The Supreme Court has agreed to examine the issue of whether people who use fake identification to obtain work in the United States but did not know the documents belonged to someone else can be convicted of “aggravated identity theft.”
The government has used the charges, with the possibility of prison time, to persuade people to plead guilty to lesser immigration violations. In other cases, defendants have been convicted of "aggravated identity theft," even without proof that they knew their phony ID numbers belonged to real people. The issue has divided federal appeals courts around the country and the justices said yesterday they will hear arguments next year.
The central question is whether the defendant must know that the counterfeit identification belongs to someone else. Federal prosecutors have increasingly been bringing the more serious identity theft charges against undocumented immigrants, including many who were arrested in raids on meatpacking plants.
This issue coincides with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff who said that he would try to overcome a federal district judge’s objections to a proposal to force employers to dismiss workers whose Social Security numbers do not match their names.
That specific proposal was blocked off for months after several groups, including Chamber of Commerce, sued. Many businesses rely on illegal migration to carry out their activities. However Mr. Chertoff has argued that “[M]aking money is not a sufficient justification for violating the rule since most people break the rule in order to make money.”
Defense lawyers have argued that their clients should not be charged with stealing an identity because they were seeking documentation only to allow them to work and didn't know if the numbers were fictitious or belonged to someone else.
No comments:
Post a Comment