October 12, 2007

Clerk arrested in Rhode Island driver's licenses scam has minor links to Democrats

Two Rhode Island DMV clerks (Soraya Santiago and Dolores Rodriguez-LaFlamme) have been arrested for selling driver's licenses to illegal aliens and drug dealers. From this:

...[Rodriguez-LaFlamme]... had already been ordered deported. Her application for adjusted immigration status had been denied after a federal investigation discovered two fraudulent marriages, according to a state police affidavit. LaFlamme is appealing the deportation order.

Some who know LaFlamme from her political action in the Latino community said they knew about her immigration issues. LaFlamme had volunteered on a number of election campaigns for Democrats, including those for U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline, and City Councilman Nicholas Narducci Jr.

Yesterday, Narducci said he learned LaFlamme wasn't a citizen last year when she tried to run for a seat on the Ward 4 Democratic committee. She had posted her campaign on a page on Narducci's Web site — touting her employment at the Registry and that she'd come to this country from the Dominican Republic in 1996, and borrowing Narducci's election slogan "A New Beginning." But Narducci said another candidate eventually ran for the seat when it was discovered that LaFlamme was ineligible to vote. She was put on the Ward's community action committee instead.

State Rep. Anastasia Williams, D-Providence, a close friend of Laflamme, said yesterday she didn't know what type of visa LaFlamme entered with, or how long it would have allowed LaFlamme to remain in the United States legally. Williams said that LaFlamme "had gotten married to someone here, while she was still in good standing."

Posted to Immigration_dls at October 12, 2007 09:58 AM