Maryland ID fraud makes voter registration fraud easy
Why
No. 5284 Randolph Rd., in a Rockville shopping center, is a modest Parcel Plus store where small businesses rent mailboxes by the month. It's also the address used by at least 42 undocumented immigrants living in states along the Eastern Seaboard to fake a Maryland residence so they could get a driver's license, records show. Most of them got away with it, authorities say, evidence that Maryland -- the last holdout east of the Colorado Rockies in the nationwide effort to tighten rules on how states issue driver's licenses -- has become a magnet for illegal immigrants from Georgia to Delaware seeking driving privileges. Along with New Mexico, Hawaii and Washington state, Maryland does not check the immigration status of drivers when they apply for a license. The policy has made the state vulnerable to widespread fraud by illegal immigrants living outside Maryland -- as well as to criminals seeking to create false identities -- according to court records and interviews with state officials. And in some cases, state workers who issue licenses have run sophisticated schemes right out of Motor Vehicle Administration branches. Many of those employees have been successfully prosecuted. Security is the chief concern cited by Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) and lawmakers as the General Assembly debates whether to require license-seekers to verify their lawful presence in the country. It's a change the Democratic-controlled legislature has resisted out of sensitivity to immigrants. But to comply with a federal law known as Real ID, the state must show this year that legal residents have access to a secure, nationally recognized license. "This is not about immigration policy," said Maryland's motor vehicle administrator, John Kuo. "It's about the security of our identification card." Immigrant rights advocates support a two-tiered system that would also comply with federal law by allowing newcomers without proof of legal status to get a limited license for driving -- but not to board airplanes, enter federal buildings or cross borders. O'Malley and other opponents say that wouldn't stop the fraud problem. If it doesn't pass its own law, Maryland would be forced to meet an early deadline to put into effect other costly provisions of the Real ID law. Kuo could not say how many undocumented immigrants from other states have obtained a Maryland license. But he noted that although there are at most 300,000 illegal immigrants living in the state, since 2006 his agency has processed about 350,000 licenses for drivers using foreign documents without U.S. visa stamps. Maryland's license is considered so insecure that some states, including Colorado, Arizona and Oklahoma, no longer accept it as a proof of identity for relocating drivers. Similar concerns have led the District to deny all out-of-state licenses as proof of identity. Virginia still accepts them. MVA officials said it is relatively easy for illegal immigrants from other states to get a Maryland license. They must take a driving test, but they can prove their identity with a foreign driver's license or passport even if it lacks a U.S. visa stamp, along with statements from cellphone companies or banks. Such bills are also used as proof of a Maryland address -- and if you call a bank or cellphone company, they will change the address with no questions asked. Many give a friend's address, said a clerk at a Langley Park store that charges fees to help with the application process. The clerk said about three clients a month use that ruse. "They're mainly from New Jersey. It's pretty obvious," said the woman, who asked not to be identified. Others choose rural locations where mail is easy to intercept, such as Winback Farm, a horse farm near Maryland's northern border. On Jan. 16, 2008, a woman with a passport from Argentina named Gabriel Beatriz Wekid gave the farm's address to the MVA in Harford County and provided a Sprint wireless bill listing it as well. But another document raised a flag to the examiner: a letter from a Delaware agency. Wekid really lived in Newark, Del., and had never been employed at Winback, according to the farm's human resources director. Wekid, who could not be located for comment, was charged with two violations of fraud law, court records show. She paid a $55 fine and was given 60 days probation. Officials successfully prosecuted 250 cases of residency fraud last year. The MVA cancelled an additional 246 licenses it says were fraudulently obtained in 2007, including those delivered to the Parcel Plus on Randolph Road. Owner Felix Heymann said he does not require customers to prove they live in Maryland. "They give us an address," he said, "but it's very difficult for us to verify it." Bill Donoho, head of the MVA's fraud division, said this represents a sliver of the illegal activity. With four full-time investigators each juggling 30 alleged fraud cases, he said,
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References:
http://www.examiner.com/x-1818-Denver-Election-Reform-Examiner~y2009m4d7-Maryland-ID-fraud-made-easy,http://helpsavemaryland.blogspot.com/2009/03/driver-license-fraud-in-maryland-is.html,http://mediahangout.blogspot.com/2009/04/mva-maryland.html
