License check exposes and confirms fraud

From KRQE-TV.com - Nearly a third of the letters requesting residency checks for foreign nationals with New Mexico driver's licenses have been returned because individuals no longer live at the addresses, or in some cases, never lived there. "We're not surprised," said Taxation and Revenue Department Secretary Demesia Padilla. "We were already aware of addresses being used multiple times and we had those rings coming into New Mexico for the purposes of obtaining a drivers license." Last month, the Motor Vehicle Department sent out letters to 10,000 of the 85,000 foreign nationals who have obtained a New Mexico driver's license, requiring them to schedule in-person interviews and prove they still live in state or have their licenses canceled. Of those, 2,812 letters, or 28 percent, have been returned for various reasons, according to governor's spokesman Scott Darnell. The bulk of them were returned because the people no longer lived there or never lived there. Read more