Thread: Immigrant Rights Groups Challenge ID Theft Arrests

Immigrant Rights Groups Challenge ID Theft Arrests
by Jennifer Ludden






Read The ID Theft Law
Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act of 2004
Morning Edition, July 24, 2008 · For years, the chief punishment for immigrants caught working illegally in the United States has been deportation. But prosecutors are now bringing criminal charges that include aggravated identity theft, which can bring a hefty prison sentence. Immigrant rights groups and some members of Congress are challenging the practice.

A congressional panel is meeting Thursday to look at the controversial fallout from an immigration raid on an Iowa meat-packing plant in May. Not long ago, illegal immigrants swept up in such raids faced administrative charges and swift deportation. But in recent years, the Bush administration has started bringing criminal charges against immigrants who use fake documents, including stolen Social Security numbers.

After the raid at the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa, more than 250 workers were sentenced to five months in prison. Rights groups, defense lawyers and even some judges are questioning the Bush administration's strategy.

Iowa immigration attorney Dan Vondra says he was stunned to see immigrant workers from the plant charged with aggravated identity theft. Congress created that law in 2004 to toughen penalties for the growing problem of identity theft.

Still, Vondra said, "When you think of identity theft, what you really want to target is somebody getting credit cards in your name, ruining your credit, using your name to commit crimes, things of that nature."

The immigrants had bought stolen Social Security numbers to help them find work, Vondra said. In fact, one of the translators at the court proceedings has said the mainly Guatemalan immigrants he encountered had no idea what a Social Security card was — let alone that the numbers on it belonged to real people.

Challenges In The Courts

Last year, another Iowa attorney used that argument in court. Gary Koos' client had been arrested at a concrete company after buying an ID off the street in order to fill out employment forms. Koos didn't think that fit the crime of aggravated identity theft.

"If you want to think of it in legal terms, it would be that a person has to be put upon notice of what the crime is," Koos said. "And in this case, it's knowingly to use someone else's identity. My client didn't know he had someone else's Social Security number, he just had a number."

Koos lost the case on appeal, and his immigrant client is now serving five years in federal prison. But Koos' argument has been backed by other appeals courts — and he thinks the Supreme Court may need to resolve the dispute.

The issue is coming up more often because of another part of the Bush administration's immigration crackdown. More and more companies are using a federal computer program that can detect fake Social Security numbers. But it can't tell when real numbers are used by another person — which has fueled a growing market for stolen IDs.

"The issue is whether people using false identifications should be held accountable for that," said Bob Teig, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in northern Iowa, which prosecuted the Agriprocessors case.

Teig said he didn't know whether any of the workers charged with aggravated ID theft had used Social Security numbers for anything but work. But that's not the point, he said.

"The point is, by the time it happens it's too late. The statute is not just designed to punish, the statute is designed to prevent," Teig said.

A Stiff Mandatory Sentence

To be clear, the Agriprocessors employees did not plead guilty to aggravated ID theft. But because the charge carries a two-year prison sentence as its mandatory minimum, it put pressure on them to accept a plea deal on lesser charges.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) has called for a hearing to look at that procedure. She's also an immigration attorney, and she questions whether due process was upheld.

"Hundreds of people were convinced to plead guilty to a crime without really an adequate opportunity to see if they had any remedy under immigration law," Lofgren said. "And of course, now that they've pled guilty to a crime, they have no remedies that they might otherwise have had."

Not all arrested immigrant workers are being sentenced to jail time. But federal immigration officials say incarceration can be an important deterrent. And Julie Myers, head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, says that some victims of this kind of ID theft suffer financial and legal hardships.

"We think it's tragic and unfortunate when people break the law by coming here," Myers said, "and then break the law again by actually stealing the identity of U.S. citizens."

So far this year, the immigration agency has made more than 900 criminal arrests.





http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... d=92830188

Identity theft is a HUGE problem. It does not matter if the ID is used for getting loans, or for work. It is still theft and fraud. These immigrants rights groups want to return to the not too distant past when illegals could not be prosecuted for anything and it fact were not held to the same legal requirements as US citizens.
If some liberal judge or the Supreme Court rules that using a false Social Security number can not be prosecuted as a crime against illegal workers, what recourse will American citizens have when their ID is stolen?

Still, Vondra said, "When you think of identity theft, what you really want to target is somebody getting credit cards in your name, ruining your credit, using your name to commit crimes, things of that nature."

The immigrants had bought stolen Social Security numbers to help them find work, Vondra said. In fact, one of the translators at the court proceedings has said the mainly Guatemalan immigrants he encountered had no idea what a Social Security card was — let alone that the numbers on it belonged to real people.

BS! Guatemalen illegal aliens know what a SS card is, they know ALL about gaming our system, and they have soo many activists "helping" them! I want to target ANYONE using stolen or fake ID, you moron!

Maybe Vondra would like to lend HIS ss number to illegal aliens and then tell us it's no big deal!

What does he think these people do with the SS number?!?!? Of course, they get loans! The real owners of those SS numbers get nailed for non-payment of taxes by the IRS and their lives are ruined!

Here's an idea, force the SSA to give the info to DHS AND to the legal holders of the numbers. I want to know if someone's using my SSN, and I want to be able to prosecute anyone who does it. Why should I have to suffer consequences of their criminal act??

Still, Vondra said, "When you think of identity theft, what you really want to target is somebody getting credit cards in your name, ruining your credit, using your name to commit crimes, things of that nature."

BULL BULL BULL I WANT TO TARGET ANYONE AND EVERYONE USING FALSE IDENTIFICATION! If their using it to get a job their still breaking the law you chump!

The first thing they teach in law schools is that ignorance of the law is not a valid defense. Once again these invaders feel that they are above the law and follow a different set of rules than the rest of us. It might not be a credit card, but face it folks, who would you rather fight, the credit reporting agencies or the IRS? Many people have endured IRS nightmares about failure to report earnings that were actually earned by illegals using their identity. Personally, I would not want to have the hassle of either, both can be destructive, but the IRS can do far more harm without due process that the credit agencies. Therefore, I agree there should be a different law for this crime, with double the penalties.

Next time you get stopped for speeding, just tell the officer you didn't know what the speed limit was. See how well that goes over.

Here's an idea, force the SSA to give the info to DHS AND to the legal holders of the numbers. I want to know if someone's using my SSN, and I want to be able to prosecute anyone who does it. Why should I have to suffer consequences of their criminal act??

I agree......peoples lives have been torn apart in alot of different ways from identity theft and they never get personal restitution for the crime done against them.

I read a story where a woman had her identity stolen and the woman who stole her identity had a baby in the hospital and snuck out and abandoned the baby and the bill. They of course found the real person and were going to take her children from her because of the abandonment of the infant and it was hell for her to prove it all and then to try and get out of the bill. People have been denied insurance or medicade or loans and even jobs because of the actions of the alternate user of their SS number. It effects people in more ways than just stealing their money. And involves alot more than simply saying I didn't do that. Many never know till they are in trouble themselves. Wonder how many illegals get in trouble because they got a bad stolen SS#? LOL

Originally Posted by ReggieMay

Next time you get stopped for speeding, just tell the officer you didn't know what the speed limit was. See how well that goes over.

Right On ReggieMay.

Think I'll call my senators and ask them for their SS#'s so I can post them in the paper to help the poor IA's.

Morning Edition, July 24, 2008 · For years, the chief punishment for immigrants caught working illegally in the United States has been deportation. But prosecutors are now bringing criminal charges that include aggravated identity theft, which can bring a hefty prison sentence. Immigrant rights groups and some members of Congress are challenging the practice.

Does he have a monitoring system attached to his leg if not in jail, currently?

Is he paying the fee daily for the monitoring system attached to his leg?

Common sense says, watch all illegals with a monitoring system once caught, they are criminals, and then deport before they become a criminal killers.

Congress, quit being spineless, don't the Americans pay you each well enough about 2/10 of a million annually?

Next time you get stopped for speeding, just tell the officer you didn't know what the speed limit was. See how well that goes over.

LOL....or I forgot, or I needed it for a better life for my family, I'm poor, I wanted it, or any of the other excuses illegals use to explain themselves out of crimes. It would go over like a lead balloon.

I think it was in the 70's and the 80's where they had billboards all over that said, "Ignorance is no excuse for breaking the law".

I mean I haven't walked a mile in an illegals shoes, but something inside me would give me a red light that by getting these documents from a shady person would mean something isn't on the up and up here. They've busted people here with multiple false identies. Give em this one when you're in trouble, this one for work, this one for bank accounts, this one for something else. LOL Wouldn't we all like to have alternate identies for alternate lifestyles and never have to be accountable for any of them.