Isaac Ruiz-Betancourt

A crew apparently made up of illegal immigrants that has supposedly come to help clean up debris at the Pentagon is permitted to enter the Pentagon site, despite its members having no identification with them, even though extensive security has been implemented around the site. Isaac Ruiz-Betancourt, an officer with the Arlington County Police Department (ACPD), encounters the crew when it tries to get into the site. [Middletown Press, 1/29/2002; US Department of Health and Human Services, 7/2002, pp. C7 ; Arlington County Library Oral History Project, 8/15/2006] Despite being off work this morning, Betancourt headed to the Pentagon after hearing of the attack there. [Pentagon Memorial Fund, 1/12/2011, pp. 16 ] After helping out for several hours, he was assigned to man one of the checkpoints where people who want to enter the Pentagon site need to show they are permitted to do so.
Crew Is Turned Away because Its Members Have No IDs – At some point, about 20 people show up at the checkpoint, saying they have come to help clean up the debris at the Pentagon. They are not there to collect evidence, according to Betancourt, but are instead more like “a cleanup crew.” However, when they are asked to show identification, none of them are able to. This is likely because “they were illegal immigrants,” Betancourt will later suggest. “You cannot come in because you have to provide IDs,” he tells the group.
Crew Is Allowed in with Just a List of Its Members’ Names – Betancourt talks to members of the Secret Service who tell him the crew needs to have a list showing all its members’ names and their Social Security numbers. Whether the Secret Service means the crew should be allowed into the site even if its members have no IDs is unclear. “At that point I knew that they were not legal,” Betancourt will comment. “You have to bring a list from your company [showing] that you can actually come in,” he tells the crew. The crew goes away and then returns about three hours later with what Betancourt will describe as “a list made up from the job.” Its members apparently still have no IDs with them. But the Secret Service tells Betancourt to let them in and so, he will recall, “they went in and they did their job.”
Officer Finds It ‘Ironic’ that the Crew Is Allowed In – Presumably referring to the supposedly high level of security at the Pentagon and the possibility of further attacks, Betancourt will say of this incident, “This is no criticism to anybody, [but] I just thought at the time, with what was going on, it was kind of ironic [that the crew was allowed into the site].” [Arlington County Library Oral History Project, 8/15/2006] The ACPD began securing the perimeter of the Pentagon Reservation shortly after the Pentagon attack occurred (see (9:42 a.m.) September 11, 2001) and its officers have been providing security at 10 posts around the perimeter. [US Department of Health and Human Services, 7/2002, pp. C20 ; Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 162; Defense Media Network, 9/11/2015] They have been screening any pedestrians who want to get to the crash site and escorting anyone delivering equipment to the Pentagon. [Middletown Press, 1/29/2002]