Thread: AZ-Thomas: Ariz. ID Theft Law Will Stand

Thomas: Ariz. ID Theft Law Will Stand
Greg Gurule
Reporter, KPHO.com

POSTED: 5:23 pm MST May 4, 2009
UPDATED: 6:45 pm MST May 4, 2009


PHOENIX -- Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas said the U.S. Supreme Court ruling Monday on ID theft and illegal immigration will not affect the state's prosecution of these cases.

The Supreme Court ruled that the federal government over-stepped its bounds by using ID theft laws to prosecute undocumented workers who use fictitious identification to get jobs.

Arizona's laws are different from federal laws because the state's make it illegal to steal an ID whether it was real or fictitious, Thomas said.


http://www.kpho.com/news/19367735/detail.html

Well, theres some good news.

Well, theres some good news.

2:10 pm | 92° May 05, 2009 |

High court's ID-theft ruling is unlikely to affect Arizona


by Michael Kiefer and Daniel Gonzalez - May. 5, 2009 12:00 AM

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling Monday that overturned the identity-theft conviction of an undocumented worker appears unlikely to affect Arizona identity-theft law, a major tool in the state's illegal-immigrant enforcement.

The high court ruled that an Illinois steel-plant worker did not violate a federal identity-theft law because he did not know that the identification numbers he had assumed belonged to other people.

Arizona law, however, differs from federal law.

"Arizona statutes make it illegal to steal an identity whether the identity stolen was real or fictitious," Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas said.

The federal case, though, may raise questions about the state law.

"I have no doubt there will be challenges here in Arizona, and our office is prepared to defend the law," he said, acknowledging that a ruling against Arizona's laws "would have a substantial effect on this office's ability to fight illegal immigration."

When the most recent Arizona identity-theft laws were passed in 2005, they specifically mentioned those who use the identity of a "real or fictitious person, with the intent to seek employment."

The Arizona Attorney General's Office is reviewing the ruling to determine "what, if any" impact it may have on state law, spokeswoman Anne Hilby said.

The Supreme Court's unanimous decision focused on the wording of a federal statute. The statute specifically refers to an offender who "knowingly transfers, possesses, or uses, without lawful authority, a means of identification of another person." Because prosecutors did not prove that the steel-plant worker, a Mexican citizen living illegally in the U.S., knowingly used the identity of another, the court reasoned he was not guilty of the offense.

When identity-theft laws first were written in the 1990s, they targeted people who took identities of others in order to commit financial fraud. But increasingly, identity-theft laws have become tools to prosecute illegal immigrants, who, to get jobs, often buy fake documents with Social Security and other identification numbers that usually are fictitious but sometimes belong to real people.

Advocates for immigrants have complained that federal authorities use the threat of prosecution on the identity-theft charge, which carries a two-year mandatory prison term, to win guilty pleas on lesser charges and acceptance of prompt deportation.

"These prosecutions have been taken off the table," Nina Perales, Southwest regional counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, said after the court's decision.

In Maricopa County, identity-theft laws also have become a primary tool when conducting worksite raids.

Attention on those raids has centered on the state's 16-month-old employer-sanctions law, which allows officials to suspend or revoke business licenses of employers who knowingly hire illegal workers. The law requires employers to use a computer database to ensure that new hires are authorized to work, rather than just accepting documents at face value as in the past.

Most of those investigations began as raids on workers suspected of ID theft through the use of false documents, according to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office. Since January 2008, the county Sheriff's Office has raided 14 businesses around the Valley and detained or arrested more than 200 people on suspicion of identify theft or fraud.

The county attorney was not alone in his assessment that the Supreme Court's decision is unlikely to affect Arizona.

"I think he's probably right," said Robert McWhirter, a defense attorney who has written several books on immigration law and handles identity-theft and illegal-immigrant crime cases. "The federal case is very focused on the wording of the federal statute," he said.

Dan Pochoda, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, said the ruling does not appear to invalidate state law. The ACLU and other organizations have unsuccessfully waged a court battle to have the state's employer-sanctions law thrown out, arguing that it usurps federal immigration laws.

Pochoda said the Supreme Court ruling likely will affect federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Arizona by limiting agents from charging illegal immigrants with identity theft under the federal law. ICE agents have led few worksite raids in Arizona.

Vincent Picard, a spokesman for ICE, declined to comment on the ruling.

Pochoda said the ACLU plans to take a closer look at the Supreme Court ruling to see if it at least opens the door for a legal challenge to Arizona's identify-theft laws, though he admitted he is not optimistic. "The (Supreme Court) ruling seems pretty specific," he said.


http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... 505a1.html