Thread: Identities for sale

Identities for sale

For some illegal immigrants, buying stolen documents is an avenue to employment

BY STEVE RALPH


FEATURED ADVERTISER


Jose Gamez-Gomez, 32, used forged documents to find work in a country where he wasn't a legal resident.





ARTICLE TOOLS
Email this Article
Forums
Printer-Friendly Format
RELATED STORIES
Eduardo Nino-Alvarez, 28, was living on 17th Street in Holland in 2000 when his wallet was stolen.
Three years later, he found out someone was using his name and Social Security number to gain employment. He filed a complaint with Holland police and notified the Social Security Administration, thinking this would take care of the problem.

His problems were just beginning.

Illegal immigration and identity theft are problems local law enforcement officials deal with.

"We don't knock on doors and say, 'Can we see your papers?'" said Holland police Capt. Jack Dykstra

On the other hand, police don't turn a blind eye to immigration law violation, he said.

There's a network of traffickers who help illegal immigrants get fake identification, Dykstra said.

Immigration, or "green," cards are the most-often forged documents, followed by birth certificates, driver licenses or state ID cards, Social Security cards and, rarely, passports, he said.

According to police and court records, Nino-Alvarez was notified in 2003 by a local staffing agency that someone else was trying to find work using his identity. After reporting the problem to authorities, he seemed to be in the clear until he filed his 2004 taxes. His tax preparer said he'd be getting a $3,800 refund. The IRS sent him a check for $14, saying he owed back taxes.

When it came time to file a return the following year, he was told he owed $6,764 in unpaid taxes.

He was denied a Michigan driver's license when it was up for renewal because someone using his identity in Wisconsin had a suspended license.

One person using Nino-Alvarez's information wasn't far away.

Jose Gamez-Gomez, 32-year-old husband and father of three, was living on Lincoln Avenue in Holland in 2006 when police knocked on his door. After seven years of using forged documents to find work in a country where he wasn't a legal resident, he had been discovered.

Dykstra said illegal immigrants are typically discovered during the course of other investigations. When they are, local police contact the Grand Rapids office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, though occasionally ICE will come into town seeking help from local police.

If they face criminal charges, they'll be prosecuted or deported, sometimes both.

But if there aren't any criminal charges and federal funding levels won't support the cost of transportation and deportation, illegal immigrants are often released from jail and carry on their lives here, Dykstra said.

Susan Reed, a Grand Rapids immigration attorney, tells a different story.

"In my experience, in our area, every person without lawful immigration status is prosecuted to the full extent of the law," she said.

Greg Palmore, ICE public affairs officer, said tracking numbers of illegal immigrants is difficult.

"If we knew how many illegals there were in this area, we'd have more work on our hands than we could handle," he said.

Rob Paral, research fellow with the Immigration Policy Center, compiled data suggesting there may be as many as 175,000 undocumented immigrants in Michigan.

Gamez-Gomez told police he came into the U.S. illegally and bought a Social Security number on the streets of Chicago in 1999 for $130, according to records. He worked a few jobs using that number and his real name.

Two years later, he bought another Social Security number in Chicago for $200, using it to find work under the name "David Ponce."

This worked until 2004, when a potential employer told him the number was invalid.

His dad knew someone who knew someone who had stolen Nino-Alvarez's birth certificate and Social Security card, used them for a couple of years and then sold them to Gamez-Gomez for $600.

With this information, Gamez-Gomez went back to Chicago, where he paid someone $200 to have a fake Texas ID made using Nino-Alvarez's information.

Gamez-Gomez pleaded guilty to identity theft, paid $1,120 in fines, and served three months of a 12-month probation sentence before being deported to Mexico on May 5, 2007.

House OKs bill to allow legal

immigrants to get licenses

The state House has passed legislation aimed at allowing legal immigrants in Michigan to resume getting driver's licenses. The bills passed Thursday now go to the Senate, which already has passed similar measures. If the two chambers are able to agree on a version of legislation, the resulting new law would reverse a policy enacted in late January that prevents legal immigrants who aren't permanent residents from getting Michigan licenses. Illegal immigrants still would be denied licenses. The new state policy applies only to first-time applicants for driver's licenses.

SLIDESHOW


Click here to return to story:
http://www.hollandsentinel.com/stories/ ... 8001.shtml

Gamez-Gomez pleaded guilty to identity theft, paid $1,120 in fines, and served three months of a 12-month probation sentence before being deported to Mexico on May 5, 2007.

And he was probably back by May 12 buying another victims SS#.

According to police and court records, Nino-Alvarez was notified in 2003 by a local staffing agency that someone else was trying to find work using his identity. After reporting the problem to authorities, he seemed to be in the clear until he filed his 2004 taxes. His tax preparer said he'd be getting a $3,800 refund. The IRS sent him a check for $14, saying he owed back taxes.

When it came time to file a return the following year, he was told he owed $6,764 in unpaid taxes.

He was denied a Michigan driver's license when it was up for renewal because someone using his identity in Wisconsin had a suspended license.

I can't think of much of anything where one of our actions doesn't effect another when a law is broken. Here he didn't do anything wrong but look at how it effected his life... all because someone stole his identity. Hate to wonder if he was looking for employment at any time and been refused employment because of a criminal record from any of these other people using his identity. To say one thing shouldn't affect another is impossible to do. It effects our ability to get insurance, credit, government aid etc......a SS# number is more than a right to work number. A drivers license is more than just a card that says you passed a written test to drive. Even with a SS# you have the choice as to how many dependants to take out and you can make it where they don't take all your taxes out and it leaves someone else supposidly responsible for paying them....like this guy. Or atleast with the headache for dealing with it. And the victim responsible to supply tons of paper and proof and documents and everything else. While illegals don't want to have to prove anything. To have anyone say it's no big deal to steal an identity is crazy. You don't have to empty their bank account or charge them to oblivion to reek havoc on their lives.

As we saw with people going to vote and not being allowed to because someone else voted for them
is enough.