Breaking: Supreme Court Says It’s Okay For Illegals To Use Fake Social Security Numbers
May 4, 2009 20 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday limited federal prosecutors’ use of an identity theft law against undocumented workers with phony identification numbers, including many who had been picked up in immigration raids.
A unanimous court said the law that Congress adopted in 2004 to crack down on identity thieves requires that prosecutors be able to prove that defendants knew they were using ID numbers that belonged to real people.
Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the court, said intent is often easy to prove in what he called classic identity theft.
“Where a defendant has used another person’s information to get access to that person’s bank account, the government can prove knowledge with little difficulty,” Breyer said.
But, as in the case decided Monday, prosecutors have been using the law against workers who needed false documents to obtain employment.
The law calls for a mandatory two-year prison term, and has been used to persuade people to plead guilty to lesser immigration charges and accept prompt deportation.
There was no evidence that Ignacio Carlos Flores-Figueroa, an undocumented worker from Mexico, knew that he was using Social Security and alien registration numbers that belonged to others when he was arrested in 2006.
Flores-Figueroa, while acknowledging he used false documents, appealed his conviction on the identity theft charge.
The government argued that prosecutors do not have to offer any proof that a defendant knew the identification belonged to someone else and was not simply made up.
The high court rejected that argument Monday.
The case is Flores-Figueroa v. U.S., 08-108.
(AP)
