More illegal immigrants in US use stolen IDs to get jobs
10/7/2007 16:09
Illegal immigrants in the United States are increasingly using stolen
Social Security numbers to get jobs because employers are required to check
workers' IDs by federal authorities, a Los Angeles Times report said
yesterday. According to the newspaper, undocumented immigrants who used to
apply for jobs with fake documents are using more and more identity information
stolen from real people. Although US Immigration and Customs Enforcement does
not break out identify theft statistics, officials said the agency is definitely
seeing a trend. To better protect their businesses, more US employers are
using the Department of Homeland Security's Basic Pilot program, which enables
them to check the validity of Social Security numbers online. But the program
could not detect identity theft. As long as the name and Social Security number
are legitimate, the online system will indicate the person using them is
authorized to work. Word of this weakness in the system has spread quickly
among illegal immigrants and the document theft rings, prompting thieves to dig
through trash cans or scan the Internet looking for Social Security
numbers. Homeland Security authorities said sometimes criminals or homeless
people are willing to sell their identity documents and there also have been
cases in which employers provide their workers with stolen numbers. Although
most illegal immigrants using fake identification are just trying to find a way
to get a job, for those victims of stolen IDs, lives could turn upside down,
researchers said. An ID theft victim often could not discover that his
identity was stolen until he receives a demand for back taxes or when he tries
to buy a house or a car and realizes his credit has been destroyed. At the
direction President George W. Bush, the Federal Trade Commission and Attorney
General Alberto Gonzales this spring issued a report on identity theft in
general and a strategic plan to attack it. US immigration authorities
launched 11 task forces last year and six this spring targeting
immigrant-related ID fraud. Officials have opened more than 540 investigations,
and 243 people have been convicted of various fraud and immigration violations
since April 2006. However, anti-illegal immigrant groups still criticized the
federal government, saying that the recent actions do not go far enough and that
millions of illegal immigrants using other people' s documents are ignored. They
say the government should create a secure identification card.
Xinhua
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