Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) told a congressional committee last week that newer approaches are needed to deal with illegal document production and sale in D.C.'s Adams Morgan neighborhood - a place that some AU students find using fake IDs easy.
Norton also expressed concerns about national security risks in the Oct. 1 hearing before the Select Committee on Homeland Security. She said after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, these activities "could become a conduit for people seeking identification documents to enable them to carry out terrorist activities."
Norton said identification document fraud affects the whole nation.
"This problem is national in scope and there is a need for new national approaches," Norton said. "For example, increasing penalties and use of jail time plus deportation, as has been used in prosecutions here, instead of deportation only."
Norton's spokeswoman Doxie McCoy said national security is very important to curbing false document production.
"The whole issue after Sept. 11 has been the concern about homeland security, and terrorists potentially using this as a way to get fake IDs," McCoy said.
Recent raids in Adams-Morgan have resulted in close to 50 arrests and the seizure of over 1,000 phony IDs, The Washington Post reported in August. The recent sentencing of kingpin Salomon Gonzalez - Gonzalez is considered a success of Operation Card Shark, an effort coordinated by the U.S. Attorney's Office to curb trafficking in false identification documents.
U.S. Attorney Roscoe C. Howard, Jr., said the sellers and producers of fake documents; along with the individuals that are caught using them, will be penalized.
According to federal law, if the use of false identification is deemed a federal offense - such as identity theft cases - the punishment could be a fine and up to 15 years in jail.
D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) urged Norton's office and federal officials to crack down on illegal document selling and vendors.
Many AU students have said they know someone who has used false IDs to go to bars in Adams Morgan and to purchase alcohol.
Senior Esther Gavilan said that a lot of students use fake IDs in Adams Morgan because it's easy.
"You can get away with using any kind of ID in Adams-Morgan," Gavilan said. "My friend only went there before he was 21 with his fake ID because that was the only place he could get alcohol."
Howard said false document vendors in Adams Morgan initially targeted undocumented immigrants.
"Immigrants looking for jobs need certain documents that they are unable to obtain through legal methods," Howard said. "We've always cared about this problem. It's something that has been going on for years."
Sophomore Liz Winters said she knows several students that hang out in Adams Morgan and use false identification. One of her friends, she said, supplied fake information to the Department of Motor Vehicles in his state and was given a real state-issued ID.
Winters said the Adams Morgan crackdown would cause students to be more careful when drinking alcohol.
"It will make them more likely to drink on campus or find older friends to pay for alcohol," Winters said. "It makes the students vulnerable."
Gavilan said she thinks it's common for AU students to use fake IDs because of the University's policy prohibiting alcohol on the majority of campus.
"AU doesn't have any big fraternity houses," Gavilan said. "The only way to get alcohol [without identification] is to be in the crowded basement of some frat house or at some house where you can have parties. And even those parties get busted."
Junior Evan Tucker said that the gender of the individual indicates how that person will use false identification.
"If it's a sorority girl, she will use her ID to get into a club and rely on a guy to buy her drinks," Tucker said. "If it's a guy, he will use the ID at the liquor store and bring the alcohol back to his dorm and drink there."
Freshman Conrad Bukoski called the fake ID crackdown "nothing more than a bump in the road."
"If college kids want to buy alcohol, they will get it," Bukoski said. "There are kids on my floor who are making a shopping list"
