These who aid and abet illegals are claiming to always be breaking laws to help the poor illegal aliens, do you believe it to be for humanitarian reasons or are these people out to make money off illegals?
Should they be excused from their criminal actions because they whine they are doing it for humanitarian reasons?
Should all who aid and abet any illegal be prosecuted?
Man ordered to prison for selling fake documents to undocumented immigrants
By Melinda Rogers
The Salt Lake Tribune
Published Jan 3, 2011 05:12PM
Updated 4 minutes ago Updated Jan 3, 2011 08:44PM
Martin says he is a humanitarian who wanted to help undocumented immigrants get the same chance to work in the U.S. that he had been afforded when arriving legally from El Salvador years ago.
The U.S. District Attorney’s Office says Contreras-Parada is a criminal who manufactured more than 1,000 fake immigrant visas, permits, green cards, border crossing cards and other documents in a business venture where he profited from undocumented immigrants’ desperation to find papers allowing them to work after crossing the border illegally.
The two theories collided in federal court on Monday, where Contreras-Parada was sentenced to serve 41 months in a federal prison after pleading guilty in October to felony fraud with identification documents and selling firearms to a felon. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in January 2010.
Contreras-Parada’s case landed in court after he became one of the first arrests made by the Utah Attorney General’s Office SECURE Strike Force, established in June 2009 to target crime by undocumented immigrants. The strike force — financed by a two-year, .2-million grant from federal stimulus funds — includes a fraudulent documents identification unit.
Authorities found 36 hologram laminates for making fake alien registration receipt cards, 183 blank Social Security cards, 13 fake complete Social Security cards and 61 partial alien registration receipt cards. They also found cutting tools, fingerprint pads, glue, lamination papers and photographs when they served a search warrant on Contreras-Parada’s West Valley City home in August 2009.
The strike force found evidence that he had manufactured and was prepared to create more than 1,000 fake documents, said Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacob Taylor.
Contreras-Parada, 46, told U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell that he only sold the documents as a way to help undocumented immigrants, some of whom were living in overcrowded apartments in Salt Lake County with no way to make a living.
Contreras-Parada also admitted to selling a Glock 21 .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol to an immigrant who feared a person he hired to sneak him into the country illegally might cause him harm.
“There are people who live here that live in a little apartment and can’t get ahead. I didn’t make any riches in the sale. I sold them to people who needed them to work,” Contreras-Parada said before Campbell handed down his prison sentence.
“I didn’t harm anyone. I didn’t sell drugs or make anyone sick. I helped people who wanted to support their families.”
Campbell said she would weigh Contreras-Parada’s years of working in the community as a legal resident into his sentence. Contreras-Parada’s wife, son and daughter attended his hearing in support.
But Campbell also told him that his crimes are “serious” and said the number of false documents recovered in his home by investigators was troubling.
Contreras-Parada responded that some in law enforcement who arrested him likely had ancestors who immigrated to the U.S. at one point “without papers.” He acknowledged he broke the law but said he did it for good reason.
“They were very poor people who asked me for help,” he said.
Taylor said that Contreras-Parada owned rental property with his wife to earn income outside of the document mill. His wife worked in a factory, he said.
Contreras-Parada’s attorney, Alexander John Helfer of the Sandy-based Tejada Law Firm, said his client’s ability to stay in the country once he finishes his prison term may be in jeopardy. Contreras-Parada had status as a lawful permanent resident but could be processed for deportation to El Salvador as a result of his convictions.
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Technorati Tags: alien registration, business venture, criminal actions, crossing the border, fake documents, federal grand jury, federal prison, fraudulent documents, green cards, humanitarian reasons, illegal aliens, immigrant visas, melinda rogers, registration receipt, salt lake tribune, social security cards, strike force, two theories, undocumented immigrants, utah attorney general
