Ammon Blair, a former Border Patrol agent, has revealed that cartels are utilizing fraudulent documentation to smuggle illegal immigrants, occasionally minors, into the United States. These individuals are then able to secure employment using the counterfeit IDs. Blair offered an inside look into the intricate system established by cartels and smuggling organizations at the border.
Blair stated, "Mexican Cartels and smuggling organizations will kidnap children (Mexicans, from Illegal Aliens, or lure/coerce them from their Country of origin) and use them to create fake 'Families' and provide the fake family with fake documents." He further explained to Business Daily that "Fake identification is widespread." Once these individuals successfully enter the United States, they can obtain jobs using these counterfeit documents. Blair noted that U.S businesses struggle to verify these documents, which puts them at risk of facing legal repercussions from the Department of Labor for employing underage workers.
In a conversation with Federal Newswire, Blair shared that cartels have the capability to forge social security cards, driver's licenses and state identification cards. They sometimes resort to stealing American identities. He emphasized that this is a routine activity for cartels who often use Unidentified Alien Children (UACs) equipped with fake documents that Border Patrol cannot authenticate. Due to family unit policies, Blair pointed out that "after being released from Federal custody, the children are either recycled (sent back to Mexico to create a new fake family) or are used for labor or sex trafficking in the U.S."
E-verify is an online system that cross-references information provided by an employer from an employee’s Form I-9 - Employment Eligibility Verification - against records held by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration. The system boasts over 967,000 users with approximately 1,500 new businesses signing up weekly.
In 2019, Alex Nowrasteh of the Cato Institute penned an op-ed for Politico, highlighting potential flaws within the E-verify system. Nowrasteh acknowledged that E-verify has been touted as a solution for undocumented migrants seeking employment in the United States. However, he critiqued its effectiveness, stating, "Undocumented immigrant workers get around E-Verify mandates in several ways. The first is by taking advantage of E-Verify’s biggest weakness: It checks the identification papers, not the worker. Thus, an undocumented immigrant worker can pass an E-Verify check if he hands somebody else’s identification to his employer." He referenced a government audit that discovered 54% of undocumented workers were approved by E-verify and concluded that systematic design flaws render it "destined to fail."
According to a report from the Cato Institute cited by the Forth Worth Star-Telegram on Governing's website, E-Verify has reportedly failed to identify nearly 12 million illegal hires since 2006. The system, designed to ensure proper worker documentation, is vulnerable to exploitation by undocumented workers who use stolen identities to bypass it. The report raised questions about whether the employer or employee should be held accountable for this loophole.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service mandates companies to accept documentation that "reasonably appears to be genuine," according to its website. Meanwhile, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) prohibits employers from demanding specific identification documents from prospective employees, including a social security card. This is because such practices could "disproportionately screen out work-authorized individuals of a certain national origin, such as newly arrived immigrants."
