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.

FMI: www.ice.gov, www.ohare.com