At least in the state of Georgia.

The Georgia Supreme Court has upheld the identity fraud conviction of an illegal immigrant from Mexico who used the name and Social Security number of a Georgia man to get a job at a poultry plant.

In a unanimous decision released Monday, the justices said Georgia's identity theft law is not unconstitutionally vague, nor is it pre-empted by federal law.

The high court found that Nohe Gomes Hernandez ``misappropriated the Social Security number of Jason Smith,'' and that he ``then used this misappropriated number to obtain a Social Security card and a California driver's license in Smith's name'' so he could get a job at a northeast Georgia poultry plant.

Hernandez was sentenced in April to two years in prison after a jury found him guilty of violating the ID theft law.

Hernandez' attorney had argued that Hernandez' actions were not covered by the state law, which was created to keep people from stealing others' personal information and using it to pillage bank accounts or run up credit card bills. The defense contended that Hernandez did not take any money or resources from Smith.

Authorities learned about the case when the real Jason Smith, from Danielsville, Ga., applied for a $600 tax refund, but the Internal Revenue Service said he owed $12,000 in back taxes.

When Smith inquired further, he found that the IRS had him working two jobs, including the Harrison Poultry plant, where he never worked.

More states need to adopt laws modeled on the Georgia statute and begin using it to prosecute the border-jumping immigration criminals in our midst. Hopefully Texas will be one of them.

Posted by: Greg at 10:29 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 292 words, total size 2 kb.