A Mexican national illegally in the U.S. stole another man's identity and went on to become a police officer in Alaska, authorities said Friday.
Rafael Mora-Lopez pleaded not guilty to charges of passport fraud in U.S. District Court in Anchorage. At his arraignment, Mora-Lopez told a federal magistrate he is 47, even though officials listed his age as 51.
...Mora-Lopez had been employed as an Anchorage police officer since 2005 under the name Rafael Espinoza. Police and federal prosecutors said both the real Espinoza — a U.S. citizen who lives outside Alaska — and Mora-Lopez have no known criminal records.
"We have no evidence that this individual had at the time been anything other than a good police officer," Karen Loeffler, U.S. attorney in Alaska, said of Mora-Lopez.
...The passport fraud case is similar to one involving a Mexican national who took the identity of a dead cousin who was a U.S. citizen in order to become a Milwaukee police officer. Oscar Ayala-Cornejo was deported to Mexico in 2007.
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UPDATE, November 26, 2007: Probation for immigrant ex-officer
Wis. Cop Must Leave U.S. Over Stolen ID
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UPDATE, November 23, 2007: Immigrant Breaks Law to Become Cop
AP tells Ayala-Cornejo's story.
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The Washington Post has picked up on the story of former Milwaukee police officer Oscar Ayala-Cornejo, the illegal alien working as a cop under the identity of a dead relative.
From The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Ayala-Cornejo told investigators that he was born in Mexico on Oct. 10, 1982, according to the plea agreement. Ayala-Cornejo's father procured identification papers of his cousin, Jose Morales, who died earlier, it says.
Ayala-Cornejo admitted he falsely represented himself as Jose Morales to ultimately become a police officer, the agreement says.
Ayala-Cornejo changed his identity in 1999, according to a criminal complaint. He attended Pulaski High School under his real name but in 1999 moved to Hamilton High School as Morales. Three years later he was hired as a Milwaukee police aide and underwent the same background investigation that officers get. He became an officer in December 2004.
Chief Nannette Hegerty said her department "did everything it possibly could" to determine his identity.
I don't know about that.
Since Ayala-Cornejo had assumed the identity of a dead cousin and had all the documentation, the police department wouldn't pick up on the lie with just a surface examination.
Is everyone's identity supposed to be presumed to be false? Is it realistic to take that approach?
I guess more in depth screening could have revealed the stolen identity.
Although Ayala-Cornejo switched schools when he took on the new identity, he still was a student in the Milwaukee Public School system.
Other students had to know. I'm surprised they all stayed quiet, and of course yearbook photos don't lie.
Ayala-Cornejo's attorney, Michael Steinle, said his client agreed to plead guilty to settle the issue quickly.
"He's anxious to put this behind him," Steinle said.
Ayala-Cornejo has been removed from the city payroll, a department spokeswoman said. He was suspended the day he was arrested by federal immigration agents on May 30.
He had no choice but to plead guilty.
Steinle makes it sound as if Ayala-Cornejo could have challenged the charges but elected not to.
In The Post's article on Ayala-Cornejo, he is depicted as a victim.
Latino leaders note that working under someone else's identity is common practice for many of the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.
"Their personhood is not recognized since they don't have the right piece of paper, but they're working and they're not harming anyone," said Arnaldo Garcia, enforcement and justice program coordinator of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. "It's very typical that a citizen daughter would lend her Social Security number to her mother so she can work or cousins would use the same driver's license if they look alike. The problem is that the system is set up to criminalize people for working."
That "right" piece of paper means everything.
It's the difference between being in the country legally or being a lawbreaker.
And just because it's very typical for citizens to lend their SS numbers or driver's licenses to others doesn't make it right.
Furthermore, the system isn't set up to criminalize people for working.
That's goofy.
People are criminalized for breaking our immigration laws, not for working per se.
At a Mass devoted to Ayala-Cornejo at St. Adalbert's Catholic Church on June 3, several fellow officers and relatives described him as hardworking and devoted to his community.
"Like the priest is saying, no one should have to suffer like his family is now," parish secretary Carmen Arenas Hernandez said. "We pray for all the families in the same situation, and there are a lot."
I can believe that Ayala-Cornejo was hardworking and devoted to serving the people as a police officer.
That makes it all the more unfortunate that he didn't work hard enough at becoming a U.S. citizen instead of living a lie.
Ayala-Cornejo and his family wouldn't be suffering right now if they had not broken the law.
What's unfair about this is that Ayala-Cornejo will go to jail and leave the country after serving his sentence.
MILLIONS of other illegals don't risk their lives on their jobs like Ayala-Cornejo did, yet they're waiting for amnesty rather than going to jail.
Why should Ayala-Cornejo do jail time and then have to leave the U.S.? Why him when President Bush and others in Washington are pushing to allow MILLIONS of ILLEGALS to stay?
It's not fair when laws aren't upheld equally; but he did elect to break the law. Ayala-Cornejo chose to take that chance, this man whose job it was to uphold the law and arrest the bad guys.
The bottom line is there must be consequences for breaking our laws, no matter how good or productive the person is otherwise. Ayala-Cornejo should know that better than anyone. It's his job. It was his job.
Ayala-Cornejo isn't a victim.
He may be unlucky, but he's not a victim.
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