Burning Atlanta

I'm so sick of this. Oh, No. Don't enforce the law. That will hurt their itty-bitty feelings.  And they always use the last bastion argument of every snot-nosed, candy-assed liberal, "What about the children?"

Bust All of Them

U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald's announcement Wednesday of federal charges against 22 people linked to a $2 million fake-ID operation in Little Village was intended to promote the closing of a breach in national security.

But in a sign of the electric atmosphere that surrounds immigration reform and a planned rally downtown next week, Fitzgerald defended the raid against charges that it was heavy-handed and designed to intimidate those considering taking part in the rally.

"I can assure everyone that the arrests had nothing to do with the rally that's upcoming," Fitzgerald told them. "There is a great debate going on in our country about the immigration situation. This case is not about that debate."

Instead, he said, the 12 arrests, along with warrants for 10 fugitives, were the result of a yearlong investigation. Officials charged all defendants with conspiracy, mail fraud and other crimes. Two were charged with murder conspiracy.

Each day the ring, employing some 15 to 20 runners, lookouts and outdoor salesmen, sold as many as 100 "high-quality" fake driver's licenses, Social Security cards or resident alien cards, for as much as $300 apiece, Fitzgerald said. Customers from Mexico, Pakistan, Poland and other countries flocked daily to the site at 26th Street and Albany Avenue, he said.

The volume and indiscriminate manner in which IDs were sold posed a "significant risk" of terrorism "that we just cannot tolerate," Fitzgerald said.

The complaint states that undercover agents posing as buyers negotiated transactions for fake IDs inside Nuevo Foto Munoz, and that the shop kept worksheets "for customers to fill out which indicated the name and other information they wanted on fraudulent identification cards."

That drew the ire of Ald. Munoz, whose ward includes Little Village.

"They found nothing," Ald. Munoz said. "They confiscated a couple of cameras, and he'll probably get them back in a couple of days when they figure out the pictures in the cameras were from baptisms. I know my dad takes pictures for passports and IDs. What people use them for, I don't know."

U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) called the federal action "counterproductive," adding "people are going to be angry" when they hit the streets at the immigration-reform rally on Tuesday.

"Counterproductive" my ass. You worthless POS. And of course the "I didn't know" alibi. Are you a total idiot, Munoz?