Temp Agency Charged With Providing Phony Badges
In a major bust Wednesday, federal
and local law enforcement agents raided numerous warehouses around
Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, and arrested 24 illegal
workers suspected of using phony security badges to work in
restricted areas around the airport.
Two managers at Ideal Staffing Solutions Inc, the temporary
agency that hired the workers, were also arrested in the sting
operation aimed at identifying "national security vulnerabilities,"
according to the Chicago Tribune. The agency allegedly hired the
workers despite the fact they were in the country illegally, and
provided them with deactivated badges giving them access to secure
areas around O'Hare.
"Most of these workers loaded pallets, freight and meals for
companies doing business at O'Hare," including commercial airlines,
according to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent
Elissa A. Brown. "The government can't be too vigilant when it
comes to airport employees gaining access to secure areas,
especially if they lie about their identities and we have no idea
who they are, and what their true intentions may be."
ICE agents cited several incidents of alleged shady practices at
Ideal Staffing... including actions by manager Norinye Benitez, who
allegedly pushed a box filled with 20 ID badges toward a worker,
and instructed him to "pick one with a picture that most closely
resembled his own likeness." That worker, who was cooperating with
federal agents, used the deactivated badge to access a United
Airlines cargo facility, officials say.
Benitez, reportedly in the country illegally, faces up to 10
years in prison on charges of harboring illegal immigrants, and
misusing a Social Security number. She's apparently not alone in
the latter; a review last month of 120 applications for airport
badges submitted by Ideal showed 110 of them with Social Security
numbers that were either false, or belonged to persons other than
the applicants.
Ideal was under investigation for
eight months before ICE took action, and agents are still looking
into the company's other practices... including how, exactly, the
company was able to obtain deactivated badges.
Officials are also at a loss to explain how persons using the
deactivated badges were still able to access secured areas at
O'Hare. "It's a question we don't have an answer to at this point
in time," said TSA deputy federal security director Ken
Fletcher.
"We're still at the point where we don't know how we got to this
point," added Brown.
Most of the workers arrested Wednesday were from Mexico. Brown
declined to say if any of them had prior criminal histories.
Wednesday's raid echoed a similar sting operation at O'Hare in
2002, that netted 15 illegal immigrants working at the airport.
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