Most Americans may be unaware of the Diplomatic Security Service, “the law enforcement and security arm of the U.S. Department of State. It bears the core responsibility for providing a safe environment for the conduct of U.S. foreign policy.” In the course of those duties, the DSS conducts investigations, and one will prove of great interest to American voters, taxpayers, and—incidentally—fans of “The Day of the Jackal.”

In that 1971 novel, the Organisation de l’Armée Secrète (OAS) hires a British citizen to assassinate French President Charles de Gaulle. For this task, the assassin secures a passport in the name of a deceased person.

Decades later, that kind of identity theft was still possible in the United States.

As the DSS recently discovered, a Mexican national named Gustavo Araujo Lerma applied for a U.S. passport under the assumed identity of Hiram Enrique Velez, a deceased U.S. citizen. Federal courts are charging that Araujo Lerma, 62, used this fake ID for more than 25 years and obtained legal permanent resident status for Maria Eva Velez, 64, with the help of that fraudulently obtained passport. The couple had previously married in Mexico but did so again in Los Angeles in 1992 under the fake identity. This allowed Velez illegally to gain status as the purported wife of a U.S. citizen.

The government also alleges Araujo Lerma “committed illegal alien voting” by using the identity of the late Hiram Velez in at least five federal, state, and local elections. If any election officials caught on to this voter fraud—a felony—they weren’t talking. Legitimate citizens and legal immigrants could be forgiven for wondering how many other fake-documented foreign nationals have cast ballots in American elections, even though it supposedly never happens.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton carried the popular vote by a count of 2.8 million and her popular-vote victory was due almost entirely to California, where she received more than 4.3 million votes than Trump. The president, who carried the day in the Electoral College, estimated that 3-5 million illegals had caused him to lose the popular vote. Trump duly launched a commission on voter fraud headed by Vice President Mike Pence and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. That probe had Democrats running to the barricades, bullhorns in hand.

“There’s simply no evidence of widespread voter fraud in this country. Period,” said U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, who at 84 is seeking another six-year term in office next year. California’s secretary of state, Alex Padilla, sued to block the federal probe from seeing the data with this explanation:

California’s participation would only serve to legitimize the false and already debunked claims of massive voter fraud made by the president, the vice president, and Mr. Kobach. The President’s Commission is a waste of taxpayer money and a distraction from the real threats to the integrity of our elections today: aging voting systems and documented Russian interference in our elections.

As Fusion GPS confirms, the Russian interference tilted to Hillary’s side. The “voting systems” work well but the process of verifying voters could well be aging. Back in the day, as “The Day of the Jackal” showed, everything was on paper and officials had to wade through boxes of material. Now birth, death, and passport records are all computerized, and identities can be verified easily.

The Diplomatic Security Service should check all passport applications for the past 25 years to see how many belong to dead people. Then cross-check the voter rolls to see how many of the falsely documented voted in federal, state, and local elections, in the manner of Gustavo Araujo Lerma. If convicted, he faces 15 years in prison and his wife 10 years, plus fines of $250,000. After all, document fraud and identity theft are not victimless crimes.

Nearly 3 million illegals live in California and the real count is doubtless much higher, same for the alleged 11 million illegals nationwide. Twenty states, including the sanctuary state of California, are blocking access to voter data, so legitimate citizens and legal immigrants can be forgiven for giving President Trump the benefit of the doubt on the 3-5 million illegal votes.

Meanwhile, is it possible that any of the falsely documented are not only voting but running for public office? Consider California’s state senate leader, who seeks to replace Feinstein in the U.S. Senate.

As Christopher Cadelago of the Sacramento Bee notes, “the name on his birth certificate isn’t Kevin de León.” The author of California’s “sanctuary state” legislation is also on record that members of his family used false identification, including fake social security cards.

Did anybody in the family get a fake U.S. passport? Did any vote in federal, state, and local elections, in the style of Gustavo Araujo Lerma? The Diplomatic Security Service of the U.S. Department of State might want to look into it.

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