A bipartisan quartet of senators has called on the Chinese government to investigate companies in that nation that are producing high-quality counterfeit American driver’s licenses, saying the practice is a serious national security threat to the United States.
In a Monday letter to Zhang Yesui, China’s ambassador to the United States, the senators urged his government to “take immediate action against these companies.”
The senators said they worry terrorists will use these fake IDs to circumvent the nation’s security apparatus to launch attacks.
“Counterfeit identification documents violate our nation’s laws and undermine the efforts of federal, state and local law enforcement to keep our communities safe,” they wrote. “These companies are profiting from the facilitation of crimes committed in the United States, and provide no legitimate service.”
The letter’s authors are the four senators from Illinois and Iowa; respectively, Republican Mark Kirk and Democrat Richard J. Durbin, and Republican Chuck Grassley and Democrat Tom Harkin.
Mr. Kirk’s office said late Tuesday afternoon it hadn’t received a response from Chinese officials regarding the letter.
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