The immigration laws that so many politicians and members of the administration are unwilling to enforce are at the bedrock of national security and the other issues and challenges that confront our nation today.
For far too long our citizens demonstrated apathy which emboldened elected representatives to all but ignore the needs of the average American citizen in a quest for massive campaign funds and the promises of votes to be ostensibly delivered by special interest groups.
It is therefore understandable that the politicians of both parties, are greatly concerned about the demonstrations currently sweeping our nation just as did the creation of the Tea Party. Clearly more and more of our fellow Americans are demonstrating that they are not as dumb as the politicians from both parties had expected us to be!
I am encouraged that more and more of us, We the People, are not willing to simply sit on the sidelines anymore!
If our government’s failures to secure our nation’s borders and effectively enforce our immigration laws concerns you or especially if it angers you, I ask you to call your Senators and Congressional “Representative. This is not only your right- it is your obligation!
All I ask is that you make it clear to our politicians that we are not as dumb as they hope we are!
We live in a perilous world and in a perilous era. The survival of our nation and the lives of our citizens hang in the balance.
This is neither a Conservative issue, nor is it a Liberal issue- simply stated, this is most certainly an AMERICAN issue!
You are either part of the solution or you are a part of the problem!
Democracy is not a spectator sport!
Lead, follow or get out of the way!
USA Talk Radio
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Manager for Violent Fraudulent Document Ring Sentenced to Two Life Sentences for Murdering Rival Vendor
Today’s
commentary is predicated on two news releases that address the same
subject- the imposition of two life prison sentences on a particularly
pernicious criminal who was a key player in a ring that manufactured and
sold counterfeit identity documents to illegal aliens and used acts of
extreme violence as a means of protecting his “turf.”
Before we get into the particulars of this case, I want you to
consider that just about one week ago Janet Napolitano issued a
statement about how violence from the Mexican cartels have not spilled
across the U.S./Mexican border. I addressed the issue of “spillover
violence” in an Op-Ed for the Fox News Latino website on February 23, 2012 that was entitled, “Spillover Violence is National Reality.”
The case we are focusing on today provides a clear example of
“spillover violence” that Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet
Napolitano appears unwilling to take into account.
The news releases we are addressing today are quite similar and were issued by both the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) on March 2, 2012.
The opening paragraph of the Justice Department news release does a good job of laying out the salient facts about this case:
WASHINGTON – Edy Oliverez-Jiminez, aka “Daniel,”
Erasmo,” “Ulysses” and “Jesus,” 25, of Virginia Beach, Va., was
sentenced today to two consecutive life terms on prison, after having
been convicted by a jury for racketeering, murder, kidnapping,
conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to produce and
transfer false identification documents.
The DOJ news release went on to report:
“Edy Oliverez-Jiminez is a calculating murderer who
savagely attacked rival vendors to corner the fake document market,”
said U.S. Attorney MacBride. “His Mexican-based cartel exported crime,
pain and terror into the United States and today’s sentence
appropriately ensures that he will never rejoin society on either side
of the border.”
“Edy Oliverez-Jiminez, like his co-conspirators, committed
horrific acts of violence to protect the turf of his fraudulent document
ring,” said Assistant Attorney General Breuer. “Because of his crimes,
he will now spend the rest of his life in prison.”
What is disconcerting is that Oliverez-Jiminez was convicted of
exporting the violence of a “Mexican-based cartel.” Yet, there is
nothing in either news release about the citizenship of either
Oliverez-Jiminez or his co-conspirators. Consider this quote from the
ICE news release:
“Oliverez-Jimenez was a long-term supervisor for a
highly sophisticated and violent fraudulent document trafficking
organization based in Mexico, with cells in 19 cities in 11 states,
including three cells in Virginia. Prior to his arrest, he had served as
the cell manager for the Virginia Beach and Little Rock, Ark., cells.”
In my experience, when transnational gangs set up shop in communities
in the United States, the key players of the cells that embed
themselves are almost always citizens of the country from which the
criminal enterprises originate. It should be presumed that
Oliverez-Jiminez is a citizen of Mexico, but it would seem that
especially under the current administration- there is a great reluctance
to clearly identify criminal aliens who operate within the United
States. Perhaps the concern is that if the public was made aware of how
many criminal aliens were operating inside the United States and
especially at great distance from the Southwest Border, more American
would demand that our borders be secured and our immigration laws be
enforced.
The ICE news release provided some truly startling details concerning about the business practices of the document ring:
On Nov. 29, 2011, a federal jury convicted
Oliverez-Jimenez of kidnapping and murdering a rival in Little Rock in
July 2010. Posing as a potential client, a conspirator placed a call to
the rival and arranged to meet him and an associate at an abandoned
trailer house. When the rival entered the home, Oliverez-Jiminez and
others attacked him, binding his feet, mouth and eyes with duct tape.
The rival’s associate was also brought inside, bound with duct tape, and
beaten by the attackers. Both men were left bound on the floor, and the
rival was later pronounced dead at the scene of the attack. According
to the Arkansas deputy chief medical examiner, he died of asphyxia,
blunt-enforced trauma and blood loss.The jury also convicted Oliverez-Jiminez for his role in managing
cells in Little Rock and Virginia Beach that produced high-quality
false identification cards for illegal aliens. He supervised a number of
“runners” who distributed business cards advertising the organization’s
services and helped facilitate transactions with customers. The cost of
fraudulent documents varied depending on the location, with counterfeit
resident alien and Social Security cards typically selling from $150 to
$200. Each cell maintained detailed sales records and divided the
proceeds between the runner, the cell manager and the upper level
managers in Mexico. From January 2008 through November 2010, members of
the organization wired more than $1 million to Mexico.
Both the ICE and DOJ news releases contained the following highly
descriptive passages about what passed for “business as usual” where
this violent document ring was concerned. You will notice that one of
the ringleaders, Israel Cruz Millan used the nickname “El Muerto.” You
may be interested to know that it translates to “The Dead One!” Here is
the excerpt from the news releases about him and his organization’s
system of “incentives:”
Throughout the conspiracy, Oliverez-Jiminez worked
under Israel Cruz Millan, aka “El Muerto,” 26, of Raleigh, N.C., who led
the organization in the United States and reported to leaders in
Mexico. Millan pleaded guilty on Nov. 15, 2011, to racketeering
conspiracy, conspiracy to produce and transfer false identification
documents and conspiracy to commit money laundering. On Feb. 16, 2012,
U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer sentenced Cruz Millan to 300 months
in prison.
Testimony at the trial of Oliverez-Jiminez showed that in June
2009, members of Cruz Millan’s organization in Richmond, Va., lured two
rival sellers to a home, bound them, struck them with a baseball bat and
cut them with a knife, and then placed a semi-automatic handgun in a
rival’s mouth and warned him about selling false identification
documents in Richmond. In November 2010, Cruz Millan and a conspirator
complained that a rival seller in Nashville, Tenn., continued to
operate on their turf even after they had beat him up. Cruz Millan
instructed his subordinate to find an empty house to take care of the
rival, cautioning him to wear gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints and
to avoid using a gun which would create too much noise when fired.
Cruz Millan tightly controlled the organization’s activities,
keeping in regular contact with Oliverez-Jiminez and other cell managers
about inventory, bi-weekly sales reports and competition. Members who
violated internal rules within the operation were subject to discipline,
including shaving eyebrows, wearing weights, beatings and other violent
acts. During Oliverez-Jiminez’s trial and Cruz Millan’s sentencing
hearing, the United States presented evidence regarding Cruz Millan’s
orchestration of the kidnapping, beating and torture of an enterprise
member who was suspected of stealing from the organization. The event
occurred on Oct. 29, 2010, in Raleigh, N.C. The evidence presented
included telephone calls during which Cruz Millan conducted a
“conference call” with other cell leaders around the United States so
they could hear the torture as it took place and sending a message to
other enterprise members about what would happen if they were caught
stealing from the criminal organization. The testimony and intercepted
calls depicted how the victim was subjected to electric shocks
administered by placing his feet in a bucket of water and electrocuting
him with jumper cables attached to a car battery.
This case represents only one such organization that was identified
and dismantled through the diligent efforts of the various law
enforcement organizations that participated in the investigation.
Consider the final paragraph contained in the news releases:
Twenty-seven members of the organization were
originally arrested on Nov. 18, 2010. Following the Oliverez-Jiminez
trial, all of those defendants have been convicted. In addition, two
other defendants have been convicted in related cases in the Eastern
District of Virginia, along with others who have been charged and
convicted in other districts across the country.HSI received assistance from the Virginia State Police and
Chesterfield County Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael
Gill and Angela Miller, and Trial Attorney Addison Thompson, of the
Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section,
prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.
Incidentally, it is important to make note that as is almost always
the case, such investigations are greatly assisted when local police
agencies work cooperatively with ICE.
A couple of final thoughts:
It was reported that this criminal organization that operated across
11 states, most of them thousands of miles from the U.S./Mexican border-
making it clear that the impact of illegal immigration is not simply
being felt in the “Four border states” the politicians often talk
about. This crisis impacts each and every one of our nation’s 50
states! While most illegal aliens likely bought the fake identity
documents to simply work illegally in our country, there is no denying
that at least some of the many customers that would have numbered in the
thousands, had criminal histories they were attempting to conceal or
may even have been attempting to conceal affiliations with terrorist
organizations- there was not a single word to be found in either press
release about any efforts being expended to attempt to locate and arrest
any of the supposed illegal aliens who were the customers of this
document ring. Even if it would not be practical to charge most of them
with criminal violations, efforts should certainly be undertaken to
find them and seek their removal (deportation) from the United States.
While we are on the topic of the deportation of illegal aliens- it is
also disconcerting that the issue of the citizenship and immigration
status of the more than 30 defendants in the case was not discussed. If
any of these criminals are aliens they should be removed from the
United States upon completion of their jail sentences. This can only
happen if ICE takes the appropriate measures- actions that it would
appear are not a priority for the agency that has sole responsibility to
seek the removal of illegal aliens present in the United States!
Immigration fraud has two components, the creation of fraud documents
and the establishment of fraud schemes to enable aliens to acquire
immigration benefits for which they are not entitled. Both of these
components of fraud pose a serious problem to the integrity of the
immigration system and, indeed, to national security. Yet not one
single candidate for the Presidency or any other elected office has ever
addressed this threat to our nation.
The time has come for the federal government to be as concerned with
the presence of illegal aliens who are in our country as they are with
other violations of laws. The entire purpose for our immigration laws
is to save American lives and American jobs. How could any politician
live up to his (her) oath of office and not understand this fundamental
truth? How could they possibly live up to their oaths of office without
recognizing that the effective enforcement of our immigration laws is
an integral component of that oath of office?