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.