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Wednesday, September 24, 1997

Eighty-nine indicted in welfare fraud crackdown

By PAULINE ARRILLAGA / Associated Press Writer

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- In a record-setting crackdown on welfare fraud in the Rio Grande Valley, 89 people have been indicted on charges of illegally obtaining $345,000 in benefits, officials said Tuesday.

Among those indicted were 20 people accused of using Texas birth certificates to obtain welfare for children born in Mexico.

The Texas Department of Human Services said it was the largest number of welfare fraud indictments issued at one time in the Rio Grande Valley.

"We have never before had so many cases," said DHS spokesman Michael Uhrbrock. "This is unique because of the false birth certificate cases."

The indictments were issued this month by a Cameron County grand jury. However, they remain under seal because arrests are pending.

Most of the indictments involve common welfare fraud allegations such as providing false information about income or assets to obtain benefits, Uhrbrock said.

The birth certificate cases stemmed from a four-year federal investigation of Valley midwives who sold Texas birth certificates to the parents of Mexico-born children.

Some of those parents then turned around and used the birth certificates to unlawfully procure food stamps and Medicaid for their children, authorities allege.

Uhrbrock said DHS received about 100 names from the Immigration and Naturalization Service of parents who may have been involved in the birth certificate scam. DHS officials are continuing their investigation.

INS officials began investigating Valley midwives several years ago after receiving information about an exorbitant number of birth records being filed in Cameron County.

An undercover sting operation found midwives were being paid anywhere from $300 to $5,000 to falsify birth records for Mexican children.

One woman, whom INS investigator Gilbert Trevino calls "the mother of all midwives," filed about 3,500 records over a 10-year period, the majority of which are suspected to be fraudulent. She and 11 other midwives have been convicted in connection with the scam.

In all, up to 10,000 fraudulent birth records have been filed in the last 12 years in Cameron County, Trevino said. Two midwives remain under investigation, while another fled to Mexico, he said.

Meanwhile, federal and state officials have been working together to try to track down the birth certificates and the parents who bought them.

One parent, the former chief of transit police in Matamoros, Mexico, was arrested last week at the Harlingen City Hall as he attempted to obtain a copy of a fraudulent birth certificate he bought for his daughter, INS officials said. Daniel Horacio Cardenas-Martinez, 32, pleaded guilty last week in federal court and was sentenced to three years' probation.

As DHS continues to search its records for additional suspects, the INS has placed a list of alleged birth certificate buyers at the Brownsville ports of entry. About 1,000 birth certificates have been retrieved to date, Trevino said.