AP presents us with another heart-wrenching tale of how the evil “capitalistic system” forces the poor man to steal a loaf of bread in order to feed his starving family.
MINNEAPOLIS — A spot notorious for sales of fake identifications was open for business this week despite the message immigration enforcers hoped to send with the recent high-profile raid on a Worthington, Minn., meat packing plant.
Just to make sure their Moonbat consumers can be confident that AP is on the up and up they cite the holy grails of liberal journalism...
Even the New York Times reported last summer on the spot — the parking lot of the Kmart store on Lake Street — and when a reporter for Minnesota Public Radio went there he found four young men with fake IDs to sell.
One
His benevolence knows no bounds. Clearly he only charges enough to cover his costs and if forced, would gladly provide his service free of charge. A modern day Robin Hood he is.
The raid in Worthington that resulted in 230 arrests wouldnÂ’t slow down the trade in fake IDs, he said, because thousands of people will move in to replace those who were arrested.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say that any immigrant caught without documents can be deported. However, immigrants using stolen identification documents or piggybacking on a legitimate Social Security number can be sent to prison.
In the recent national raid of facilities owned by Greeley, Colo.-based Swift & Co., Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said about 5 percent of the 1,282 arrests resulted in identity theft charges. However, he said that number could rise as agents look into more workersÂ’ cases and into rings of vendors who steal and sell illegal documents.
Because of the low percentage of identity theft arrests, Katherine Fennelly, a professor of public affairs at the University of MinnesotaÂ’s Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, said the governmentÂ’s focus on identity theft was misleading. She said illegal immigrants take on false identities to making a living for themselves, not to run up another personÂ’s credit card account.
YessssÂ…ThatÂ’s really just the unfortunate by-product in all of this. After all, what are they supposed to do when Master Card sends them a juicy introductory offer with a sweet APR and a six-month payment deferral?
“As there are with any group, there are going to be people who are breaking the law intentionally in that regard,” she said.
Any Group?
“But the bulk of people are just here to work, and trying to find some kind of document that will permit them to work — not to steal identity and steal funds from others, but just to work.”
“Just so there was no confusion that they’re only here to work I felt it necessary to say it three times in a row.”
She said the nationÂ’s failed immigration policy was to blame for turning otherwise honest workers who want to better their lives into criminals.
Nonetheless, the law is the law, said Tim Counts, spokesman for ICE in Bloomington, Minn.“In working with the Federal Trade Commission, they have identified possibly hundreds of victims who are U.S. citizens or legal immigrants, who may have had their identities stolen and used by individuals to get jobs at Swift,” Counts said. “So that absolutely was the priority. But we also have an obligation to enforce the nation’s immigration laws, and that includes arresting people who are in the country illegally.” Counts said the recent raids did focus on those using the false documents, but he said ICE also routinely patrols that Kmart parking lot and other places to shut down the fake ID trade in Minnesota.
Apparently getting a quote from some poor slob that actually got his credit scorched as a result of this activity didnÂ’t fit into APÂ’s little narrative this time.