2 Held as Forgers of Immigration Papers : The Border: Officials believe ‘green card’ mill produced hundreds of fake identifications.

In another indication of the booming trade in phony immigration documents, two Mexican nationals are in federal custody after being charged last week in connection with a San Diego-based forgery mill that authorities say may have provided hundreds of job-seeking illegal aliens with bogus paperwork.

The ring, based in a residence on National Avenue in San Diego, is one of the largest uncovered in recent years in the San Diego area, according to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

In this lastest case, the INS says, the forgeries produced were chiefly intended to satisfy prospective employers, who are required to check immigration-related paperwork of new employees under a 1986 federal statute.

Fake documents believed linked to the San Diego mill have been showing up on the street for the past year or so, said Rudy Murillo, an INS spokesman, but authorities had been unable until last week to identify the manufacturer, who sold the bogus material through a network of middlemen and vendors.

“The producer always insulated himself from his salesmen,” noted James Turnage, INS district director in San Diego.

Undercover buys of documents helped break the case, said Richard Walker, supervisory INS special agent in charge of the fraud unit in San Diego.

Based on a large number of photographs of individuals seized at the site, Walker said, authorities believe that the ring had already marketed more than 300 phony “green cards”--the generic name applied to an array of immigration documents allowing foreigners to reside and work on U.S. soil.

Phony green cards sell for about $300 apiece on the street, Walker said. Officers also seized more than 200 blank Social Security cards and more than 200 blank green cards, along with many forged California Department of Motor Vehicle identification documents, Walker said.

Green card customers were asked to provide two passport-sized photographs, which the forgers would then enlarge for use in the counterfeit production, the INS said.

Also confiscated, Walker said, was considerable photographic equipment and a 2-foot-by-3-foot enlarged blank likeness of a green card. Many counterfeiters take pictures of the large mock-ups, including the photograph of the bearer, and then type in particulars before laminating theirs cards and selling them, Walker said.

“We think the quality (of the frauds) was pretty good,” Walker said. “It would not fool an experienced inspector, but an employer or someone from another government agency might not immediately suspect that it was counterfeit.”

The manufacture of phony U.S. immigration documents and the illegal sales of legitimate paperwork have long been thriving illicit businesses, particularly in San Diego, Los Angeles and other U.S. communities with large numbers of illegal immigrants. But lawmen say the industry has been on a steady growth curve since a 1986 federal law required that employers check workers’ paperwork to ensure that new hires are legally residing the United States.

The law, part of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, was intended to dry up the job market for undocumented workers. However, academic and government studies have shown that many have been able to bypass the restriction easily by purchasing bogus papers.

In custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Center were Francisco Gumaro Alcala, 44, who was being held in lieu of $25,000 bond, and Jose Angulo Gonzalez, 44, who was being held without bond. Both suspects have entered not-guilty pleas to a single federal count of producing false documents, officials said.