Election 2008: What’s At Stake?

When I.C.E. arrests illegal immigrants, charges of identity theft usually follow. Often, the immigrants have bought fake social security numbers and identification, and sometimes those identities belong to real people. Under a 2004 law, this crime carries federal charges and a prison term of up to two years.

But many illegal immigrants say they did not know that the identification they purchased belonged to real people, and court decisions have been mixed on this question. Now, the Supreme Court has decided to resolve the issue by hearing the appeal of Ignacio Flores-Figueroa. Flores-Figueroa, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, was convicted of aggravated identity theft after a raid on the Illinois steel plant where he worked. He was found using fake Social Security and alien registration cards, which it turned out belonged to someone else. He was sentenced to more than six years in prison.

Federal immigration authorities say that identity theft charges are one of their most important tools, and after the Postville, Iowa, raid they convinced more than 300 detained immigrants to plead guilty to lesser charges rather than face this more serious charge. Additionally, identity theft can hurt real people.

But Flores-Figueroa argues that he did not know he was using real ID numbers—he thought they were fake and belonged to no one. Flores-Figueroa says that because he did not knowingly steal an identity, he is not guilty of identity theft. If the Supreme Court accepts this argument, it could have profound implications in future immigration raids.

(Wikipedia photo)