Identity Theft Report

This week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement spearheaded a big, concentrated crackdown on illegal immigrants in Swift meatpacking plants.

They arrested about 1,200 illegal workers in the process.

Now, this is not a post about the state of illegal immigration in the U.S. The only reason I am even posting about this raid and subsequent arrests is because the illegal immigrants were accused of using stolen Social Security numbers in order to get jobs.

That means I.D. Theft, and we do post about that. In this case, mixing identity theft with illegal workers is a new twist. In the past, these undocumented workers would just us a made up SS number. But now, it appears, they are actually using someone else’s SS number. Not good.

The penalties are stiff for doing what these workers have alleged done. They could face up to 15 years in federal prison plus they have to forfeit all income they made using that stolen SS number. The prison part I understand, but the income forfeiture, not so much. In most cases, they have sent the money back to their families in their home country and they can’t make more money if they are in prison. Anyway, hopefully someone else already thought of a way to straighten that part out.

In the meantime, you should pay close attention to their tax returns for any hint of ID Theft.