Central Los Angeles : 85 Held in Crackdown on Bogus Identification

Huntington Park police cracked down on the dealing in counterfeit immigration documents on Pacific Boulevard last week, arresting 85 suspects.

Police also confiscated “a large cache of counterfeit documents, along with typewriters, laminators and other related paraphernalia,” said Police Sgt. Michael T. Ewing.

INS agents accompanied the police, who identified about 60 of the arrested suspects as illegal immigrants who face deportation if convicted, Ewing said.

“We did not go out there in any kind of [Proposition] 187 response,” Ewing said. “We’ve been out there identifying who is selling and running, and it just so happened that 80% of the people doing it are illegal aliens.”

The selling of counterfeit documents, or micas, the Spanish word for “identification,” has caused a dramatic increase in violent crime in the area, Ewing said.

“These micaros-- those are the sellers and runners--there’s hundreds of them out there on Pacific fighting for territory, for customers,” Ewing said.

He said shoppers along Pacific Boulevard are often confronted by micaros who will force them to hand over their money, sometimes at knife-point, even if they are not interested in buying fake IDs.

“We need people to come shop on Pacific Boulevard,” Ewing said. “If they don’t feel safe, they are not going to shop here.”

The sweep, called “Operation Mica,” was the culmination of investigations by 60 police officers from Huntington Park and surrounding agencies. They have spent weeks identifying runners, sellers and manufacturers of counterfeit documents, such as fake Social Security cards, green cards and birth certificates.