My commentary: “Card Blanche” / NYC Mayor Wants to Give Illegal Aliens ID Cards

Hi Gang:

My most recent commentary for CAPS (Californians for Population Stabilization is attached below and was predicated on the newly elected mayor of New York City, Bill DeBlasio, to provide illegal aliens with official Identity documents even though there is no way of verifying the names that these hundreds of thousands of aliens who evaded the inspections process to enter the United States, actually are the names of these individuals.  It must be remembered that the purpose for that inspections process carried out by CBP (Customs and Border Protection) is to prevent the entry of international terrorists, transnational criminals, fugitives and others who pose a threat to public safety and national security.

In creating this program to provide hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens with identity documents, the City of New York will not have the resources or wherewithal to conduct the sort of in depth investigation to determine if the names that these estimated half million illegal aliens are providing their true names on their applications.  Gaming this system would be a simple matter for these folks.  Additionally, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that American citizens who seek to adopt false aliases for a variety of nefarious purposes might also seek to exploit this system.   

The use of false identities is generally associated with those who seek to conceal their true identities because they are either criminals or undercover agents.  Law enforcement officers who need to create false identities will not need to avail themselves of Mayor DeBlasio’s program.  As the 9/11 Commission found out, the great majority of international terrorists find the use of multiple false identities to be essential to embedding themselves in the communities in which they live as they carry out their deadly plans.

Identity theft is a huge problem in the United States that costs incredible sums of money to banks and other financial institutions and victimizes millions of innocent victims who may find that this ultimate personal violation will take years to resolve.  When official identity documents are made readily available to large number of people, literally overnight, without necessary safeguards, the potential exists that these documents will not only endanger national security and public safety but create mayhem as a key instrument to facilitate more identity theft.

The creation and trafficking in false identity documents is a huge business- especially in various ethnic immigrant communities- not just the immigrant communities in which the residents are from Latin American countries.

However, Roosevelt Avenue, located in the heart of Jackson Height, Queens, New York is arguably the most infamous of all such neighborhoods associated with the sale of phony identity documents which goes hand-in-glove with other crimes including drugs, prostitution.

On October 12, 2014 the New York Times published an extensive three page article about Roosevelt Avenue and how a variety of crimes were intertwined in that neighborhood.  The title of that article was:

Periodically law enforcement authorities carry out raids of such purveyors of false identity documents.  These law enforcement investigations and arrests are often heralded by politicians who are eager for that all important “photo op” where they commend the police officers and/or federal agents who have struck a blow against such pernicious criminals.

These politicians will talk about how providing identity documents to criminals is extremely dangerous for everyone’s safety.  Of course they are absolutely correct- However, in a display of what I have come to refer to as a lack of “Mouth / Ear” coordination they provide support for programs that would provide unknown millions of illegal aliens with lawful status and the official identity documents issued by the government to signify that these aliens had been granted lawful status and employment authorization.  Similarly, many of these same politicians will support programs such as the one being proposed by Mayor DeBlasio while ignoring that it is extremely likely that because of a lack of resources, the identity documents that New York City would issue to illegal aliens would be no more reliable than the documents provided by those who sell counterfeit documents on street corners of New York and, in fact, across the United States.

Whenever government officials seek to bring an end to criminal activities they seek to ramp up enforcement and impose greater sanctions against those who would violate the laws.  

Today it is clear that all too many of our elected officials are willing to ignore the extreme importance of America’s borders and immigration laws and the fact that they are our first line of defense and last line of defense against international terrorists and transnational criminals.

“Card Blanche”

NYC Mayor Wants to Give Illegal Aliens ID Cards

Michael W. Cutler, Senior Special Agent, INS (Ret.)

Senior Fellow, Californians for Population Stabilization

The term “carte blanche” is a French term that translates as “White Card.” In English it idiomatically refers to a “blank check”- meaning that because the space where the amount of the check would normally be filled in is blank, the bearer can write in any amount.

Another way of describing this is to say that for the person who has been given carte blanche, price is no object.

The concept of such a gift parallels the wrong-headed decision of New York’s newly elected mayor, Bill DeBlasio who has, for reasons that defy comprehension, decided to provide illegal aliens with identity documents even though these aliens are undocumented, meaning that they have no reliable documentation to prove who they really are. The price to be paid would be public safety.

Our immigration laws do not make any distinctions that involve race, religion or ethnicity- only to keep out aliens such as criminals and terrorists who pose a threat to the safety and well being of America and Americans. Title 8, U.S.C. § 1182 provides a list of the classes of aliens to be prevented from entering the United States.

Mr. DeBlasio might well say that the “good news” is that these illegal aliens are no longer “undocumented.”

The bad news is that city official will not be able to verify the names illegal aliens provide. “Undocumented” means that they lack official and reliable identity documents.  Terrorists and criminals could easily game this program to assume false identities. It is ironic that mayor of the city that bore the brunt of the terror attacks on September 11, 2001 is enthusiastically ignoring the advice and findings of the 9/11 Commission that resulted in the enactment of the REAL ID Act.

When those who produce and sell counterfeit identity documents are arrested, officials issue press releases noting that the arrest of such individuals protects public safety because selling identity documents to those who seek to conceal their true identities poses a threat to public safety and national security enable terrorists and criminals to assume false identities that enable them to hide in plain sight.

The identity documents De Blasio wants to provide to illegal aliens would pose the very same threats to public safety and national security because the true identities of these illegal aliens can not be determined, yet paradoxically, politicians who herald the arrest of fraud document vendors may also complain bitterly about anyone who would oppose DeBlasio’s proposed plan to provide illegal aliens with identity documents.

DeBlasio has stated that he wants to protect those “immigrants.” What he needs to explain who he wants to protect them from. Could it be he wants to shield them from detection by law enforcement? If so, he is committing a felony under federal laws.

Under Title 8, U.S.C. § 1324, it is a felony to aid, abet, encourage or induce aliens to enter our country illegally or to conceal, harbor or shield aliens who are illegally present in the United States. That same section of law deems any concerted effort to commit those crimes by working in concert with others to be guilty of conspiracy to violate the immigration laws.

Consequently, city employees who would produce and distribute those documents to illegal aliens could be considered as being engaged in such a conspiracy. However under the Obama administration, rather than face criminal charges, the mayor will likely get a phone call from the Oval Office commending his actions.

Perhaps Mr. DeBlasio has hit upon a new and novel way to combat fraud document vendors by providing a higher quality document to illegal aliens who may well have something to hide- for example, their true names and backgrounds that may identify them as being criminals or terrorists.

Mayor DeBlasio’s scheme would enable illegal aliens, including dangerous international terrorists and transnational criminals, to stop hiding in the shadows will enable them to hide in plain sight among their potential victims. For them, these documents will provide camouflage.