Thread: TN-Ruling could kill 12 identity theft cases

Ruling could kill 12 identity theft cases
By Janell Ross • THE TENNESSEAN • May 11, 2009

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The federal prosecutor for Middle Tennessee is reviewing 12 pending identity theft cases — some involving suspected illegal workers — in light of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week.

For a federal aggravated identity theft conviction, the ruling said, prosecutors must prove the defendant knew he was using a Social Security number belonging to a real person.

The decision could force thousands of aggravated identity theft and related cases across the country to be reopened and limit how often the charge is used against illegal workers in the future.

The charge hasn't been used much in Nashville, said Ed Yarbrough, U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee.

"You have to be careful that the punishment fits the crime," he said.

The unanimous ruling stemmed from a May 2008 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid on a Pottsville, Iowa, meat plant. ICE agents arrested more than 300 suspected illegal workers. The government had evidence the company or a broker supplied the workers with documents to work at the plant.

The workers — some of them indigenous Latin Americans who spoke a Mayan language — were given Spanish translators and the option to share their defense attorney, on average, with 10 other workers, said David Leopold, vice president of the American Immigration Lawyer's Association. They also were offered deals: Plead guilty to Social Security fraud, serve five months in prison and be deported or go to trial and face up to two years in jail.

"There were mass hearings, groups of defendants chained together and brought to a makeshift court on the grounds of the National Cattle Congress at Waterloo, Iowa," said Leopold, a Cincinnati immigration attorney. "By the way, that's where they typically show livestock."

The court ruled Monday. On Tuesday, the association called on U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to dismiss the nearly 300 guilty pleas entered by the Pottsville, Iowa, workers.

What's happening in Iowa could have happened in Middle Tennessee.

In December 2007, ICE wanted to make a surprise sweep into Springfield, arrest hundreds of workers at the Electrolux appliance-making plant and wield the threat of federal aggravated identity theft charges against them, Yarbrough said.


But the evidence suggested a pair of third-party employment brokers was the source of the documents that workers used to get jobs, and Electrolux seemed serious about fixing the problem, so Yarbrough told ICE he would charge the brokers, not the workers.

The surprise raid was called off, Yarbrough said. In the end, two brokers and 29 immigrants were arrested at the plant and around town.

"In a lot of these mass cases, and Springfield was no exception, immigrants are rounded up and charged without any real evidence against the individual," Yarbrough said. "In those cases, I would have to say that a charge of aggravated identity theft may be, well, excessive."

An ICE spokesman referred questions about the case to the U.S. Department of Justice. Representatives there did not return phone calls Friday.

Yarbrough said his office has brought aggravated identity theft charges in cases where there was evidence the defendants — illegal workers and U.S. citizens alike — stole a purse or admitted to engaging in other direct acts to obtain someone else's identification.

Since 2004, 43 people have been charged in Middle Tennessee with aggravated identity theft.

Nationally, the court's ruling may mean some cases will be reopened and convictions vacated. But the court's decision is not likely to have a major impact on immigration enforcement, said Jessica Vaughan, the Center for Immigration Studies' director of policy studies.

The Washington, D.C.-based center advocates for stricter immigration policy and enforcement.

To deter illegal immigration, the Bush administration sought to criminally prosecute workers and, more often than not, punish employers with civil violations related to hiring illegal workers. Threatening immigrants with an aggravated identity theft charge was a "muscular" prosecution tool, Vaughan said.

President Barack Obama's administration plans to criminally prosecute employers who knowingly employ illegal immigrants.

They will use a combination of auditing work sites — where a pattern of made-up, multiple-use or stolen employee Social Security numbers might become apparent — and granting illegal immigrants work visas in exchange for truthful testimony against employers.

"We'll have to see how that works. I'm not sure how effective that's going to be," Vaughan said.

But the evidence suggested a pair of third-party employment brokers was the source of the documents that workers used to get jobs, and Electrolux seemed serious about fixing the problem, so Yarbrough told ICE he would charge the brokers, not the workers.

The surprise raid was called off, Yarbrough said. In the end, two brokers and 29 immigrants were arrested at the plant and around town.

"In a lot of these mass cases, and Springfield was no exception, immigrants are rounded up and charged without any real evidence against the individual," Yarbrough said. "In those cases, I would have to say that a charge of aggravated identity theft may be, well, excessive."

An ICE spokesman referred questions about the case to the U.S. Department of Justice. Representatives there did not return phone calls Friday.

Yarbrough said his office has brought aggravated identity theft charges in cases where there was evidence the defendants — illegal workers and U.S. citizens alike — stole a purse or admitted to engaging in other direct acts to obtain someone else's identification.

Since 2004, 43 people have been charged in Middle Tennessee with aggravated identity theft.

Nationally, the court's ruling may mean some cases will be reopened and convictions vacated. But the court's decision is not likely to have a major impact on immigration enforcement, said Jessica Vaughan, the Center for Immigration Studies' director of policy studies.

The Washington, D.C.-based center advocates for stricter immigration policy and enforcement.

To deter illegal immigration, the Bush administration sought to criminally prosecute workers and, more often than not, punish employers with civil violations related to hiring illegal workers. Threatening immigrants with an aggravated identity theft charge was a "muscular" prosecution tool, Vaughan said.

President Barack Obama's administration plans to criminally prosecute employers who knowingly employ illegal immigrants.

They will use a combination of auditing work sites — where a pattern of made-up, multiple-use or stolen employee Social Security numbers might become apparent — and granting illegal immigrants work visas in exchange for truthful testimony against employers.

"We'll have to see how that works. I'm not sure how effective that's going to be," Vaughan said.




Contact Janell Ross at jross1@tennessean.com


http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090 ... heft+cases

So let me see if I get this correct, my number goes into the Social Security Office and it belongs to me, I am a real person. Oh really

But if illegals get my number I am not a real person. Oh really

Who is being dehumanized here, now?

For Real

It's bizarre, but really, what we want is all these illegal aliens deported out of the country, so the identity theft charge and prison time might send a message to them, we really just want them fined, a felony on their record and deported. I for one don't want to use taxpayer dollars housing these people for a period of years in state and federal prisons, I want them removed from our country and kept out. I'd rather spend what we would spend on incarcerations, beefing up the border and funding more ICE raids to get more of them out of the country.

They will use a combination of auditing work sites — where a pattern of made-up, multiple-use or stolen employee Social Security numbers might become apparent — and granting illegal immigrants work visas in exchange for truthful testimony against employers.


The only thing this administration has accomplished is establishing another back door illegal alien amnesty. Any use of a social security number real or fabricated is a crime. It will be too easy for an illegal alien who knowingly used a real ssn to claim they didn't knowingly use one, and you know this corrupt union, mob and drug cartel owned administration will always side with them. Illegal aliens won't be deported but will be rewarded for identity theft by being allowed to remain here and take more jobs from Americans. This so called administration cares only about cheap labor, more votes and to hell with the American people. We have become a corrupt, lawless third world banana republic with nuclear weapons.