Keep stiff penalties in ID theft cases

An op-ed piece in the Feb. 25 New York Times indicated the Supreme Court was hearing arguments in the case of an illegal immigrant who provided an employer with phony ID numbers.

The court must decide whether he can be convicted of the crime of aggravated identity theft, which carries heavy mandatory prison sentences, even though he didn't know the numbers belonged to a specific person. The claim is the person who owns the numbers was apparently not harmed by his attempted use of the numbers.

The only reason they were not harmed is because the East Moline, IL, employer he presented them to, upon determining these were not valid ID numbers for Mr. Flores-Figueroa, reported him to ICE. He pleaded guilty to charges that included the serious aggravated ID theft, but is now asking the court to reverse his conviction, saying that law does not apply to him.

My question is what else would he have done with those numbers, had he gotten the job he applied for? Would he have used them to rent or buy a home, procure a credit car, buy a car, establish utilities in his name, enroll his children in school, use it when he needed medical attention?

Had he been able to use the numbers instead of being busted, he would have adversely affected the credit and income reports of the person who legitimately owned the numbers. They would have suffered harm, not to mention an IRS audit for not reporting income from the job in East Moline.

The claim is the charge is "intended" for those who steal identities with the intent of draining the bank accounts of the legitimate owners, which they are claiming was not Mr. Flores-Figueroa's intent.

He may not have intended to drain the real owner's bank account, but the financial impact of his use of these numbers could very easily have cost the owner considerable sums of money to straighten out.

Why else is there a profligate amount of ID security companies and insurance policies being advertised to "protect" consumers from being victims of ID Theft. The fact he bought these documents tells me he knew the numbers were forged and quite possibly belonged to someone else.

I commend the company that reported him, rather than take the easy road and just hire him. He is, in fact, guilty of aggravated identity theft and should do the time sentenced and then be deported.

Cindy Bandur

Island Lake