Current Event #5

I think immigration is a very important issue right now in the United States. I read the article, “Justices May Take Immigration Cases,” by Jerry Markon on washingtonpost.com. It talks about the Bush administration’s immigration policy and the controversy over charging illegal immigrats with aggravated identity theft. Last May immigration agents raided a meatpacking plant in Iowa. The illegal immigrants that were caught were given the choice of pleading guilty, or facing charges of aggravated identity theft and a possible two years in prison. Many took the deal and pleaded guilty to get out of serving that much jail time. This way of dealing with immigration problems is under attack and will likely end up in the Supreme Court. One of the issues is whether prosecutors can prove that the illegal immigrants knew the Social Security numbers they gave themselves belonged to other people, instead of just making them up. The article mentions two cases where illegal immigrants were convicted of aggravated identity theft. Federal judges ruled that they did not have to prove that the immigrants knew they were stealing someone’s identity. The Supreme Court may, or may not review these cases, but the issue is still important. There is a big difference between stealing someone's identity and making up a Social Security numer to get a job. The sentence that illegal immigrants have to serve, if they plead guilty is onlu five months, which is a bog difference from two years.