harrisonsdream
08-04-2007, 01:49 PM
Loophole allowed immigrants to get Texas licenses
Associated Press
DALLAS — After about 400 foreign nationals — most of them Middle Eastern, half living illegally in the United States — took advantage of a loophole in Texas driver's license requirements from 2003 to 2005, it took the Texas Department of Public Safety more than a year to cancel the licenses, a newspaper reports.
The agency says that because of questions as to whether the department had the right to invalidate the licenses and an e-mail miscommunication, it wasn't until May of this year that the licenses were canceled. Since the abuse, DPS has changed its driver's license requirements.
"The governor hopes no state agency charged with the security of our citizens takes a cavalier approach as if 9/11 never happened," Eric Bearse, a spokesman for Gov. Rick Perry, told The Dallas Morning News for its Saturday editions. While there's no indication the applicants had any interest other than overstaying their visas, he said, some of them "come from countries with ties to terrorist activities."
Isaac Banai, an Israeli-born taxi driver who is a U.S. citizen by marriage, is accused of orchestrating the scheme in which for $500, immigrants would be picked up at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, spend two nights in a motel and then be taken to apply for a fraudulent Texas driver's license. The clients, who listed the motel as their current residence, then flew back to their homes in New York or New Jersey
Federal investigators say that Banai knew that for many foreign nationals in the country on six-month tourist visas, a valid driver's license is key to staying past the expiration date.
Officials say he also knew Texas issued licenses to people with a passport and a visa. Unlike many other states, Texas didn't require I-94s, immigration papers that ensure a visa is current.
According to a 32-count indictment, 44-year-old Banai offered the driver's license vacations for two years, even posting advertisements in an Israeli newspaper in New York. While most of his clients were Israeli, he also had customers from Egypt, Syria, Iraq and countries in Europe and Central America.
After federal immigration officials saw the newspaper advertisements, Banai was indicted on charges of inducing illegal immigrants to reside in the United States, money laundering and mail fraud, among others.
Banai, who pleaded not guilty, is out on bail until his October trial. If convicted, he could face a sentence of 470 years in prison and up to $8 million in fines. His attorney declined to comment. Banai, reached by phone Saturday by The Associated Press, had no comment as well.
DPS officials said that they moved to close the driver's license application loophole in February 2006, about a month after the agency learned of the Banai case.
While all parties agree that DPS should have canceled the licenses in early 2006, DPS was still trying to decide what to do six months later. At one point, U.S. Attorney Richard Roper contacted Perry's office, citing the "significant problem" he was having getting DPS to cooperate, according to a letter written by Steve McCraw, Texas homeland security director.
In January 2007, DPS officials got a letter from federal immigration authorities asking them to take action. But instead of canceling the licenses, they asked the U.S. attorney's office for a letter directing them to invalidate the licenses.
The U.S. attorney's office sent an e-mail order that got lost in the shuffle, said Judy Brown, chief of the DPS driver's license division. It was May 2007 by the time the agency canceled the licenses.
"It was absolutely unintended, and as soon as it was detected, we began working with the pace this type of situation required," Brown said. "We dropped the ball internally. We absolutely had a miscommunication."
Brown said DPS has given officials in New Jersey and New York a list of those with fraudulent licenses so that they'll be apprehended if they try to use the Texas ID to reapply.
Brown said that at the time Banai was allegedly operating, a passport and a visa without an I-94 form were sufficient to get a license. Today, an I-94 is mandatory with a visa in all but a few circumstances.
"We believe we were following policy as it was laid out at the time," she said.
But an e-mail from DPS general counsel Mary Ann Courter to the U.S. attorney's office in Dallas says that DPS' issuance of the licenses using merely passports and visas "was not even in compliance with the version of (the administrative code) in effect at the time." It also indicates that no type of foreign passport was supposed to be used as a primary document for obtaining a driver's license.
Associated Press
DALLAS — After about 400 foreign nationals — most of them Middle Eastern, half living illegally in the United States — took advantage of a loophole in Texas driver's license requirements from 2003 to 2005, it took the Texas Department of Public Safety more than a year to cancel the licenses, a newspaper reports.
The agency says that because of questions as to whether the department had the right to invalidate the licenses and an e-mail miscommunication, it wasn't until May of this year that the licenses were canceled. Since the abuse, DPS has changed its driver's license requirements.
"The governor hopes no state agency charged with the security of our citizens takes a cavalier approach as if 9/11 never happened," Eric Bearse, a spokesman for Gov. Rick Perry, told The Dallas Morning News for its Saturday editions. While there's no indication the applicants had any interest other than overstaying their visas, he said, some of them "come from countries with ties to terrorist activities."
Isaac Banai, an Israeli-born taxi driver who is a U.S. citizen by marriage, is accused of orchestrating the scheme in which for $500, immigrants would be picked up at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, spend two nights in a motel and then be taken to apply for a fraudulent Texas driver's license. The clients, who listed the motel as their current residence, then flew back to their homes in New York or New Jersey
Federal investigators say that Banai knew that for many foreign nationals in the country on six-month tourist visas, a valid driver's license is key to staying past the expiration date.
Officials say he also knew Texas issued licenses to people with a passport and a visa. Unlike many other states, Texas didn't require I-94s, immigration papers that ensure a visa is current.
According to a 32-count indictment, 44-year-old Banai offered the driver's license vacations for two years, even posting advertisements in an Israeli newspaper in New York. While most of his clients were Israeli, he also had customers from Egypt, Syria, Iraq and countries in Europe and Central America.
After federal immigration officials saw the newspaper advertisements, Banai was indicted on charges of inducing illegal immigrants to reside in the United States, money laundering and mail fraud, among others.
Banai, who pleaded not guilty, is out on bail until his October trial. If convicted, he could face a sentence of 470 years in prison and up to $8 million in fines. His attorney declined to comment. Banai, reached by phone Saturday by The Associated Press, had no comment as well.
DPS officials said that they moved to close the driver's license application loophole in February 2006, about a month after the agency learned of the Banai case.
While all parties agree that DPS should have canceled the licenses in early 2006, DPS was still trying to decide what to do six months later. At one point, U.S. Attorney Richard Roper contacted Perry's office, citing the "significant problem" he was having getting DPS to cooperate, according to a letter written by Steve McCraw, Texas homeland security director.
In January 2007, DPS officials got a letter from federal immigration authorities asking them to take action. But instead of canceling the licenses, they asked the U.S. attorney's office for a letter directing them to invalidate the licenses.
The U.S. attorney's office sent an e-mail order that got lost in the shuffle, said Judy Brown, chief of the DPS driver's license division. It was May 2007 by the time the agency canceled the licenses.
"It was absolutely unintended, and as soon as it was detected, we began working with the pace this type of situation required," Brown said. "We dropped the ball internally. We absolutely had a miscommunication."
Brown said DPS has given officials in New Jersey and New York a list of those with fraudulent licenses so that they'll be apprehended if they try to use the Texas ID to reapply.
Brown said that at the time Banai was allegedly operating, a passport and a visa without an I-94 form were sufficient to get a license. Today, an I-94 is mandatory with a visa in all but a few circumstances.
"We believe we were following policy as it was laid out at the time," she said.
But an e-mail from DPS general counsel Mary Ann Courter to the U.S. attorney's office in Dallas says that DPS' issuance of the licenses using merely passports and visas "was not even in compliance with the version of (the administrative code) in effect at the time." It also indicates that no type of foreign passport was supposed to be used as a primary document for obtaining a driver's license.