Milwaukee policeman found to be illegal immigrant

MILWAUKEE — Fellow Milwaukee police officers knew him as Jose Morales.

But after an anonymous phone tip this winter, an investigation revealed that Jose Morales is dead, and the officer known as Jose Morales is his cousin Oscar Ayala-Cornejo, 24. He is an illegal immigrant from Mexico who had assumed Morales' identity as a high-school student in 1999.

In court papers filed Friday, Ayala-Cornejo agreed to plead guilty to a federal felony charge of falsely claiming to be a U.S. citizen. Under the plea agreement, he will face six to 12 months in jail.

The police department suspended Ayala-Cornejo after he was arrested May 30 and has since taken him off the payroll.

Alexander Ayala, 26, Oscar Ayala-Cornejo's brother, is a U.S. citizen who is an officer in the same South Milwaukee district and has been placed on administrative duty.

John Balcerzak, president of the Milwaukee Police Association labor union, said the incident shows the department should beef up its background checks.

"This is a wake-up call to our department and departments around the country," he said. "When I was hired 20 years ago, they went to old neighbors and high-school teachers. People are really concerned he was able to do this, and they feel let down by him."

Department spokeswoman Anne Schwartz declined to comment.

Ayala-Cornejo had documentation of his assumed identity, including a driver's license. He attended one high school using his given name, then switched to another school, enrolled as Morales and graduated in 2001. That yearbook shows his picture with Morales' name.

Ayala-Cornejo could not be reached for comment.

Ayala-Cornejo joined the police department as an aide in 2001 and became an officer in December 2004. In 2005, he was assigned to District 2, a mostly Latino area on the city's South Side, which is also home to many residents of German and Polish descent.

Latino leaders note that working under someone else's identity is common practice for many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States.

"Their personhood is not recognized since they don't have the right piece of paper, but they're working and they're not harming anyone," said Arnaldo Garcia of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. "It's very typical that a citizen daughter would lend her Social Security number to her mother so she can work, or cousins would use the same driver's license if they look alike. The problem is that the system is set up to criminalize people for working."

At a Mass devoted to Ayala-Cornejo at St. Adalbert's Catholic Church on June 3, several fellow officers and relatives described him as hardworking and devoted to his community.

But Albert Kroll, 72, a retired school-board member washing the sidewalk near the church, said Ayala-Cornejo and his brother should face consequences. "They were both wrong," he said. "It's amazing that his brother was a police officer and said nothing."

Balcerzak said the department could suffer.

"This is going to mushroom and cause problems down the road, because even when you issue a citation you're swearing everything in it is true and correct," he said. "Since he wasn't even who he said he was, that could cause all sorts of problems. Luckily, he hadn't been an officer for that long."