Here's a story for the Yellow Elephant Brigade. An illegal immigrant sneaks her way into the Air Force in order to serve what she views as her country.
VisaLaw has the background (This is from May 17, 2004. An update to the story is included in Extended).
According to the American-Statesman report, Plata came to the U.S. illegally from Mexico City and hoped to join the military. After learning she needed a Social Security card to join, she borrowed $2,000 from her mother and purchased documents from a man in Los Angeles who sold new identities. After being assured that her new identity was that of a deceased person, Liliana Plata became Cristina Alaniz.
She went through basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio and served as part of the 822nd Security Forces Squadron with Operation Iraqi Freedom. Alaniz (Plata) has consistently been praised for her performance on duty as well as earning an Air Force Achievement Medal.
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Obviously, what she did was wrong. It is identity theft, and it's illegal. Not surpisingly, the person that sold the the identity lied about the status of the person whose identity she was assuming. Cristina Alaniz was alive and well.
During these 2½ years of military service, the real Cristina Alaniz, a 22-year-old Texas State University student, found out from the Social Security offices that her identity had been stolen. Her credit report led her to Moody Air Force Base, and after a full investigation the fraud was uncovered.
At the time, her lawyer put it this way:
Her military lawyer, Capt. Randy Hicks said to the press, "I don't condone fraudulent enlistment, but when all the mitigating factors are considered, her service in the war and the fact that she was brought to this country at age 10, she is by and large a victim of the circumstances she was in."
The case has since been resolved, as this Yahoo story reports:
Travis County prosecutors say they dropped the charges against the 25-year-old woman because she had already been discharged from the Air Force. Also, they say Plata didn't use the stolen information to defraud anyone.
Prosecutor Claire Dawson-Brown says Plata "took a shortcut she shouldn't have taken, but it was an intent that served a value for all of us" The prosecutor added that Plata "wanted to go and fight for her country, and she was a good soldier." Plata's attorney, Samuel Bassett, called the decision appropriate.
So here's an illegal immigrant, breaking the law in order to serve her country, a country that a majority of people don't want her to be a part of. And yet she found a way, through the only means she perceived to be available to her, to get into the Air Force and serve the nation admirably.
She was caught, which is a good thing, of course. Cristina Alaniz is an innocent bystander in all of this, and I'm sure she's relieved to have her identity back safe and sound.
I'd just like to give a hearty Thank You to Liliana Plata, and I hope that everything turns out well for her.