Illegal-Alien ID Thieves Are Harming Americans

“Half of my family would be eligible for deportation under the executive order, because they got a false social security card, they got a false identification, they got a false driver’s license prior to us passing AB 60, they got a false green card, and anyone who has family members who are undocumented knows that almost entirely everybody has secured some sort of false identification. That’s what you need to survive, to work. They are eligible for massive deportation.” 

– Kevin de Leon, president pro tempore of the California State Senate (2017).

Kevin de Leon gets it! However, it would appear that much of the administration does not yet get it. Otherwise, why not push back against unjust accusations of abusing “law-abiding” illegal aliens virtually all of whom are in fact involved in massive document fraud and identity theft?

Administration spokesmen need to go on the offensive and remind everyone over and over again, as Mr. de Leon does, that almost all illegal aliens are eligible for deportation because they routinely commit felony document fraud/forgery and identity theft.

They should highlight the American men, women, children – even infants – who are victims of this massive illegal-alien-driven identity theft. These innocent Americans suffer real and serious harm – arrest records attached to their names, liability for unpaid taxes earned on their Social Security numbers, credit destroyed, denial of means-tested benefits, medical records corrupted with life-threatening consequences, loss of scholarships and employment opportunities, unemployment insurance denied because illegal aliens are already using their Social Security numbers to collect unemployment insurance, etc.

Unfortunately, it seems like the only person in the federal government who currently gets it, or who at least is unafraid to call it out, is Mark Zito, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations Kansas City. Following a workplace enforcement action leading to the arrest of illegal aliens for identity theft, Zito said:

These so-called honest workers have caused an immeasurable amount of financial and emotional hardship for innocent Americans. If pretending to be someone you aren’t in order to steal their lives isn’t blatant, criminal dishonesty, I don’t know what is. (Emphasis in the original.)

This is not new. In fact, in 2005 Utah’s Attorney General told Utahns that:

The ongoing investigation has uncovered an alarming new crime spree involving illegal aliens and identities stolen from victims under the age of 12…Identity thieves are no respecters of age. They will steal your children’s ID, ruin their credit and hurt them in ways never thought possible before they can graduate from grade school. Children are vulnerable even if parents do everything right.

And in 2009, the Center for Immigration Studies published my report titled Illegal, but Not Undocumented: Identity Theft, Document Fraud, and Illegal Employment and that was followed up on in 2017 with a piece that I wrote for The Hill titled Most illegal aliens routinely commit felonies. 

Therefore, why, when President Trump said that he would initiate “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history”, doesn’t his administration target and deport each and every illegal alien who has criminally obtained some type of false identification – driver’s license, green card, Social Security number? After all, this is a felony and there are very likely other felonies associated with the possession and use of the forged documents, including perjury on government documents such as the I-9 form, Social Security fraud, and identity theft. 

In addition, why doesn’t the president highlight the out-of-control criminal trafficking in false ID documents and especially the harm done to huge numbers of American, men, women, and innocent children, including newborns, when their fraudulently obtained Social Security numbers are used by illegal aliens – for example, a two-year-old, a five-year-old, a teenager, or a nine-year-old who was denied Medicaid, and an adult who was arrested because someone else’s arrest records were attached to his Social Security number?

Furthermore, why isn’t the administration demanding that all illegal aliens, including Dreamers, who are using or who have used illegally obtained Social Security numbers, who have perjured themselves when using their illegally obtained numbers, and/or who committed identity theft, to self-deport immediately or risk facing felony charges when they are eventually encountered by ICE or other law enforcement authorities? Granted, self-deportation would allow illegal aliens to leave without being charged for their crimes, but should they ever wish to return, they must be required to make restitution to their victims before even being considered for readmission to the United States.

The administration should put Americans First, rather than cede the high ground to the advocates for illegal aliens, including the media, who feed the public a steady stream of highly emotional stories about criminal illegal aliens whom they portray as the “victims” of the administration’s mean-spirited policies. The administration should turn the tables and tell the equally emotional stories of innocent Americans, young and old, who are the victims of this massive illegal-alien-driven identity theft, like Mr. Zito did? The administration can once and for all put an end to the myth of the law-abiding illegal alien, since most illegal aliens are committing multiple felonies at any given time? President Trump, Stephen Miller, Tom Homan, Karoline Leavitt, and all administration representatives must repeat the document fraud, perjury, and identity theft mantra every time someone tries to put the guilt trip on them for arresting, detaining, or deporting these criminal illegal aliens.