Woman sentenced in driving certificates scam

Since 04-24-06

by Duncan Mansfield
The Associated Press
2006-04-20

http://www.thedailytimes.com/sited/story/html/235573

KNOXVILLE -- The ringleader of an underground network that shuttled illegal Hispanic immigrants from New Jersey to Tennessee to secure driver's certificates using fake residency documents was sentenced Wednesday to 46 months in federal prison.

``I did not force anybody to come to this state to get a license,'' Zeneida Concepcion Rivera, 55, pleaded through a Spanish interpreter. ``I was not doing business with these people, I was helping them.''

The Lakewood, N.J., resident insisted she was providing a service to hardworking undocumented workers who needed one of Tennessee's unique driver's certificates so they could legally drive to their construction jobs and support their families. The cards verify eligibility to drive in the state, but are not valid identification.

But U.S. District Judge Thomas Phillips was unconvinced, noting testimony that she charged $1,500 to $2,000 per certificate.

``Quite frankly, I think it is egregious what (Rivera) has done,'' he said. ``She has been making a lot of money from these transactions.''

Rivera's arrest last July along with six of the more than 100 illegal immigrants she brought to Knoxville over the past two years was the first of three major license conspiracies uncovered in Tennessee, leading the state to suspend the certificate program last month.

The certificates were intended to benefit all motorists by ensuring that even undocumented immigrants were certified to drive and able to register and insure their vehicles. Tennessee has issued more than 51,000 certificates since 2004 when it became the first state to offer them.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Theodore said the certificates turned Tennessee into a ``magnet'' for undocumented immigrants seeking legitimacy. ``Maybe the individuals arrested were just Hispanics working, but there are people far more nefarious that could take advantage of this,'' he said.

Rivera pleaded guilty to one of seven counts alleging that she conspired ``to knowingly produce and cause to be produced without lawful authority ... identification documents.''

Phillips gave her the maximum sentence of just less than four years. He allowed Rivera, who had no criminal record, to return to New Jersey with her daughter and granddaughter. She must report to prison on May 1.

The six clients arrested with Rivera spent several months in custody, then were released for time served and turned over to immigration authorities for deportation.

Rivera's attorney, Mike Whalen, called her crime a ``misadventure'' and said she was no more of a ``victimizer'' than a society that quietly condones illegal immigrants willing to wash its windows and cut its lawns.

Countered Theodore, ``She was a profiteer.''