Five Individuals Charged with Conspiring to Provide Driver’s Licenses and Passports to Illegal Aliens

FAIR Take | December 2024
Last week the Department of Justice announced it had arrested and charged five individuals with conspiracy to fraudulently obtain and provide driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. The alleged scheme involved getting driver’s licenses in New York and Massachusetts, since both states provide driver’s licenses to illegal aliens, and selling them to illegal aliens in states where the laws prevent them from obtaining driver’s licenses. At least one of the suspects was also charged with obtaining fake foreign passports for illegal aliens use as identification to obtain a driver’s license in Massachusetts, where illegal aliens are eligible for driver’s licenses.
In total, the criminal defendants had fraudulently applied for over 1,000 licenses and were charging a fee of approximately $1,400 per license.
According to the indictment, the defendants’ illegal driver’s license scheme ran for nearly four years (November 2020 to September 2024). The defendants initially sought fake driver’s licenses in New York since Massachusetts did not allow illegal aliens to get licenses until July 2023. However, once Massachusetts began issuing driver’s licenses to illegal aliens, the defendants also set up shop in Massachusetts to fraudulently obtain driver’s licenses for illegal aliens in other states.
The defendants’ scheme, as detailed by the DOJ, was complex. For an individual to get his/her driver’s license in either of these states he or she must first obtain a learner’s permit by passing a written test. This written test can be completed online, but only if the applicant provides pictures of himself/herself completing the exam from a web camera. Once the applicant passes the written test, he/she receives a learner’s permit. Next the applicant must complete a driving course before returning to the DMV to take the driving test and receive a license.
According to the DOJ, the defendants had a slick scheme to fake their way through this process. First, they recruited illegal aliens who were willing to apply for driver’s licenses, either in New York or Massachusetts. Then the defendants themselves took the written test online, and used images of the illegal alien applicants to make it appear as if the illegal aliens were the ones passing the exam. The defendants then prepared fake certificates of completion for the required driving course, along with various fake documents and passports which they would give to the illegal aliens to trick DMV employees into believing that the illegal aliens lived in the state.
Finally, the defendants would then either meet the illegal aliens at, or drive them to, the DMV offices to apply for their driver’s license. After the fraudulent applications were submitted, the driver’s licenses were sent to an address in New York or Massachusetts controlled by the defendants. The defendants then sold the driver’s licenses to illegal aliens in other states. For the entire process, the price could reach as high as $1,400.
The five defendants (Edvan Fernandes Alves De Andrade, Leonel Texeiera De Souza Junior, Gabriel Nascimento De Andrade, Cesar Agusto Martin Reis, and Helbert Costa Generoso) were charged on one count of conspiracy to unlawfully produce and possess with the intent to transfer identification documents under 18 U.S.C. §371. Additionally, Edvan Andrade was charged with count two of possession with intent to use or transfer unlawfully identification documents under 18 U.S.C. § 1028(a)(3) and Cesar Reis was charged with count three of possession with intent to use or transfer unlawfully identification documents under 18 U.S.C. § 1028(a)(3). Finally, Helbert Generoso was charged with count four of furnishing a false passport to another for use under 18 U.S.C. §1543.
The first three charges above all carry a punishment of up to five years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000. Meanwhile, the fourth charge is punishable by up to ten years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.
Gabriel De Andrade, Cesar Reis, and Helbert Generoso have already been arrested and had their initial appearances in federal court. Gabriel De Andrade was ordered to be detained pending trial, while Reis and Generoso were to be detained pending a detention hearing. Leonel Texeiera De Souza Junior and Edvan Fernandes Alves De Andrade have left the United States and currently reside in Brazil.
FAIR has long opposed providing driver’s licenses to illegal aliens, because it rewards illegal activity, encourages more illegal immigration, as well as identity theft and fraud. Perhaps most importantly, providing a government-issued photo ID to illegal aliens, whose criminal histories are often undiscoverable, undermines public safety. Since illegal aliens generally do not have documents to prove their identities from domestic sources, DMVs in the states that issue driver’s licenses to illegal aliens are often forced to accept foreign documents that are often un-verifiable or easy to forge as proof of the applicant’s identity. Unfortunately, the charges levied against the defendants are not novel. Similar fraudulent activity occurred in New Mexico and Vermont when they granted driver’s licenses to illegal aliens.
There are currently nineteen states and D.C. which allow illegal aliens to obtain driver’s licenses.
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