Illegal immigrants 'rent' citizens' identities

Police say Joel Garibay-Urbina used Juan Jose Rodriguez's identification to get a job.

To his bosses at Pilgrim's Pride, he was Juan Jose Rodriguez -- it said so on the birth certificate and Social Security card he presented when the southwestern Arkansas chicken plant hired him six years ago. At his De Queen, Ark., home, he was Joel Garibay-Urbina -- with a wife, three kids and a mortgage under his own name.

And to police officers responding to a domestic violence call, he was just the latest illegal immigrant to have two identities after an arrest.

It turns out that for $800, Garibay-Urbina had rented the American dream. Though local police, prosecutors and immigration agents say they don't know how widespread the practice is, federal watchdog reports dating back to 1988 have warned of the relative ease of obtaining a fraudulent birth certificate.

Assuming the identity of a U.S. citizen -- keeping the documents just long enough to convince Pilgrim's Pride he was a U.S. citizen -- Garibay-Urbina was able to get a job, buy a gun and live undetected until police arrested him after he fought with his wife in January.

Garibay-Urbina, who crossed the border at Laredo, Texas, in 1995 with a six-month visitor visa, is slated for a one-year prison term and then deportation to his native Mexico. Had Garibay-Urbina not been accused of domestic battery, it's unlikely police ever would have suspected a crime.

''Birth-certificate fraud is seldom prosecuted unless it can be linked to large dollar losses or other punishable crimes,'' said a 2000 report from the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General, its second report on such ID theft in 12 years.

When Garibay-Urbina arrived in De Queen, he met with an ''unknown individual'' to rent a birth certificate and Social Security number before his job search, according to an affidavit filed with the federal court in Texarkana, Ark. With Rodriguez's documents in hand, he started at the chicken plant in January 2001.

Garibay-Urbina worked until Jan. 22, when his wife Guillermina Avila went to the Sevier County Courthouse to tell police he had beaten her and was threatening to kill himself. During an interrogation, Garibay-Urbina told police and immigration agents of the ID ruse.

Darren Anderson, Garibay-Urbina's lawyer, said his client ''indicated it wasn't that difficult'' to rent the birth certificate, but he wouldn't describe the transaction specifically. Prosecutors and immigration officials have no idea how many times Rodriguez's ID cards have been used.

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My Kiwanis Golden K breakfast this morning wasn't scheduled to have a speaker because it's monthly board meeting day. However, our secretary, a retired pastor, had a guest he wanted to have say a few words to the group.

As it turns out, this guest was a Cuban who's family fled Cuba many years ago for Nicaragua. In his teens, this fellow became a Communist guerrilla, but later had a Christian advent due to a very influential person in his life. For the past 25+ years he's been serving as a missionary in Madrid, Spain, working with troubled youth.

What's interesting about this, is that Spain, apparently, has been wrestling with the illegal immigration issue just as we have. They've already gone through two 'amnesties', and are debating whether to go through a third. This man's take: Whatever you do here in America, do NOT allow amnesty to succeed.

He said that in both previous amnesties Spain has endured, the resulting 'draw-in' of offshore family members was enormous, costing the government and the Spanish people untold expense.

Should anyone be interested, I'll have a brief introduction to him shortly on our Golden K website, Rochelle Kiwanis Golden K. Simply visit the 'News' page and scroll down to the last photo/blurb.

Demand a border fence! Build it NOW!! Beef up the border patrol and close our borders!

U.S. Senate switchboard: (202) 224-3121

U.S. House switchboard: (202) 225-3121

White House comments: (202) 456-1111

Find your House Rep.: http://www.house.gov/writerep

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Toll free to the US Senate:

1-800-882-2005. (Spanish number)
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Courtesy of a pro-amnesty group, no less!!

Republican National Committee
310 First Street, SE Washington, D.C. 20003
phone: 202.863.8500 | fax: 202.863.8820 | e-mail: info@gop.com

Take a look at their hidden agenda: http://www.mexica-movement.org

I wonder how many SS plans this guy was enrolled in, under different names. And how many EITC refundable tax credits he received. Read on:

Some Immigrants Are Offering Social Security Numbers for Rent

NY Times | 6/7/2005 | EDUARDO PORTER

FR Posted on 06/06/2005 11:57:25 PM EDT by nj26

Gerardo Luviano is looking for somebody to rent his Social Security number. Mr. Luviano, 39, obtained legal residence in the United States almost 20 years ago. But these days, back in Mexico, teaching beekeeping at the local high school in this hot, dusty town in the southwestern part of the country, Mr. Luviano is not using his Social Security number.

So he is looking for an illegal immigrant in the United States to use it for him - providing a little cash along the way. "I've almost managed to contact somebody to lend my number to," Mr. Luviano said. "My brother in California has a friend who has crops and has people that need one."

Mr. Luviano's pending transaction is merely a blip in a shadowy yet vibrant underground market. Virtually undetected by American authorities, operating below the radar in immigrant communities from coast to coast, a secondary trade in identities has emerged straddling both sides of the Mexico-United States border. The number of people participating in the illegal deals is impossible to determine accurately.

But it is clearly significant, flourishing despite efforts to combat identity fraud."There are people who live in Mexico who take $4,000 or $5,000 in unemployment in the off season," said Jorge Eguiluz, a labor contractor working in the fields around Stockton, Calif. "They just lend the number during the season." The deals also generate cash in other ways. Most identity lending happens within an extended family, or among immigrants from the same hometown. But it is still a hard-nosed transaction. Illegal immigrant workers usually earn so little they are owed an income tax refund at the end of the year. The illegal immigrant "working the number" will usually pay the real owner by sharing the tax refund.

Since legal American residents can lose their green cards if they stay outside the country too long, for those who have returned to Mexico it is useful to have somebody working under their identity north of the border. "There are people who live in Mexico who take $4,000 or $5,000 in unemployment in the off season," said Jorge Eguiluz, a labor contractor working in the fields around Stockton, Calif. "They just lend the number during the season."The deals also generate cash in other ways. Most identity lending happens within an extended family, or among immigrants from the same hometown. But it is still a hard-nosed transaction.

Illegal immigrant workers usually earn so little they are owed an income tax refund at the end of the year. The illegal immigrant "working the number" will usually pay the real owner by sharing the tax refund. "Sometimes the one who is working doesn't mind giving all the refund, he just wants to work," said Fernando Rosales, who runs a shop preparing income taxes in the immigrant-rich enclave of Huntington Park, Calif. "But others don't, and sometimes they fight over it. We see that all the time. It's the talk of the place during income tax time."

The income tax "refund" is almost certainly generated by Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) fraud, which as a "legal resident" the number renter would qualify to receive, especially if they have have or claim children. The EITC is a "refundable tax credit, which means the IRS will pay it out even if no taxes have been withheld or paid in. So the IRS gives filers who claim the EITC "refunds," even if they have had no taxes withheld. These number renters can claim up to $4,400 for the 2005 tax year in EITC "refunds," most of the number renters probably claim this maximum refund.

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