Illegal immigration has a long and controversial history in the US, the topics surrounding illegal immigration concentrate on social and political aspects more so than anything else. But one issue that perhaps does not get enough light is the fact that illegal immigrants are a major cause of ID theft.

The social security numbers they use to get employment are sold to them by identity theft criminals and in many cases they simply put together a random 8 digit number and sometimes they just happen to be the number belonging to an actual person. Although they simply do not know any better, the issue remains that the victims affected by their actions face serious consequences when their information is used. The financial burdens, emotional distress and often legal proceedings are more than anyone should bare due to someone else’s ignorance of the law.

Federal law imposes a mandatory two year prison sentence on anyone who commits identity fraud. An article on the NY Times talks about Supreme Court Justices who are not sure whether workers who use Social Security and alien registration numbers must know that they belong to someone else to be prosecuted and be subject to the two year prison sentence.

There is a flaw in the way the law is stated for it says that the law makes it a crime to “knowingly” or without lawful authority use a means of identification of another person. Federal appeals courts in Boston, San Francisco and Washington interpret the law as “the prosecution must prove the defendant knew the social security number belonged to another person to be found guilty”.

Should they or should they not be held accountable for using someone else’s identification even if they did not know it? Not knowing the law or being aware of wrong doings has never been a good excuse in any court of law in the United States.  The crime is still Identity Theft and the victims are real people with real lives who are being negatively impacted by this crime whether committed by someone who knows they’re doing something wrong or not.