Suspect Held in ‘Green Card’ Counterfeiting

A monthlong Immigration and Naturalization Service undercover operation has led to the arrest of an East Los Angeles man on suspicion of printing and selling counterfeit federal documents, authorities said Wednesday.

The arrest of Jose Miguel Castillo, 42, was “the most significant arrest we’ve had in over a year . . . because it dealt with a large-scale vendor of counterfeit documents,” said Rick Rhone, an INS supervisory special agent in Los Angeles. “The other arrests and convictions we had were more for mid-level distributors, rather than the actual printers.”

Assistant U.S. Atty. Bonnie Klapper said that Castillo, who came to this country illegally from El Salvador in 1979, was arrested Monday after several meetings with an INS undercover agent. Investigators later found printing equipment for producing counterfeit alien registration cards in the garage of his home, she said.

During the investigation, the INS undercover agent played the role of “the general manager of a chain hotel that employed hundreds of illegal aliens and was in constant need of documents to supply these illegal aliens,” Klapper said.

Klapper noted that under the new immigration law businessmen have an added incentive to ensure that illegal alien employees have documentation. Under the law, employers face fines or possible imprisonment for knowingly hiring illegal aliens.

At one meeting between Castillo and the agent, the INS man paid $120 to buy 50 counterfeit alien registration cards, commonly called “green cards,” 100 counterfeit Social Security cards and 100 counterfeit U.S. government franked envelopes.

On another occasion, the agent purchased 300 alien registration cards, 300 Social Security cards and 300 franked envelopes for $420, according to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

Klapper said that Castillo told the agent that the franked envelopes could be used to make illegal aliens believe that they were purchasing genuine Social Security cards, rather than counterfeit ones. This could be done by claiming to have an associate inside the government providing the card, a story that would be supported by having it arrive by mail in a U.S. government envelope.

The Secret Service was brought into the case shortly before Castillo’s arrest because he also offered to sell counterfeit bank money orders, Klapper said. That agency is continuing its investigation, she said.

A U.S. District Court hearing to determine whether bail should be set for Castillo is scheduled today before Magistrate Ralph J. Geffen. Castillo will face charges of “knowingly and intentionally transferring counterfeit alien identification documents” and could be subject to up to five years imprisonment on each count, Klapper said.

Ernest Gustafson, the INS director in Los Angeles, said that since the new law’s enactment the agency has simply continued normal enforcement efforts against suppliers of fraudulent documents. In 1986 there were fewer than a dozen convictions for document fraud in the Los Angeles district of the INS, Rhone said.

But enforcement efforts may be boosted after May 5, when the INS begins accepting applications for amnesty, Gustafson said. “The planning is that if there is wholesale selling of documentation, we can divert our priorities into that,” he said.