Illegal Workers Expose Terror Gaps

The Homeland Security Department arrested 57 illegal immigrants last month working at airports and other risk-sensitive facilities around the United States, underscoring concerns that lax employment background checks are leaving a security breach for terrorists to exploit.

In one example, a Peruvian was hired as an airplane mechanic in Greensboro, North Carolina, using a fake Social Security card he bought for $70 on a soccer field, according to court documents. In another, a Florida power plant was alerted to a Mexican working at its nuclear facility only after being tipped off by labor union employees, company officials said.

None of those arrested appear to have terrorism ties. Nearly all used fraudulent or altered driver's licenses and Social Security cards to obtain security clearances. All worked in security-sensitive areas — whether beyond passenger screening checkpoints at airports or in close proximity to nuclear reactors — federal authorities say.

"These individuals pose potential vulnerabilities," said Marcy M. Forman, director of the investigations office at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an arm of the Homeland Security Department.

"Because many of them have utilized fraudulent documents, we don't know who they are," Forman said. "And if they're able to use fraudulent documents, what's to keep terrorists and criminals from doing similar things?"

As many as 11 million illegal immigrants live in the United States, according to a recent study by the Pew Hispanic Center, a private research group.

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