Do You Know Who Is Using Your Child's Identity?

By Ronald W. Mortensen on March 28, 2012

The headline on the Drudge Report reads: "REPORT: Children 51 times more likely to have identity stolen..."

The report referred to was produced by Carnegie Mellon University's CyLab and released in October 2011.

The key findings of the CyLab study basically repeat the key findings of my earlier 2009 Center for Immigration Studies Backgrounder, "Illegal, but Not Undocumented: Identity Theft, Document Fraud, and Illegal Employment":

  • Unused Social Security numbers are uniquely valuable as thieves can pair them with any name and birth date. This is particularly useful for illegal immigration.



  • A child's identity is a blank slate, and the probability of discovery is low as the child will not be using it for a long period of time. Parents typically don't monitor their children's identities.



  • The potential impact on the child's future is profound; it could destroy or damage a child's ability to win approval on student loans, acquire a mobile phone, obtain a job, or secure a place to live.


The fact that illegal immigrant, employment-related child identity theft continues unabated and is still treated as news raises the broader question: Why has this crime continued to explode even though it has long been known that children are prime targets of illegal aliens who need fraudulent Social Security numbers to work?

For example, why was there no outrage when the Actuary of the Social Security Administration reported in 2005 that three quarters of illegal aliens pay payroll taxes when they only way they can do this is with fraudulently obtained Social Security numbers that all too often belong to innocent American children?

Why do ICE and other law enforcement agencies, with only rare exceptions, ignore the most obvious means of controlling illegal-alien driven child identity theft — aggressive investigation, prosecution, incarceration, and deportation of illegal aliens?

Why do employers, the media, religious organizations, elected officials, child advocates, and academicians continue to oppose employment verification that will stop virtually 100 percent of child identity theft?

The answer is simple: The will does not exist among any of these groups to protect America's children. All of these groups willingly and knowingly sacrifice innocent American children for profit and their own narrow interests. And they all put the interests of illegal aliens ahead of millions of innocent American children whose futures are being systematically destroyed so illegal aliens can make better lives for themselves and their children.

The next question that arises is: Why don't the parents and grandparents of children who are the actual and potential victims of identity theft demand action?

The answer is complex, but to large extent parents simply don't realize what is happening to their children.

The Social Security Administration and IRS won't tell them that their children's Social Security numbers are being used for employment purposes.

The media downplays illegal-immigrant driven identity theft and when they do report on it they paint sympathetic portraits of the perpetrators who are just trying to better the lives of their children.

Religious organizations focus on the plight of the illegal aliens. They make the parents of victims of illegal-alien identity theft feel guilty if they demand that the people destroying their children's futures be held accountable for their actions and they willingly sacrifice innocent American children in order to increase their membership rolls.

Politicians won't discuss the fact that illegal aliens are committing multiple felonies, including child identity theft, in order to get jobs for fear of losing the Hispanic vote and law enforcement is more concerned about maintaining good relations with the illegal alien community than in protecting innocent American children.

So what is the solution? Or do we just sacrifice generations of innocent American children for the benefit of illegal aliens and those who benefit from their presence? That will be the subject of my next blog.