Illegal immigrants turn to identity theft

Prosecutors said Rojas-Morales worked under a false identity at the Kansas pork slaughterhouse since 2004, allegedly using a fraudulent Colorado driver's license, a bogus Social Security card and other phony documents.

Based on Miranda's account of his identity theft problems, Joseph said, it's likely several people were using his identity. Joseph declined to talk specifically about his client's criminal case, or allow him to be interviewed.

The government has "no solid numbers" showing either an increase or decrease in immigration-related identity theft cases nationwide, said Betsy Broder, assistant director in the division of privacy and identity protection at the Federal Trade Commission.

But she said the agency has seen a rise in prosecutions of workers using other people's information to be employed, particularly for using fraudulent Social Security numbers.

By far the largest workplace enforcement to date was the December 2006 raid at six plants owned by the meatpacking firm Swift & Co. in which 1,282 illegal immigrants were arrested.

Statistics show the number of immigration-related criminal cases filed by U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren's office in Wichita more than tripled between fiscal years 2002 and 2006, peaking at 161 by 2006 in Kansas as the Department of Justice stepped up prosecutions for fraudulent documents and identity theft. By 2007, the number slipped to 100 in the state.

"Certainly there has been far more activity starting with action in the Swift packing plant and a number of actions brought by the Department of Homeland Security on these workplace issues," Broder said.

An Federal Trade Commission survey released last month showed identity theft for employment purposes comprised about 1 percent of identity theft cases nationwide, for an estimated 83,000 employment-related identity theft victims in 2005. People using a fraudulent identity to work often use it to also obtain utility services, government benefits, medical care and credit.

Credit card fraud is the most common form of identity theft.

Based on actual numbers of identity theft complaints reported to the trade commission in 2006, states bordering Mexico led the nation in identity theft victims per population. Arizona ranked first — followed by Nevada, California, Texas and Florida.

That data showed 246,035 identity theft victims nationwide who reported at least one type of identity theft to the FTC in 2006. Employment-related fraud comprised 14 percent of the complaints nationwide, and about 11 percent of those reported by Kansas victims.

Kansas ranked 29th in the nation with 1,626 identity theft victims who filed complaints in 2006, the trade commission data showed.

As Rojas-Morales sits in jail in Kansas, the real Marcos Miranda is slowly rebuilding his life in El Paso, Texas, where he works as a truck driver for Swift.

Miranda has gotten a new Social Security number and has signed up for a credit monitoring service.

"That way," he said, "I can get back on track and get my credit back and do what I have to do to keep my identity to myself."

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