Turning Criminals into Victims
By excusing criminal behavior and turning lawbreakers into victims, advocates for illegal aliens encourage corruption and subvert the rule of law. In 2008, former Rep. Chris Cannon described the December 12, 2006, raids on the Swift meat packing plant that resulted in the arrest of 147 illegal aliens on identity theft charges as "inappropriate" and "politically motivated" and he expressed concern that the arrests had ruined Christmas for the illegal aliens and their families.50 No mention was made of the [real] victims, including a person who was in a motorcycle accident and was denied disability payments from the Social Security Administration because the records showed him continuing to work hundreds of miles from his actual residence; nor was any concern expressed for a police training officer in Los Angeles County who was pursued by the IRS for $60,000 in taxes owed by individuals using his stolen SSN, and who was unable to buy a home because his credit rating had been destroyed.51
Following a raid at the Agriprocessors, Inc., plant in Postville, Iowa, that resulted in 297 individuals pleading guilty to identity theft and other crimes, the media and Congressional focus was not on the crimes committed, but on the hardships faced by those who were benefiting from the crimes. Iowa Republican Congressman Tom Latham's spokesman, James Carstensen, told reporters that Latham "views the raid as a blow to families seeking a better life and for the community, which is suffering economically."52A Wall Street Journal editorial made no mention of the victims of the illegal aliens arrested in Iowa but it did ask if homeland security officials didn't have anything better to do than to raid businesses that hire willing workers. The editorial encouraged Americans to keep things in perspective pointing out that there are only about seven million illegal immigrants in the workforce (5 percent of the total). The Journal then asked if this (seven million people using fraudulent documents and, in many cases, the stolen identities of American citizens) is a big enough problem to justify requiring employers to verify the identity of the persons they are hiring. Its conclusion was that it wasn't.53
During a Congressional hearing on the arrests of hundreds of illegal aliens for identity theft, Democrats focused on the impact that the arrests had on the perpetrators, their families, and the community. No mention was made of the victims. Illegal aliens were absolved of their criminal activity because they "apparently had no idea what a Social Security number or card even was. It may have been the employer tagging them with the number so it could hire them," according to Zoe Lofgren, chair of the House Judiciary subcommittee on immigration.54
This permissiveness, corruption, and disregard for the rule of law has reached such a level that when a legal resident from Honduras who had her identity stolen by an illegal alien contacted 50 senators, 30 government departments, and two governors none of them were willing to help her. The victim continued to receive notices for back taxes on income that she had not earned from the IRS and collection agencies hounded her day and night for unpaid medical, furniture, and cell phone bills. Ultimately, she had to hire a private detective who found the identity thief and finally forced the police to take action.55
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Illegal, but Not Undocumented: Identity Theft, Document Fraud, and Illegal Employment
