Thread: Identity theft linked to illegal immigration

Identity theft linked to illegal immigration
Apr. 23, 2008 06:58 PM
McClatchy Newspapers

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Nobody likes getting a letter from the IRS. So imagine Amanda Bien's reaction last Valentine's Day when the agency wrote to demand $3,300 in back taxes.

For jobs she never worked. Five of them. In multiple states.

A Lenexa, Kan., Taco Bell. A Wendy's restaurant. Two Target stores, one in California. The Engineered Air manufacturing plant in De Soto, Kan. Someone, somewhere, got Bien's name and Social Security number and gave it a workout.

A 28-year-old illegal immigrant was later arrested at the De Soto plant and faces ID theft charges.

Though illegal immigrants aren't the only ones stealing identities, cases like Bien's illustrate the inability of disparate government agencies to tackle the problem.

While lawmakers in Washington debate ways to crack down on illegal immigration, the market for false documents and stolen Social Security numbers is booming.

Particularly vulnerable, authorities say, are legal residents with Hispanic last names. Or, as in Bien's case, names that could sound Hispanic.

As politicians know and Bien is finding out, it's a problem that defies easy solutions.

The IRS may suspect that multiple people are using the same Social Security number, but the agency doesn't investigate ID theft. Local police and prosecutors cannot deport illegal immigrants they arrest.

"I feel like nobody's listening," said Bien, 23, of Ottawa, Kan. "If this can happen to me, it can happen to anybody. And if we don't do something about it now, what's going to happen in 10 years?"

Federal estimates indicate that nearly 10 million Americans become victims of identity theft each year. Officials can't say how many of those identities are being used by illegal workers, but prosecutors in Kansas say they see more cases of illegal immigrants using fake credentials every year.

It mirrors an increase in overall cases related to illegal immigration. The Kansas U.S. attorney's office received 18 such cases in 1997; in 2007, the number was 106.

Experts expect the trend to continue, and they're finding ID theft in surprising places. Last fall, U.S. prosecutors in Missouri charged five noncitizens with ID theft after they were found working in the Kansas City Federal Building's cafeteria.

"We know there are thousands and thousands of people working here who aren't even supposed to be here," said Brent Anderson, assistant U.S. attorney for Kansas. "There is rampant ID theft going on ... and I'm afraid that given the situation we're in right now, this is just the beginning."

Bien doesn't know how someone gained access to her information, but experts say it can happen in several ways.

Hackers steal databases. Workers with access to records sell them illegally. Sometimes, it's as simple as someone rifling through your mail or garbage for sensitive documents.

And illegal immigrants are hardly the only perpetrators. Americans avoiding warrants or child support payments steal identities, too. Scam artists use the information to drain bank accounts or get credit cards.

After her identity was stolen, Linda Foley founded the San Diego-based Identity Theft Resource Center. She said identities can be bought for as little as $30 or much more for quality counterfeits. Often, as in Bien's case, the same identity is sold multiple times.

"Thirty dollars - that's how much your good name is worth," she said. "And if you're going to counterfeit a document, it's as easy to make five copies and sell all of them."

Judy Ancel, director of the University of Missouri-Kansas City's Institute for Labor Studies, said it's wrong to compare immigrant workers to criminals who take out fraudulent credit cards.

"Identity theft is when you steal someone's identity in order to profit from them," she said. "The crime they (illegal immigrants with fake identities) have committed is working under somebody else's Social Security number. The attempt to criminalize immigration is the wrong path. ... It's just going to make a bunch of families suffer."

Once, a made-up name and Social Security number were enough to get a job. But as employers became more diligent, the demand has grown for real identities that can pass database checks.

Children and the elderly, who are less likely to work or watch credit scores, are especially susceptible, Foley said. When Utah officials checked a list of children on welfare against tax rolls, they found that 1,800 children, all under 13, were listed as working.

Bien, a wife and mother, is completing her student teaching, but had to delay her credentialing when she applied for a new Social Security number. She's lost sleep, and she worries that even more people are using her identity.

Still, she's fortunate: Many victims don't learn of the crime until their credit score drops or a loan is denied. In one recent Kansas case, a man found out when he was arrested for a crime committed by an illegal immigrant using his identity.

After Bien discovered the ID theft, she and her mother drove to De Soto to find the Engineered Air plant. When they asked a sheriff's deputy for directions, he said he had arrested an illegal immigrant there a week before.

The deputy followed Bien to the plant, where he arrested Rocio Diaz Cano, the woman allegedly claiming to be Amanda Bien. Cano pleaded not guilty last week.

Her attorney, James Conard, said he's handled 10 or 12 similar cases, and said roughly 85 percent of his business is now Spanish-speaking. He said he sympathizes with Bien and said she's a victim of the government's tacit acceptance of illegal immigration.

"I think the federal government is in cahoots with this whole problem," he said.

Conard noted one example of the mixed messages: Probation, which his client is likely to receive if convicted, often requires the person to stay employed, which illegal immigrants cannot do.

Engineered Air President Ric Rambacher said his company follows all employment laws and checks applicants against a federal database of legal workers. But that system doesn't catch ID thieves.

Bien would like to see ID thieves charged with federal crimes. She believes federal authorities could push for greater sentences, and be more likely to start deportation proceedings.

Yet so far, her thieves in other states haven't been charged, even though Bien has given information to local and federal authorities.

Prosecutors say the decision to file charges and deport comes down to manpower, resources and evidence. When local police make an arrest, the case often falls to the county prosecutor. Federal authorities say they must focus on the most serious crimes.

"Like all law enforcement agencies, we prioritize," said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Tim Counts. "We have finite resources."

Johnson County, Kan., District Attorney Phill Kline, whose office is prosecuting Cano, agreed that federal agencies often lack the manpower to take on lesser cases. When Kline was state attorney general, he said, his office helped U.S. authorities in a checkpoint where three vans of illegal immigrants were stopped. Immigration officials arrested those in one van, but had to release the others.

Deportation, too, is a federal matter. And ID thieves prosecuted locally are likely to get probation if they have no prior record.

"You can have an illegal (immigrant) commit a felony with presumptive probation and they'll be right back on the street and not deported," Kline said. "We're left with no options."

Kline has made it his policy not to offer diversion to illegal immigrants. Diversion is when a suspect in a low-level crime can avoid a conviction through restitution and community service.

Foley, from the Identity Theft Resource Center, said federal authorities must do more. Too often, she said, agencies don't even share data that could pinpoint ID theft.

"There is no universal database. Who's going to collect it? The IRS is there to find out who isn't paying their taxes, not to look for ID theft," she said. "Create a new universal database and suddenly you've created a new target for ID theft."
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... 23-ON.html

As politicians know and Bien is finding out, it's a problem that defies easy solutions.


We all know that is a load of bull****!!!

1. A wall
2. Actively searching for illegals through workplace ID checks
3. Checking inmates in every city, county, state and Fed joint against illegals.
4. Deportation

"Judy Ancel, director of the University of Missouri-Kansas City's Institute for Labor Studies, said it's wrong to compare immigrant workers to criminals who take out fraudulent credit cards.

Identity theft is when you steal someone's identity in order to profit from them," she said. "The crime they (illegal immigrants with fake identities) have committed is working under somebody else's Social Security number. The attempt to criminalize immigration is the wrong path. ... It's just going to make a bunch of families suffer."

WRONG! There is NO difference between the two! The crimeS (yes, multiple) they commit ruin the VICTIMS lives. The illegal aliens ARE criminals and if their families suffer, it's their own fault for ignoring the laws!

The VICTIMS are hit with tax bills from the IRS for nonpayment of taxes on jobs the Criminal illegals work at, ruined credit, etc.

AMERICAN families are already suffering because of these ID thieves, but do you bleeding hearts even care?

I would sue the illegal alien for every possession she has!

Judy Ancel, director of the University of Missouri-Kansas City's Institute for Labor Studies, said it's wrong to compare immigrant workers to criminals who take out fraudulent credit cards.

"Identity theft is when you steal someone's identity in order to profit from them," she said. "The crime they (illegal immigrants with fake identities) have committed is working under somebody else's Social Security number. The attempt to criminalize immigration is the wrong path. ... It's just going to make a bunch of families suffer."

Is this idiot for real?

her site at UMKC

http://www.umkc.edu/labor-ed/staff.htm

Judy has been the Director of The Institute for Labor Studies since 1988. She teaches many of ILS's classes and especially loves teaching labor history, leadership and mobilization, and global economic issues. She has a B.A. from Stanford and M.A. in History from C.U.N.Y. She began teaching in community colleges in the 1970s. She has also worked in an electronics factory and a pump factory where she was a lathe machinist. She has been an activist all her life and a union activist and organizer in both the United Steelworkers and American Federation of Teachers.

She coordinates The Heartland Labor Forum, labor's radio show in Kansas City on Community Radio KKFI 90.1FM. She is President of the Board of Directors of The Cross Border Network for Justice and Solidarity, a non-profit organization which develops ties and mutual understanding between working people in the Kansas City area and maquiladora workers in Mexico and educates about immigration in the global economy. She has also served on the Executive Committee of The Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras, a San Antonio-based tri-national non-governmental organization which educates and advocates on maquiladora worker issues. She has one daughter, Carrie, who is now grown and independent.

If you click the link to her scrapbook this is one thing you will see a photo with the caption:

ILS promotes understanding of how immigration is driven by globalization. These crosses on the fence in Nuevo Laredo overlooking the Rio Grande memorialize workers who died trying to cross to the United States.
There is, of course, no mention of the deaths of US citizens caused by illegal aliens.


Photo By: John Kim
Her contact info is:
Judy Ancel
Director
ancelj@umkc.edu
phone: [816] 235-1470
fax: [816] 235-2834

ILS's office is located in UMKC
Department of Economics
Royall Hall 408D and E
800 East 52nd St.
Kansas City, MO 64110

Our mailing address is
UMKC - 211 Haag Hall
5100 Rockhill Rd
Kansas City, MO 64110

Sounds like she needs to get "educated" about the negative aspects of illegal aliens. I can't believe she was involved with unions!!!!