-Caveat Lector-
>From http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_pg=36&u_sid=403989
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Published Sunday
May 26, 2002
Lawsuit spotlights ID issues
BY PAUL HAMMEL
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
HASTINGS, Neb. - Robert Kirk, a former state driver's license examiner, said it
was easy to pick out bogus identification papers used to obtain a Nebraska license.
Some Social Security cards failed a special "light test" used to detect false
documents, and others were clearly copies that he had seen before.
Robert Kirk
Several applicants couldn't match the birth dates or other facts on the documents,
Kirk said, or their signatures didn't match up.
Still others, he said, admitted that they had bought ID papers from someone in a park
in nearby Grand Island, paying as little as $40 for a copy of someone else's Social
Security card.
But instead of winning praise for his scrutiny, Kirk was fired from his $24,000-a-year
state job in July 2000.
Memos written by Kirk's supervisors in the Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles
make it clear they thought Kirk targeted Hispanics for harsher scrutiny and had
disregarded instructions to back off.
The memos, obtained from Kirk's attorney, show he was chastised for describing
those he had caught as "illegals" and "foreign dignitaries." He also was the subject of
an inquiry by the Nebraska Mexican American Commission.
Now a court has been asked to decide who overstepped their bounds.
Kirk, 59, filed suit in February, asking for $32,800 in lost wages and job- retraining
costs. He is now an over-the-road truck driver.
His suit touches on a long-standing debate over how to check the identification of
possibly undocumented workers without mistreating them. The debate has taken on
new urgency since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
One question is whether all states should ask driver's license applicants whether they
are in the United States legally, not just whether they have an address in that state.
Last month, Iowa examiners began asking applicants whether they are U.S. citizens
or otherwise in the country legally. Nebraska's do not ask such questions.
There can be a fine line, officials said, between scrutinizing potentially false
documents and mistreating people of color.
Some five years ago, complaints in Nebraska led to sensitivity training for all 90
state
examiners, said Cecilia Huerta, director of the Nebraska Mexican American
Commission. That, she said, brought some improvement.
To obtain a Nebraska driver's license, an applicant must show one piece of U.S.-
based identification that shows name and date of birth, such as a certified birth
certificate or a driver's license from another state. The applicant also must provide a
Social Security number, which is checked for authenticity.
Proof of residency in Nebraska is not required, although examiners can deny a
license if they know an address is false.
In Iowa, examiners require a certified birth certificate and a Social Security card to
obtain a driver's license.
Unlike Nebraska, Iowa formed a special law enforcement unit to probe fraud cases
involving driver's licenses, motor-vehicle titles and auto dealers. Four of the 22
investigators focus specifically on driver's-license fraud and identify theft.
Similar certified law enforcement investigators are sorely needed in Nebraska, said
Sara O'Rourke, administrator of driver licensing for the Department of Motor
Vehicles. "Every day, we see more fraud."
Nebraska has seen its share of fraud in the past two years.
Two Nebraska examiners - one in Sarpy County and the other in Madison County -
were convicted of selling licenses under the table to undocumented workers.
The INS broke up rings that sold stolen Puerto Rican birth certificates in Grand
Island and transported vanloads of undocumented workers to motor-vehicle stations
to obtain licenses using bogus documents.
Paul Steier, an Iowa fraud investigator, said that detecting bogus documents is
complicated. For instance, there are 14,000 versions of birth certificates in
circulation.
Kirk, who worked 31/2 years for the Motor Vehicles Department, acknowledged that
he argued with his supervisors about his checking of documents and an office
staffing shortage.
But, he said, he couldn't ignore the illegal papers. Kirk estimated that 70 percent of
the Hispanic workers who came to his office carried fake IDs. He said he caused
more than 100 false IDs to be taken out of circulation.
"It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure this out," Kirk said.
Kirk says he was fired for just doing his job by asking questions when he saw
suspicious documents. He denies that he targeted anyone.
He alleges that his supervisors ordered him to stop checking the validity of
documents.
"You will not require proof of residency from applicants unless you know the address
does not exist," said one memo from supervisor Delbert Peterson.
Kirk alleges the state wanted to make it easy for undocumented immigrants to obtain
ID cards and driver's licenses so they could work at local meatpacking plants and
factories.
"What they were doing was basically aiding and abetting illegals," Kirk said.
State officials deny this. They say checking the authenticity of identification papers
is
a key requirement of the job, but so is treating everyone equally.
Officials with the Department of Motor Vehicles declined to specifically address Kirk's
firing, citing confidentiality standards for personnel issues.
However, O'Rourke did say this: "You can't key on a certain race and expect more
from them than anyone else. That's the issue here."
Memos indicate Kirk was the subject of numerous complaints from Hispanic and
non-Hispanic customers.
Doug Ruhter, an Adams County deputy sheriff who worked frequently with Kirk, said
Kirk was wrongly dismissed.
"It's not his fault that 95 percent of the bad documents came from Hispanics," Ruhter
said.
Whether the lawsuit ever gets heard in court is unclear. The state is asking a judge
to dismiss it on technical grounds.
For his part, Kirk admits that he's bitter. He said his house was vandalized, people
have flashed obscene gestures and someone has tried to run him over. He suspects
it was because he was tough on checking IDs.
He doesn't want his job back, he said. "I just want some compensation for what
they've done to me."
End<{{{
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