Politics and Culture

A distinction between somebody stealing somebody's ID on purpose to steal something further from them and those who just want to have an ID is appropriate. I think the illegal alien would prefer a completely made up number.

I'd like for illegal aliens to consider that they may be taking somebody else's identity, however.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday threw out an illegal immigrant's conviction for identity theft, saying the government had not proven the defendant knew the documents and Social Security numbers he was given belonged to someone else.
The Supreme Court unanimously sides with a Mexican arrested in a government raid on a Midwest work site.

The Supreme Court unanimously sides with a Mexican arrested in a government raid on a Midwest work site.

The justices unanimously sided with a Mexican national arrested in a government raid on a Midwest work site. He was sentenced to an extra two years in federal prison for "aggravated identity theft."

"In the classic case of identity theft, intent is generally not difficult to prove," wrote Justice Stephen Breyer, speaking for the unanimous court. "We conclude that [federal law] requires the government to show that the defendant knew that the means of identification at issue belonged to another person."

The appeal turned on whether those who use fake IDs to obtain work in the United States -- but do not know the documents have information from a real person -- can be treated differently from those who possess phony numbers. The federal government had begun an aggressive crackdown on undocumented workers, most of whom must rely on fake IDs to obtain employment.