Ignacio Carlos Flores-Figueroa, an undocumented worker from Mexico, made a curious and undeniably bad decision. After working under an assumed name for six years, he decided to use his real name and exchanged one set of phony identification numbers for another.

The change made his employer suspicious and the authorities were called in. The old numbers were made up, but the new ones he bought happened to belong to real people. Federal prosecutors said that was enough to label Flores-Figueroa an identity thief.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday on prosecutors’ aggressive use of a new law that was intended to strengthen efforts to combat identity theft. In at least hundreds of cases last year, workers accused of immigration violations found themselves facing the more serious identity theft charge as well, without any indication they knew their counterfeit Social Security and other identification numbers belonged to actual people and were not made up.

See the full report at Google.com.

Federal law enforcement turned a deaf ear to sheriff’s Sgt. James Anderson’s pleas for help in an identity theft investigation, but that didn’t stop deputies from arresting 55 people for suspected Social Security fraud.Deputies executed a search warrant at L&M Optical West in Valencia Feb. 5 after residents tipped off deputies about employees using stolen Social Security numbers to secure work at the company.

The tips from identity theft victims prompted a three-month investigation, Lt. Brenda Cambra said.

See the full report at The Signal.

Maricopa County Sheriff’s deputies and volunteer posse are conducting a search warrant on the premises of Handyman Maintenance Incorporated near 19th Avenue and Lower Buckeye Road.

MCSO says H.M.I. has a multi-million dollar contract approved by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to provide landscaping services to several county buildings and is employing as many as 67 illegal aliens suspected of identity theft.

See the full video report at MyFoxPhoenix.com.

With Mississippi being the site of the nation’s largest workplace raid on undocumented workers, lawmakers are trying to crack down on illegal immigrants who obtain false identification for employment.A bill passed in the Senate and now headed to the House would enhance the penalties for illegal immigrants who create or use false ID.

Currently, a person convicted of those crimes could face up to three years in prison or a $5,000 fine. Under the bill, an illegal immigrant would face up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

See the full report at SunHerald.com.

Eight Illegal Immigrants Arrested in ID Theft Case:

Maricopa County Sheriff’s deputies arrested 12 undocumented immigrants Wednesday morning at a Scottsdale business as they followed up on complaints of ID theft and employer sanctions law violations.

Deputies served a search warrant at Scottsdale Art Factory near Greenway and Scottsdale roads.

Sheriff’s officials said in a Wednesday afternoon statement that the search was the result of a tip called in to the “Sheriff’s illegal immigration hotline in March from a source who advised … that the business owner was knowingly hiring illegal aliens.”

According to the statement, eight immigrants were arrested on identification theft charges and four more were arrested “at the business for violating immigration laws.” One of those was also charged with drug possession.

See the full report at ABC15.com.

ACLU Sues in Greeley Illegal Immigrant ID Theft Case:  

In a class action lawsuit filed in state district court Monday evening, the ACLU of Colorado argued that Weld County Sheriff John Cooke and Nineteenth Judicial District Attorney Ken Buck are violating the privacy rights of thousands of law-abiding taxpayers by keeping copies of confidential information obtained in an illegal search of Amalia’s Translation and Tax Service in Greeley, Colorado, last fall.

“The search violated the privacy rights of thousands of innocent taxpayers who are not suspected of any wrongdoing,” said Mark Silverstein, ACLU Legal Director. “If the Sheriff and the District Attorney can comb through all the many thousands of records of a tax preparer on the theory that some of the clients are doing something wrong, then none of our private information is safe.”

In the October search, deputies took 49 file boxes filled with the tax returns and related information dating back to 2000 regarding approximately 4900 of Ms. Cerrillo’s tax preparation clients. The officers also took dozens of CDs and floppy disks and copied all the electronic documents on the hard drives of Ms. Cerrillo’s computers. In a November news conference, District Attorney Ken Buck said the search was part of an investigation he called “Operation Number Games.”

Ms. Cerrillo was not a suspect, and the application for the search warrant quoted a tax investigator who said that she “is conducting business according to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidelines and has not violated any laws.”

In a legal brief, the ACLU lawyers argue that the deputies illegally searched the confidential files of thousands of taxpayers when they had individualized suspicion implicating only one of them. “This was the equivalent of a house-by-house search of innocent homeowners in order to find a suspect believed to be somewhere in the neighborhood,” Silverstein said. “The constitutional right of privacy protects us from such blanket general searches.”

After reviewing the confidential files of all of Ms. Cerrillo’s tax preparation clients, Buck said he regarded hundreds as suspects. Relying on the confidential tax return information, Buck began filing criminal charges of “criminal impersonation” or “identity theft,” asserting that these laws are violated when an individual earns wages using a fake social security number. A few dozen persons have been arrested, and warrants are outstanding for approximately 100 additional suspects. So far, however, Buck has taken no official action against additional clients of Ms. Cerrillo that he suspects.

The ACLU asked the Court to order that all copies of the confidential tax return information taken in the search be returned or destroyed. As an interim measure, the ACLU asked the Court to order that all copies of the confidential information be turned over to the Court and placed under seal while the class action suit is pending. ACLU lawyers will ask for an expedited hearing.

Silverstein added that the ACLU’s lawsuit does not extend to persons who have already been charged with crimes as a result of evidence taken from Ms. Cerrillo’s business. Those persons can challenge the illegal search in the context of their own criminal cases.

The suit names Buck and Cooke as defendants. Plaintiffs are Amalia Cerrillo, owner of the tax preparation service, and four of her clients, three of whom filed a motion to participate without revealing their names.

In addition to Silverstein, attorneys for the Plaintiffs include Taylor Pendergrass, ACLU Staff Attorney, and four ACLU cooperating attorneys: Reid Neureiter and Elizabeth Harris of the Jacobs Chase law firm, and Michael Glade, and Shannon Lyons.

Copies of the lawsuit and the ACLU’s legal arguments are available on the ACLU of Colorado website at
http://www.aclu-co.org/docket/200821/200821_description.html

ACLU Questions Massive Illegal Immigrant Identity Theft Case:

A probe of one of the biggest identity theft cases in Colorado history will be undertaken by two grand juries although the ACLU of Colorado says it is “highly likely” it will challenge the legality of the investigation.

The grand jury probe stems from the seizure last October of 4,900 tax files from Amalia’s Translation and Tax Service in Greeley by the Weld County Sheriff’s Office.

After a search warrant was approved by Weld County District Court Judge Marcelo Kopcow, the tax service was raided on Oct. 17.

Sheriff’s deputies discovered that out of the nearly 5,000 files seized, there were 1,338 suspected cases of identity theft or criminal impersonation on tax returns filed in 2006 and 2007.

At the time, investigators said many people using the tax service were obtaining false names and Social Security numbers in a massive identity-theft scam.

Authorities traced approximately $2.6 million in payments to illegal immigrants using phony Social Security numbers who used the tax service, said Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck.

For the full report see:  The Denver Post

Eight Arrested in Identity Theft Ring:

Johnson County Sheriff’s officers arrested eight people Friday morning at a De Soto business and another person in Olathe as part of an alleged identity theft ring.

Master Deputy Tom Erickson, a sheriff’s spokesman, said seven people were arrested on identity theft charges and two other men were arrested on charges of dealing false identification documents. The suspects will await the filing of formal charges.

The investigation began in October, and eight of the suspects were arrested at Engineered Air in De Soto. Agents with the Kansas Department of Revenue, federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers and the Johnson County district attorney’s office assisted in the investigation and arrests.

For the full report see:  The De Soto Explorer

Should U.S. Discontinue Identity Theft Charges Against Illegal Aliens?

The Guatemalan Immigrants’ Movement (”MIGUA”) requested the president elect of the United States, Barack Obama, to suspend eight policies which the American government carries out against undocumented aliens, among them round-ups and massive deportations, the accords which obligate local authorities to support the work of the Office of Immigration and Customs and the crime of identity theft.

Further, MIGUA stated that a regulation which the Department of Homeland Security intends to publish – sanctioning employers and workers when a discrepancy is detected in Social Security cards – ought to be discontinued. Currently, employers have the duty of declaring their salary expenses to the Social Security Administration by means of a form. When the data of the workers do not coincide with those registered with the SSA, the agency sends the employers a “No match” letter, which could determine a person’s immigration status.

Ben Monterroso, executive director of the National Workers’ Syndicate, based in Los Angeles, California, stated “”we acknowledge there are some 12 million undocumented in the country – of which one million could be from Guatemala – whose Social Security card could be incompatible with the system.” He added that with this procedure the Americans can also be negatively affected because the active data banks have a margin of error between 8 and 10 percent.

MIGUA asked that the U.S. Government repeal the initiative to create a standardized identification with digital readout (Real ID) and that it discontinue the charge of identity theft against undocumented foreigners. According to the communiqué “It is judicially unjustified and ought to cease immediately.”

Furthermore, it asked that practices of discrimination and exploitation against migrants and the use of the E-Verify system (Electronic Verification) be eradicated.

Source:  M3 Report

Editor’s comment:  While many of the issues raised aboue are worthy of debate, there should be no debate that anyone – illegal immigrant or not – caught in the act of identity theft should be fully prosecuted.

Kids Are Easy Prey for Identity Thieves:

Because identity theft is typically associated with financial matters like the misuse of credit cards, most people don’t consider the possibility their child’s personal information could be misused. But more than 34,000 reports of identity theft reported to the Federal Trade Commission from 2005 to 2007 concerned children under age 18.

Because children don’t have complex financial lives, there is less opportunity to notice something has gone awry than for adults who try to access loans, mortgages and credit cards.

A second major reason is that frequently, the thief is a parent or other relative of the child.

Though you may feel secure in your own family, another recurring scenario is that a child’s Social Security number becomes associated with a different name – a technique that’s sometimes used by an undocumented immigrant or someone trying to avoid child support payments.

Source: Mlive.com