Immigration and Identity Theft

Illegal immigration is a leading factor in identity theft, causing damaged credit ratings, invalid tax claims, denial of medical and social services, and other negative consequences. Workplace raids taking place across the country are greatly reducing these negative consequences, however nowhere near eliminating the threat to society. So when I hear about the people that are pro-immigration, I surely hope they are referring to legal immigration because their identities are at risk!

"We believe that the genuine identities of possibly hundreds of US citizens are being stolen or hijacked by criminal organizations and sold to illegal aliens in order to gain unlawful employment in this country," said Julie Myers, assistant secretary of Customs Enforcement. She called it "a disturbing front in the war against illegal immigration."

Behind many of the nation's millions of undocumented workers is someone else's sensitive information. To get a job, all the illegal immigrants need is a Social Security number, in which they often borrow or buy. Hundreds of thousands of Americans right now are sharing their identities with illegal immigrants and don't even know it. The mere thought of having to pay taxes on income I never earned, for a company I never worked for, simply scares me to no end.

Every year, nearly 9 million people pay their taxes using the wrong Social Security number. The name used on W-2 tax forms used by the employer doesn't match the name on file with the Social Security Administration. All it takes is a data entry typo, a woman getting married and forgetting to report her new last name (which happens more than not) or an illegal immigrant using someone else's SSN to gain employment.

You might ask who all of these people are that are using the wrong SSN? Neither Social Security nor the IRS has ever really studied this particular issue too much; however there are clear indications that many, if not most, of the 9 million mismatches are illegal immigrants using a SSN that does not belong to them-which is not comforting one single bit.

One disturbing theory: health-care employees with access to children's files are working for organized gangs that trade in illegal documents and are willing to pay richly for the data. What, now we shouldn't trust the sweet lady behind the desk of our pediatricians office? "We have a major problem with workers in medical offices stealing patients' identities, selling them and making a direct profit," Sergeant James Bracke of the Phoenix Police Department told authors of the Arizona report. Brackle then goes on to say that, "the gangs can afford these bribes because identity theft has become such a big business. In Phoenix, "coyotes," the smugglers who lead illegal immigrants over our borders, have created a network of phony-document producers and safe houses where undocumented workers can wait until they get their fraudulent papers." If anyone doesn't think this is a serious issue now, I believe we have an enormous problem with denial.

Americans who have their identity stolen by these gangs are in for disastrous of a mess. Among the complaints filed with the FTC is that of a man arrested for a crime committed by an illegal alien who had stolen his identity. The IRS has given a woman, who was a stay-at-home mother, a $1 million back-tax bill. (This is what I was talking about earlier when I said it scared me half to death paying taxes on income I never made) And of course, an investigation later found that 218 illegal aliens were using her Social Security number. A Los Angeles police detective-who, ironically, worked in the department's fraud bureau-was unable to buy a home because of bills piled up by an illegal immigrant who stole his Social Security number to gain employment at a processing plant. Then the IRS served the cop with a bill for $40,000 in back taxes; when he protested, the agency threatened to send his case to collection. Seriously, can you even imagine? If you think your credit is messed up now, how about adding the $40K deb t to it.

Not every mismatched SSN belongs to a real living person, and in fact, it appears many are chosen at random. Some belong to the deceased; others are entirely fictitious. One study showed thousands of entries using obvious fakes, such as 123-45-6789 or 999-99-9999. This baffles me as to how the crime isn't caught right there on the spot? Are people just not paying attention or do they just not care? Car dealerships and bank employees say they've witnessed numerous examples of customers who apply for accounts and have multiple names connected to their Social Security numbers. Privacy rules prevent the employee from warning the customer. Talk about an issue of morale. I would not want to be in the shoes of those employees, especially if I, or a loved one had been a victim of identity theft, knowing the turmoil it caused them.

The FTC's latest statistics report that the top five states in terms of reported identity theft in 2007 all have large immigrant populations-the border states of Arizona, California, Texas, Florida and Nevada. People who steal legitimate identities in these states are much more likely to use them to gain employment unlawfully, opposed to other regions of the country.

Victims often don't have any idea they're sharing their identity with an illegal immigrant, because there's really no way to find out. Victims only find out when they receive a statement for unpaid taxes or bills or are being harassed by debt collectors. Social Security won't tell you if someone else is using your SSN. (You would think you would be entitled to know that) The extra earnings don't end up on your annual Social Security statement, because they are designated to the Earnings Suspense File instead. The misuse isn't revealed in personal credit reports either. If somebody uses your SSN to get a credit card or car loan, the nation's credit bureaus create a new credit file instead of alerting you to the misuse. This just makes me furious and questions why laws aren't put in place for situations like these already.

I believe we need to take Arizona's lead with fighting back against identity theft. A new law of the state makes it a felony to use the identity of another person to obtain a job. (Shouldn't this punishment exist in all states?) I have been to "community shred-a-thons" which gives people a chance to destroy outdated financial records and other documents that might provide information to identity thieves. I do know that the BBB holds these "shred-a-thons" from time to time; however, having each particular business or corporation particpate in order to protect their employees is genius in my eyes, not only does it show that they actually care about their people, but that they realize the seriousness of identity theft.

As Alan Wolfe wrote in One Nation, After All, the difference between legal and illegal immigrants "is one of the most tenaciously held distinctions in middle-class America; the people with whom we spoke overwhelmingly support legal immigration and express disgust with the illegal variety." Among all of the other issues with illegal aliens, I am most certain that the growth of identity theft that is connected to illegal immigrants has something to do with this very mind set that Wolfe is speaking of.