Airport sweep nets 143 arrests

Airport sweep nets 143 arrests

Sept. 9, 2002, 11:17PM

Airport sweep nets 143 arrests
Workers charged with false IDs
By ROSANNA RUIZ
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle

More than 100 Bush Intercontinental Airport employees were arrested at work Monday on false identification charges during a federal roundup two days shy of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks anniversary.

The 143 people arrested in Houston as part of a national roundup called "Operation Tarmac" were the most in the country since the first crackdown in December. No one was indicted after similar operations at 15 other airports nationwide.

While most of the people in Houston were arrested at the airport, some employees who failed to follow directions in a "rouse letter" sent out about a week ago were arrested at home, officials said.

In all, 51 airport employees were indicted on charges of using bogus Social Security numbers and making false statements to a federal agent to obtain their jobs, and 92 others were charged with possessing fake identifications, a misdemeanor. Most of the employees were undocumented immigrants.

"This is not about numbers -- if at the end of the day there are no more people in positions of responsibility that got that job by a lie, this has been a successful operation," U.S. Attorney Michael Shelby told reporters at a news conference at his downtown office.

The employees received letters telling them to show up at Terminal A at Bush, where they registered at a front desk. They were then shuffled into a nearby meeting room.

The scene was replicated at a hotel airport, where dozens of undocumented immigrants were rounded up as part of a separate Immigration and Naturalization Service sweep.

After the employees at Terminal A were told the real reason they had been assembled, they were arrested and taken to the federal courthouse here to appear before magistrate judges.

Most of them had "white" badges, which gave them access to low-level security areas if accompanied by another employee with a higher-level security badge.

The others had blue and gray badges, a mid-level security clearance that gave them access to the tarmac, around airplanes, and access from public areas to secure portal areas and docks. None of those nabbed carried brown badges, the highest clearance to the most secure areas of the airport such as to the control tower.

Shelby said Social Security Administration officials verified more than 21,000 personnel records provided by the city's Airport Security Service. After clearing up clerical and other errors, 143 cases were ultimately turned over to the U.S. Attorney's office for prosecution.

Mark Mancuso, Houston Airport System deputy director for safety and security, said the city was not at fault for issuing the badges to the people arrested. He said the city office had doled out badges to private companies at the airport that conduct their own background checks.

As a result of Operation Tarmac, the city office now handles the background checks, Mancuso said. Despite the apparent lapses, no one has been fired or reassigned as a result of Operation Tarmac, he said.

Shelby said that if further investigations reveal airport employers knowingly hired undocumented immigrants or those with criminal records, they will face criminal charges.

He also addressed concerns raised in April when Enrique Buj Flores, then Houston's Mexican consul general, advised undocumented immigrants working here to surrender or leave their airport jobs.

Shelby defended the high number of Mexican employees charged in the case, a total of 128. The others charged are primarily from other Latin American countries. He said Monday he joined Buj Flores in April to warn undocumented immigrants.

"I think we bent over backward to be fair. This is not about ethnic background or about race," Shelby said.

Eduardo Ibarrola, Buj Flores' successor, said 150 undocumented workers heeded Buj Flores' and Shelby's advice.

"We don't consider these people to be criminals or terrorists," Ibarrola said. "They were working as undocumented aliens at the airport because they needed the work."

Shelby said the timing of the operation, two days before the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, was coincidental. He said airport officials advised him that this week would likely be slow because people generally are choosing not to fly.

Shelby became U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas in December. His first move was to appoint Abe Martinez as the anti-terrorism task force coordinator. Planning for the operation began in earnest in February, Shelby said.

"Our mission since my arrival is to do whatever that's necessary to protect the public so that when people look up in the the sky (they) won't have to wonder if that's an airplane or a missile," Shelby said.

Martinez echoed the sentiment.

"People traveling in our airport can rest assured that government officials know who's working in sensitive positions and whether or not these people pose a risk," he said. "And to the extent they do pose a risk of danger, they're being removed."