Supreme Court: Overturns Conviction of Undocumented Worker for Identity Theft

A Mexican citizen who illegally entered the United States used an invalid Social Security number and false resident alien card to obtain employment in 2000. The documents listed a name different than his own. But the numbers on the cards had not been issued to someone with that name and did not belong to any real person. Wanting to work under his real name, in 2006, the employee purchased forged documents in Chicago and presented his employer with a different Social Security number, purportedly issued under his real name, and a new permanent resident card. The employer reported the employee to the United States Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement branch, and an investigation revealed that the Social Security number and the number on the permanent resident card had been issued to other persons. The employee pleaded guilty to two counts of misuse of an immigration document and one count of illegal entry. But he pleaded not guilty to aggravated identity theft. A federal criminal statute forbidding “aggravated identity theft” imposes a mandatory consecutive two-year prison term upon individuals convicted of certain other crimes if, during the commission of these other crimes, the offender “knowingly transfers, possesses, or uses, without lawful authority, a means of identification of another person.” 18 U.S.C. § 1028A(G)(1). The judge sentenced the employee to 75 months in prison, including a mandatory consecutive two-year prison term for aggravated identity theft. The issue was whether the statute required the government to show that the defendant knew that the means of identification he or she unlawfully transferred, possessed, or used, in fact, belonged to another person. The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed the conviction in April 2008, holding that the statute does not require the government to prove knowledge that the identification belongs to another person, as opposed to knowledge that the cards merely were fraudulent. The United States Supreme Court reversed and held that the federal statute requires the government to prove that the defendant knew that the means of identification at issue belonged to another person. Employers must be careful to ensure that all employees have valid documentation and are eligible to work.

Flores-Figueroa v. United States, No. 08-108 (U.S. May 4, 2009)