Americans lost $43 billion in 2023 to identity theft, according to the AARP. The increased usage of artificial intelligence makes it even easier to commit the crime. Much of the fraud includes stolen credit cards, bank account numbers, and more. When it comes to illegal immigrants, taking on the identity of a US citizen could be a great way to hide, given the right circumstances. And in the case of one migrant, the theft was used to bilk the government of nearly $500,000 in medical claims, including a kidney transplant.
Migrant Gets Kidney
Jeremias Otoniel Herrera Rosales, a migrant from Guatemala who has been living in the United States for more than a decade, is married to a US citizen, Jennifer Guadalupe Herrera. Instead of applying for citizenship, Rosales took the identity of his sister-in-law’s son, Daniel Glenn Guerra. For the past ten or more years, he has been living on government assistance under Guerra’s name, unable to work due to his health issues. Guerra has been using a different name for unknown reasons and was surprised to find out his true identity had been stolen.
In 2019, Rosales received a kidney transplant paid for by American tax dollars. He was caught, tried, and found guilty of identity theft and earlier this month was sentenced to 16 months in prison. His wife and sister-in-law were given one-month imprisonment, and all three were ordered to pay back $500,000. But is that enough?
The American Kidney Fund states that it takes anywhere from three to five years on a waiting list before someone can receive a lifesaving transplant. Rosales basically stole a kidney that someone else should have gotten. Ronald Timmons, assistant US attorney, told the court, “The defendant took and received an organ transplant under a false identity from someone else that otherwise would have obtained it.”
It’s not easy to get on the list and then be able to receive the transplant. “Around 1 in 5 deceased donor kidneys are discarded – that’s nearly a third of kidneys generously donated but never used,” the National Kidney Foundation explained. United Network for Organ Sharing said, “Roughly 13 people die each day waiting for a kidney transplant.” Should a kidney become available, the organ has to be compatible with the recipient as well as satisfy a host of other conditions.
Rosales, an illegal migrant, stole an American’s identity and received a vital organ that extended his life but put another’s at risk. Does a 16-month sentence fit the crime? According to the Department of Justice website, identity theft “in most circumstances, carries a maximum term of 15 years' imprisonment, a fine, and criminal forfeiture of any personal property used or intended to be used to commit the offense.”
How popular is identity theft committed by a migrant? A 2017 CATCO Institute article reported that the IRS issued individual taxpayer identification numbers (ITIN) to foreigners who were not able to get a Social Security number in order to pay their taxes. A government report at the time suggested that about 1.2 million ITIN filers were also using a name or Social Security number that didn’t match their ITIN. In those cases, the ITIN was mostly used for employment reasons. According to The Washington Times, 87% of online tax submissions using an ITIN in 2017 had income that was associated with a Social Security number that did not belong to the filer.
The Center for Immigration Studies claimed, “Federal authorities estimate that more than one million people in the United States, many of them illegal aliens, are using Social Security numbers belonging to someone else.”
Identity theft affects Americans every day. A 2008 study found, “The states with the highest ID theft rates tend to be those that have the highest percentages of undocumented immigrants.” While most of these crimes are for the illegal migrants to obtain work or open a bank account, some are more heinous. Although Rosales lived in the country for more than ten years and was married to a US citizen, he had a chance to become legal but chose not to. Instead, he used federal funds to obtain a kidney transplant that should have gone to someone else.
