Nov 8
Dangerous racket stopped
In a string of early morning raids today, federal and local authorities cracked down on a wide-ranging scheme to provide illegal aliens with fake ID badges that allowed them to work at O’Hare Airport. The fraudulent security badges gave the illegal or undocumented immigrants access to the tarmac at O’Hare, where they loaded pallets, freight and meals onto commercial airliners. The badges were issued by the city’s Dept. of Aviation.
Authorities arrested 23 illegal aliens, who now face state felony charges for possession of fraudulent state identification. Two employees of Ideal Staffing Solutions, an employment agency in Bensenville, have been charged with federal crimes and were scheduled to appear in court late Thursday afternoon. The two Ideal Staffing employees were identified as Mary Gurin and Norinye Benitez.
The raids included agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement — a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security known as ICE — as well as Cook County sheriff’s deputies. “This case illustrates ICE’s resolve to ensuring unauthorized workers are not employed at our nation’s critical infrastructure facilities,” said Elissa Brown, special-agent-in-charge for the ICE Office of Investigations in Chicago.
The issue of illegal or undocumented immigrants working at O’Hare is not new. Elvira Arellano, who conducted a year-long standoff with U.S. immigration authorities by seeking sanctuary in a Chicago church, once held a job at O’Hare cleaning airplanes.
