:

Veronica Rivera's scam was simple. She would park her luxury sedan at Oakland's Claremont Avenue DMV, whip out her cell phone, chat a bit in Tagalog, and the cash would flow. Her clients were illegal immigrants desperate for a driver's license. For a hefty price, she got them one, no questions asked. The operation apparently netted her and her partners inside the DMV several hundred thousand dollars. Then the money came to an end. She and her main partner, Frances Aliganga, were arrested and indicted by a federal grand jury on twelve felony charges, and now each face up to 55 years in prison.

The early-August arrests made headlines around the Bay Area, but a closer look at recently unsealed documents reveals that flaws in the DMV's policies and computer system made it startlingly easy for Aliganga to issue real drivers' licenses to illegal immigrants. The documents also raise serious questions about how many other California DMV employees also may have sold IDs to people here illegally. While investigating Rivera and Aliganga's operation, the FBI also uncovered two similar -- but apparently separate -- scams operating out of the same office. The presence of three fraudulent-license rings in one office, along with the ease with which they were able to operate undetected, suggests the statewide scope of such fraud could be vast...

[...details of the undercover investigation...]

They didn't even have an exclusive? Now, here's where it gets a little... strange:

Aliganga's attorney would not comment on the investigation, and Fifer's attorney did not return a phone call seeking comment. Rivera's attorney, Paul Delano Wolf of Oakland, would neither admit nor deny the evidence laid out in the FBI affidavits. But he defended Rivera's actions, portraying her as someone who was providing a service to undocumented Latino immigrants who are barred by law from obtaining drivers' licenses and California IDs. "This case is about their plight in this country," he said. When asked whether his client was really just exploiting the immigrants for financial gain, he said evidence in the case will show that "DMV employees" -- presumably Aliganga -- set the prices they charged for the licenses and IDs. He also said of his client: "I don't think the folks she helped believe they were being exploited."

Maybe he could contact the Mexican government and get their help. And, of course, there's always Gil Cedillo, he might be interested in signing on to this worthy cause.

Posted to Immigration_dls at September 10, 2005 01:25 PM

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