Illegal-Alien Aviation Mechanics Arrested
Illegal-Alien Aviation Mechanics Arrested
Date: Wednesday, March 23, 2005 3:51 PM
JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER
by Rob Sanchez
March 23, 2005 No. 1220
Recently I published a newsletter about how the aviation and nuclear
power industries were being infiltrated with illegal aliens. Since then
more revelations have come out about the aviation mechanics at TIMCO.
TIMCO and SMART are companies that are known as aviation outsourcers.
They take contracts for airplane maintenance from major airlines.
Supporters for this practice claim that the only difference is lower
costs for airlines. The shills should tell that to the families of the
21 people aboard US Airways Express Flight 5481 that died in a crash
because of shoddy workmanship from these outsourcers.
Some of the illegal aliens that worked on that US airways plane were
hired by Jorge Ruiz-Alonso - himself an illegal alien from Venezuela.
Alonso was a coordinator with the aviation company S.M.A.R.T. that
found temporary workers to work at TIMCO to work on aircraft
maintenance. The aliens came from various countries including Chile,
Peru, the Philippines and Zimbabwe. To put things simply, an illegal
alien was hiring even more illegal aliens to work on U.S. passenger
planes!
At least two of the aliens used fraudulent North Carolina driver's
licenses to get their jobs as airplane mechanics. As most of you know
who watch Lou Dobbs, North Carolina has a reputation for handing out
driver's licenses to illegal aliens. Other phony documents were easily
bought on the black market. Edwin Alberto Alarcon-Dias admitted that he
purchased a fraudulent Social Security card for $50 from a person named
Carlos at a soccer park in Miami, Fla.
The illegal from Zimbabwe used an FAA license that allowed him to work
on sensitive air frames and power plants. His visitor visa expired in
2002 and yet his FAA license was renewed six days after he was arrested
for working as an illegal alien!
Percy Vega, a former fighter pilot for the Peruvian navy is licensed by
the Federal Aviation Administration as a commercial pilot. This
Peruvian lied about his experience so that he could get a license to
supervise other mechanics. Of course the FAA gave him the license which
he used to supervise his staff of fellow illegals!
William Gheen points out the absurdity of this sordid situation:
"Except for Sept. 11, it cant get much worse than having
an illegal alien working on jet engines," said William Gheen
of Americans for Legal Immigration, a Raleigh-based political
action committee.
Of course there is always an immigration lawyer that has a differing
view based on the fact that there are bundles of money to be made by
defending the rights of aliens to invade our country. In Chapman's
opinion the problem isn't that these illegal aliens broke our
immigration laws in order to work on our airplanes, the problem is that
we don't give any willing worker that wants to come to the U.S. a guest
worker visa.
But Greensboro immigration lawyer Gerard Chapman sees Vegas
situation as the upshot of bad federal policies on guest workers.
Vegas only trouble may be that under current immigration law,
his
job doesnt qualify him for a longer stay just because it
doesnt
require a college degree, he said. Whats needed is a change
that
lets people like Vega extend their stay to work jobs outside such
a restrictive policy, Chapman said.
In case you think these aircraft mechanics came to the U.S alone, think
again! The families of two illegals were seen at a court hearing for
two of the TIMCO employees. A "heart-wrenching scene" unfolded outside
the courtroom as the two criminals were being led to their jail cells.
WARNING: Get your hankies out before reading this tear-jerker:
After Cruz was led away cuffed hand and foot following the
hearing,
Cruz's 2-year-old son, Arvingio, broke away from Cruz's wife,
GiGi,
who is a legal permanent resident of the United States. The child
tried to toddle down the corridor that had just swallowed his
father.
"Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" screamed the child, an American citizen
born on U.S. soil.
"We'll see Daddy later," said GiGi Cruz, fighting back tears of
uncertainty as she scooped up her son.
"Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" screamed the child, an American citizen
born on U.S. soil.
Unfortunately the immigration service won't be able to deport GiGi and
her screaming "anchor baby" even though both her and her husbands are
criminals. That's because GiGi was smart enough to produce the kid in
the US so that the kid will receive automatic amnesty.
To find out more about anchor babies, and how the 14th Amendment to the
Constitution was misused to give them amnesty, go to this webpage:
http://www.fairus.org/ImmigrationIssueCenters/ImmigrationIssueCenters.cfm?ID=1190&c=13&insearch=anchor%20and%20babies
Articles used for this newsletter
http://www.news-record.com/news/local/gso/timcosub_032005.htm
Contractor for TIMCO charged
http://www.news-record.com/news/local/gso/smart_032205.htm
Contractor figured in Charlotte plane crash
http://www.news-record.com/news/local/newtimco_031705.htm
Mechanics face criminal charges
http://www.news-record.com/news/local/gso/vega032005.htm
Essential worker or potential terrorist?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.news-record.com/news/local/gso/timcosub_032005.htm
Contractor for TIMCO charged
3-20-05
By Taft Wireback Staff Writer
News & Record
GREENSBORO -- Federal agents have charged an official with one of
TIMCO's labor contractors with providing false documents to an illegal
immigrant so the foreigner could get a job at the huge
aviation-maintenance company in western Greensboro.
The charges against Jorge Ruiz-Alonso, 60, of 7104 W. Friendly Ave.,
are the first hint that authorities might go beyond the arrests of 24
people believed to be illegal immigrants who were detained at TIMCO two
weeks ago by holding accountable the companies that hired them.
Ruiz-Alonso was among the 24 detainees taken into custody in the U.S.
Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement sting at TIMCO on March
8. He is a Venezuelan who came into the United States for a one-year
stay in 1993 and never left, according to the charges against him.
Like the other detainees, he faces deportation proceedings in addition
to his criminal charges, which also include the illegal purchase of a
12-gauge shotgun.
But unlike many of the others charged, who were aircraft mechanics at
TIMCO, Ruiz-Alonso, also known as Jorge Ruiz, was a coordinator with
S.M.A.R.T. aviation company of Edgewater, Fla. His job involved finding
temporary workers for the huge aviation-maintenance company at Piedmont
Triad International Airport, which repairs and maintainsplanes for such
companies as United Airlines.
Federal immigration agent D. Brent Perley said in a criminal complaint
against Ruiz-Alonso that federal agents "received information from a
cooperating citizen believed to be reliable" that the S.M.A.R.T.
official hired the informant in October 2000, knowing that the
informant was an illegal immigrant.
Ruiz-Alonso also gave the informant a counterfeit immigration document
and a fake Social Security card so that the illegal immigrant could
complete the federal government's I-9 form, which verifies a new hire's
legal standing to work in this country, the complaint alleges.
Perley said in the criminal complaint that on March 8, immigration
agents searched both Ruiz-Alonso's home and his S.M.A.R.T. office at
the TIMCO complex.
"Your affiant located a copy of said fraudulent alien registration
receipt card, A208115378, within the file records of S.M.A.R.T.,"
Perley said in the complaint.
Efforts to reach S.M.A.R.T. officials in Florida for comment were
unsuccessful Saturday afternoon. On March 9, a company spokeswoman
declined to comment on the federal enforcement action at TIMCO.
The firearms charge against Ruiz-Alonso stems from a law that bars
illegal immigrants from buying guns in the United States. But according
to the criminal complaint, Ruiz-Alonso filled out a federal firearms
form at the Wal-Mart Superstore on West Wendover Avenue on May 10,
claiming to be a citizen of "Puerto Rico/USA" and writing "no" on the
line that asked whether the purchaser was "an alien illegally in the
United States?"
Contact Taft Wireback at 373-7100 or
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.news-record.com/news/local/gso/smart_032205.htm
Contractor figured in Charlotte plane crash
3-22-05
By Taft Wireback, Staff Writer
News & Record
GREENSBORO -- The investigation at TIMCO marks the second time in as
many years a negative spotlight is shining on a Florida contractor that
allegedly put illegal immigrants into the aircraft-maintenance plant in
western Greensboro.
The labor contractor, Structural Modification and Repair Technicians or
S.M.A.R.T., also figured in the January 2003 crash at Charlotte of US
Airways Express Flight 5481, which killed all 21 aboard.
A post-crash inquiry by the National Transportation Safety Board partly
attributed the fatal accident to a S.M.A.R.T. mechanic-in-training who
improperly adjusted controls.
In the TIMCO investigation, one of S.M.A.R.T.'s officials, Jorge
Ruiz-Alonso, also known as Jorge Ruiz or George Ruiz, is charged with
giving fake documents to an illegal immigrant in October 2000 so the
foreigner could work in the TIMCO facility as a S.M.A.R.T. employee.
Five of the 24 people arrested March 8 at TIMCO on immigration charges,
including Ruiz-Alonso, were S.M.A.R.T. workers, said Brian Peterson,
vice president of the Edgewater, Fla., company.
The arrests two weeks ago were part of the federal government's
"Operation Tarmac," an effort to get illegal immigrants out of such
security-sensitive settings as airports, nuclear power plants and other
utilities.
Peterson said the two incidents in North Carolina since 2003 are not
indicative of S.M.A.R.T.'s general character nor its skill in providing
temporary aviation workers.
"We've been in business for over 15 years and have provided probably a
million man-hours (of maintenance) without an incident," Peterson said.
But TIMCO has severed its seven-year relationship with the company
because of the criminal allegations involving Ruiz-Alonso, said Dave
Latimer, a TIMCO vice president.
"We just can't have that in our business," Latimer said, adding that it
would take many reforms for S.M.A.R.T. to be reinstated.
"They're certainly out for now," Latimer said, noting the Florida
company was discharged last week when allegations emerged against
Ruiz-Alonso. "Never say never, but I would not see it (reinstatement)
happening any time soon."
Another six of the 24 alleged illegal immigrants were on TIMCO's own
payroll as permanent workers.
But Latimer said that happened inadvertently despite his company's best
efforts, not through the outright fraud of which Ruiz-Alonso is
accused.
Latimer said TIMCO would eject any other labor contractor implicated in
the investigation. Two weeks ago, federal agents said they were looking
into 10, including S.M.A.R.T.
S.M.A.R.T. executive Peterson said that Ruiz-Alonso, 60, a Venezuelan
living in Greensboro, had been with his company between five and eight
years.
Ruiz-Alonso did not work on aircraft at TIMCO, but as a "field
coordinator" for S.M.A.R.T. who screened temporary workers the Florida
contractor placed at TIMCO in exchange for fees.
Latimer said TIMCO believes it is in "pretty good shape" now for having
removed all illegal immigrants from its payroll and those of its other
labor contractors.
Federal agents said in a complaint against Ruiz-Alonso that they
searched his home at 7104 W. Friendly Ave. and his S.M.A.R.T. offices
in the TIMCO complex at Piedmont Triad International Airport.
They found at least one of the allegedly falsified documents in
S.M.A.R.T.'s files, investigators said.
Peterson said S.M.A.R.T. was "very surprised" by Ruiz-Alonso's alleged
misdeeds; the company did a thorough background check before hiring him
and had no idea he was here illegally.
In the Charlotte crash, Flight 5481 was rising rapidly when it went
into a fatal sideways maneuver 37 seconds into takeoff Jan. 8, 2003.
The NTSB said a S.M.A.R.T. mechanic learning on the job in Huntington,
W.Va., had incorrectly rigged the plane's elevator cables governing
up-and-down motion. Pilots lost control.
TIMCO was not involved. Another aviation-maintenance company was cited
for not checking the work.
Federal safety inspectors said the plane also crashed because airline
workers loaded it too heavily and distributed excess weight improperly.
TIMCO and S.M.A.R.T. are part of a controversial aspect in modern-day
aviation called outsourcing, in which major airlines no longer do
substantial amounts of their own maintenance.
Instead, they send it to companies like TIMCO, which call on labor
contractors such as S.M.A.R.T. to provide temporary staffing as needed.
Critics believe that maintenance was better when most was done
in-house.
Supporters say the only difference is lower costs for airlines.
Part of the lowered cost stems from using temporary workers who can be
hired and let go as a company's needs rise or fall.
Peterson said his company could not control whether a field employee
such as Ruiz-Alonso might violate federal laws and hire an illegal
immigrant to work at TIMCO without the headquarters' knowledge.
"He's no longer employed with us," Peterson said of Ruiz-Alonso, adding
that the company has "zero tolerance" for violation of the nation's
immigration laws.
Contact Taft Wireback at 373-7100 or
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.news-record.com/news/local/newtimco_031705.htm
Mechanics face criminal charges
3-17-05
By Taft Wireback Staff Writer
News & Record
GREENSBORO -- Federal investigators are pressing criminal immigration
charges against eight more workers seized last week at TIMCO
aviation-maintenance company -- at least two of whom allegedly used
fraudulent North Carolina driver's licenses to get jobs as airplane
mechanics.
One of the men, Adonisio Hungwe of Greensboro, also is licensed by the
Federal Aviation Administration as an "air frame and power plant"
mechanic, a coveted certification that means the licensee is able to
work on the most sensitive and technical aircraft parts.
The FAA's Web site suggests the license was updated or otherwise
processed for Hungwe, 44, a citizen of Zimbabwe on Monday -- six days
after he was taken into custody at TIMCO for not leaving the country in
September 2002 when his visitor's visa expired.
The picture emerging from last week's arrests at the company bordering
Piedmont Triad International Airport is one of a nation with big holes
in its immigration and transportation-security systems.
Intersecting state and federal systems are beset by false driver's
licenses, Social Security numbers and green cards that, in certain
situations, can put imposters on an airport tarmac making technical
decisions with the potential for life and death consequences.
"Edwin Alberto Alarcon-Dias admitted ... that he purchased a fraudulent
Social Security card for $50 from a person named Carlos at a soccer
park in Miami, Fla., approximately six years ago," Brent Perley, senior
agent for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in
one of the new cases.
Charges against both Alarcon-Dias and Hungwe include statements that in
addition to false Social Security cards, each submitted a fraudulent
North Carolina driver's license to get jobs as aircraft mechanics at
TIMCO.
Both were employed by labor contractors who provide temporary workers
to TIMCO at PTI: Alarcon-Dias by Airplanes Inc. and Hungwe by a similar
company named STS.
The new allegations bring to 11 the number of former aircraft workers
at TIMCO who face federal criminal charges, on top of administrative
efforts already under way to deport them. A total of 24 people were
taken into custody on immigration charges, all of whom face noncriminal
deportation hearings.
Many of those facing charges allegedly lied on a federal form, the I-9,
that verifies their status as a legal resident or visitor with
privileges to seek employment. Those charged so far come from Chile,
Peru, the Philippines and Zimbabwe.
Federal agents have said they also are looking into the hiring
practices of 10 labor contractors that provide temporary workers to
TIMCO. Six of the 24 workers arrested as illegal immigrants last week
were full-time, permanent TIMCO employees.
Federal agents said that 20 of the 24 detainees had fraudulent North
Carolina driver's licenses when arrested. Alarcon-Dias and Hungwe might
not have been the only ones using those licenses; not all the criminal
complaints give detailed accounts of what counterfeit documents
allegedly led to the aircraft jobs.
North Carolina has a nationwide reputation as a place where it is
relatively easy for illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses. Bills
are pending in the General Assembly to tighten license regulation.
Meanwhile, Hungwe is the second of those arrested to possess the FAA
air frame and power plant license. Last week, Percy Vega, 53, a
Peruvian worker at TIMCO, was charged with lying about his level of
experience to get the so-called A&P license, which confers higher pay
and can mean supervising the work of unlicensed mechanics.
Five of those facing criminal charges had detention hearings or first
appearances Wednesday in U.S. Middle District Court. U.S. Magistrate P.
Trevor Sharp declined to release three pending trial for fear they
would flee and scheduled detention hearings next week for two other
defendants.
During one of the hearings, an agent testified that federal authorities
initially questioned about 65 workers at TIMCO whose immigration status
seemed questionable.
Families came to Wednesday's hearings to support two of the alleged
illegal immigrants from TIMCO, Martin Cuevas-Freitas, 37, of Peru and
Alvin Feliciano Cruz, 35, of the Philippines.
A heart-wrenching scene outside the courtroom drove home the point that
most illegal immigrants come to this country seeking nothing more than
steady work and a better life for their families, albeit in the wrong
way.
After Cruz was led away cuffed hand and foot following the hearing,
Cruz's 2-year-old son, Arvingio, broke away from Cruz's wife, GiGi, who
is a legal permanent resident of the United States. The child tried to
toddle down the corridor that had just swallowed his father.
"Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" screamed the child, an American citizen born on
U.S. soil.
"We'll see Daddy later," said GiGi Cruz, fighting back tears of
uncertainty as she scooped up her son.
Contact Taft Wireback at 373-7100 or
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.news-record.com/news/local/gso/vega032005.htm
Essential worker or potential terrorist?
3-20-05
By Taft Wireback Staff Writer
News & Record
GREENSBORO - To those who know him, it looked like Percy Vega Sr. was
living the good life at his apartment in western Greensboro.
The 53-year-old aircraft mechanic had a steady job with good pay, a
late-model BMW parked near his second-floor unit and a satellite dish
on the deck.
But it all turned sour two weeks ago, when Vega was arrested on
immigration charges along with two dozen others working for the
aviation-maintenance company TIMCO on the fringes of Piedmont Triad
International Airport.
Now, hes cooling his heels in Forsyth County Jail, and friends are
shocked.
"Hes certainly not a terrorist," said Michael Harvell, a High Point
resident who has known Vega for about two years. "If he is, hes a
damned poor one because he hasnt managed to destroy anything or harm
anyone in a decade."
Thats how long Vega has been in the country, the last five years in
Greensboro working either for TIMCO or one of its labor contractors.
Now hes the detainee who faces the more serious of criminal charges
made public so far, three felonies that include allegations he lied to
get a federal license to do the most technically complex aircraft jobs.
The retired military pilot has skills and access to the aviation
industry that seem to exemplify the national-security aspects of the
arrests at TIMCO .
Friends and neighbors say Vega is a great guy. But what if he
werent?
It turns out that Vega is a former fighter pilot for the Peruvian navy.
Hes also licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration as a
commercial pilot. And he is accused of getting a second FAA
mechanics license by claiming more experience than he actually had.
Its a profile that puts images of Sept. 11, 2001, in the minds of
immigration reformers who want to crack down on people in this country
illegally.
"Except for Sept. 11, it cant get much worse than having an illegal
alien working on jet engines," said William Gheen of Americans for
Legal Immigration, a Raleigh-based political action committee.
But Greensboro immigration lawyer Gerard Chapman sees Vegas
situation as the upshot of bad federal policies on guest workers.
Vegas only trouble may be that under current immigration law, his
job doesnt qualify him for a longer stay just because it doesnt
require a college degree, he said.
Whats needed is a change that lets people like Vega extend their
stay to work jobs outside such a restrictive policy, Chapman said.
"He and his family would not fit the profile of a drain on society," he
said.
Theres evidence supporting both views of Vega, who first came to the
United States as a tourist visiting Florida in March 1994.
He apparently stayed there until five years ago, when immigration
authorities denied his request for political asylum , according to
charges against him.
He returned to Peru for six months, then came to Greensboro in mid-2000
under a special permit allowing him to work in the United States no
more than 16 months. Instead of leaving when the permit expired, he
stayed in Greensboro
By then, he was living at Shadow Lake Apartments on Meadowood Street,
where neighbors say he fit in and lived relatively quietly.
"At times it seemed as if there were a lot of different people there,
but we never had any problems," next-door neighbor Clay Petty said.
Vega left for work at 6:30 most mornings, exercised at the apartment
complexs recreation center, "liked his beer" and had cookouts every
so often on his deck, Petty said.
It was a typical American life, said Jim Sargent, Pettys roommate.
"I dont understand how he kept this good job all that time, got car
loans and did everything else without getting his citizenship, "
Sargent said.
Harvell met him at a restaurant in 2003 and now considers Vega a
friend, a guy "who is likely overqualified for the position he held at
TIMCO."
"I found him to be very well-spoken, intellectually stimulating and
knowledgeable," Harvell said.
He added that they sometimes discussed complex theories of physical
science such as "moment of inertia."
A lot happened to Vega during his Greensboro stay. He got divorced ,
ending a marriage that had begun 26 years earlier in Miraslores, Peru.
His wife was living in Connecticut by then.
His son, Percy Vega Jr., received his masters degree in computer
science from N.C. A&T this spring.
The younger Vega, a Jamestown resident, declined to comment on his
fathers predicament.
The elder Vega got married again this summer to a woman who is a
"lawful permanent resident" and asked immigration officials to change
his status to that category as well, according to his court file.
Neighbors said Vega told them his new wife lived elsewhere.
When he was arrested March 8 at TIMCO, he had overstayed his work visa
by two years.
Investigators also accuse him of getting his advanced mechanical
license from the FAA by falsifying letters of recommendation claiming
experience in aviation repair that he really did not have.
While questioning him about that, agents said they stopped Vega as he
tried to hide some documents from them.
They said one document turned out to be a fraudulent immigration card
that, if genuine, would help him remain in the country. The other was a
counterfeit Social Security card, they said.
Gheen, of Americans for Legal Immigration, sees that as an inherent
problem with illegal immigrants. They start by breaking the nations
most basic laws and fall into a pattern of deceit, he said.
"He broke the law with documents," Gheen said of Vega. "He broke the
law when he went to work."
Immigration lawyer Chapman looks at situations such as Vegas and
sees immigration policies at odds with the nations need for workers
in jobs that dont require college.
Fix the law, Chapman says, and stop making criminals of people who
dont deserve it.
Its a debate that will take time to sort out. But facing both
criminal charges and deportation proceedings, time is one commodity
Percy Vega Sr. finds in very short supply.
Contact Taft Wireback
at 373-7100 or
Staff librarian Diane Lamb contributed to this report
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