Will you be the next person arrested after a criminal borrows your identity?

With new Social Security verification laws on the horizon, up to 20 million illegal aliens are probably will have to come up with a legitimate identity in order to remain employed.

Up until now, anyone has been able to make up a number and pass it off with false identification. DHS (Department of Homeland Security) was supposed to begin going after businesses that employed people with "no match social security numbers" in September, but a law suit has temporarily blocked them from implementing the process.

Interestingly enough, one of the arguments is that Social Security records aren't accurate enough to ensure mistakes won't be made. This is probably a "no brainer" defense with all the fraud that exists with social security numbers.

Given that a lot of illegal immigrants look Hispanic, a lot of them will probably seek out legitimate identities of U.S. citizens with Hispanic surnames.

Hidden within the camoflauge that illegal immigration creates is a lot of criminal activity. When another person's identity is used to commit a crime, there is a potential that they are going to face more than financial problems after becoming a victim.

Here is a scary story -- possibly a premonition of things to come -- of a senior U.S. citizen, who obviously had his identity stolen by a criminal. The story also reveal why relying on social security numbers to identify people might lead to mistakes being made.

Eloisa Ruano Gonzalez of the Yakima Herald-Republic wrote:

It seemed like a bad dream when 72-year-old retiree Rafael "Ralph" Franco woke up to a loud pounding on his front door, opened it, and found four federal agents waiting to seize him.

The longtime Yakima resident was arrested about 6 a.m. on Nov. 28 at his South Second Street apartment. Immigration officers believed that Franco, a U.S. citizen, was an undocumented immigrant convicted of several alcohol- and weapon-related crimes.

Of course, Hispanic identities aren't the only ones used by criminals. In fact, there are more and more reports of innocent people being charged with crimes after a criminal assumes their identity, commits crimes and disappears into the mist after making bail or being released because the jail is full.

The issue of people wrongfully getting arrested because they are suspected of illegal immigration is probably only one small part of the overall problem.

Stealing personal and financial information and putting it on counterfeit documents has become an organized activity. I was recently in the Mission District of the sanctuary city of San Francisco and full sets were being offered, along with a variety of drugs for as little as $200.00. A full set is normally a drivers license, Social Security and green card.

Please note, I've personally seen this activity in other cities besides San Francisco. It's pretty much out in the open and little to nothing seems to be done about it.

Suad Leija -- the stepdaughter of the "Jefe" of an organized counterfeiting cartel --recently provided evidence to the government that counterfeiting documents is an extremely organized enterprise, which operates across the entire United States.

One of the more ironic things Suad was able to show the government was proof of her Uncle serving a prison sentence in Texas under an assumed name.

There is also considerable evidence that hackers have already stolen millions (billions?) of people's information and sell it pretty openly in anonymous Internet venues.

Put these two organized activities together and they will likely easily defeat any legislation requiring Social Security numbers to match.

I started this post with an observation about Hispanic identities being targeted, but the truth of the matter is that the 20 million or so illegal immigrants seeking legitimate identities is only one small part of a bigger problem. Even if the problem were simply related to illegal immigration -- people of Hispanic origin aren't the only ones crossing our borders illegally.

Figuring out exactly what country an illegal immigrant came from is difficult. Most of them aren't likely to reveal very many personal details. I was able to find a rather outdated study from DHS.gov that reveal some old statistics on the matter:

In October 1996, 15 countries were each the source of 40,000 or more undocumented immigrants (See Table 1). The top five countries are geographically close to the United States--Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Canada, and Haiti. Of the top 15 countries, only the Philippines, Poland, and Pakistan are outside the Western Hemisphere. The estimated undocumented population from Poland has declined by more than 25 percent, from 95,000 to 70,000, since 1988, possibly reflecting changed conditions in that country over the last several years.

Sara Carter of the Washington Times did an article in August about a report she saw from the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) that people of Middle Eastern/South Asian descent were posing as Hispanics. The article alleged that a partnership was being formed by something they have in common, or trafficking narcotics.

Even with NATO having boots on the ground in Afghanistan, opium production is at an all time high. Most of this is allegedly being bought by the Taliban, who now seem to operate pretty freely from the tribal areas in Pakistan.

Criminals trafficking narcotics aren't the only ones using false identities. In fact, more and more, the use of false (other people's) identities is being used to facilitate all kinds of criminal activity.

Identity theft may very become the great facilitator (enabler) of more and more crime. If criminals are able to get away with using someone else's identity, we are going to see a lot of more people victimized.

As long as we continue to consider identity theft a "low priority issue," it will continue to grow and multiply like a cancer.

The bottom line is that until we start addressing the factors that make enable stealing and using information too easy, we aren't going to fix the problem.

Doing this is going to take the cooperation of everyone from the average citizen to executive types in major corporations and our leaders in government.

Yakima Herald-Republic story, here.

Are illegal immigrants from Islamic nations slipping across our Southern border?

Not all the illegal immigrants slipping across our Southern border were born in Mexico. For years, a substantial amount of them hail from Central America and now there is evidence that Islamic drug traffickers are using the route, also.

Although many of the people making this crossing are looking for jobs, which will enable them to make a better life for themselves, the entire process is controlled by organized criminals.

While many of us have sympathy (empathy) for people trying to make a better life for themselves, it is often hard to distinguish between innocent workers and hardened criminals, or worse.

Sara Carter of the Washington Times is reporting some of our leaders, who are alarmed by this are calling for an investigation to study how bad the problem could be.

In Sara's own words:

Rep. Ed Royce, ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs terrorism and nonproliferation subcommittee, said the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) document — first reported yesterday by The Washington Times — highlights how vulnerable the nation is when fighting the war on terrorism.

"I'll be asking the terrorism subcommittee to hold a hearing on the DEA report's disturbing findings," said Mr. Royce of California. "A flood of name changes from Arabic to Hispanic and the reported linking of drug cartels on the Texas border with Middle East terrorism needs to be thoroughly investigated."

According to the DEA report, the people of interest in the report are versatile in their linguistic abilities:

These "persons of interest" speak Arabic, Spanish and Hebrew fluently, according to the document.

The report includes photographs of known Middle Easterners who "appear to be Hispanic; they are in fact, all Spanish-speaking Arabic drug traffickers supporting Middle East terrorism from their base of operations" in the southwestern United States, according to the DEA.

Birds of a feather tend to flock together and it is no secret that a lot of terrorist activity has been funded by a booming poppy trade in Afghanistan for over twenty years now.

Another Congressional leader, Congressman John Culberson (R) supports taking a deeper look at this, also.

According to the Department of Justice's National Drug Threat Assessment (2006), heroin production has declined in most source countries, with the exception of Afghanistan.

The report stipulates that no large increase of heroin has been noted in the United States, but it did speculate:

Any significant substitution of Southwest Asian heroin for South American heroin most likely would take several years to occur because Colombian and Dominican criminal groups control most white heroin drug markets, and as such, there are relatively few established Southwest Asian heroin transportation and distribution networks in the United States. Moreover, Colombian and Dominican criminal groups quite likely would strive to maintain control over domestic heroin distribution by purchasing Southwest Asian heroin from sources in Asia or Europe and distributing it in eastern drug markets.

Perhaps, the new report cited in the Times means that this process is already occurring and the groups involved in this deadly trade are creating an unholy alliance.

Terrorists need money to fund their causes, and one of the ways they make it is through illegal means, including drug trafficking.

Sara Carter also has written about Suad Leija, who is helping the federal authorities deal what will probably prove to be a major blow to a major counterfeit document cartel operating throughout the United States. Suad is the stepdaughter of one of the major players in the organization.

I first became interested in Suad's story after reading Sara's article.

Suad has been featured by Lou Dobbs, Fox News, Paula Zahn and several other news organizations.

One of the reasons, Saud decided to assist the authorities in going after her family was a chilling remark her grandfather made when she asked him if the "family" would sell documents to terrorists. His reply was "terrorism is an American problem not Mexican."

Suad is now writing a book about her experiences and is offering a personally autographed copy to anyone, who drops her an e-mail before the release date and then purchases the book directly from her Paper Weapons site.

The e-mail address can be had by clicking on the contact link on the left side of the main page. The book will help support the sacrifices, she has made assisting the authorities in identifying a threat to the citizens of the United States.

Washington Times story, here.

Department of Justice's 2006 National Drug Threat Assessment, here.

If you would like to write Congressman Ed Royce to show support, or make a comment on his call for an investigation, his website is here.

Another person supporting this investigation, Congressman John Culberson's site can be reached by linking, here.

Organized Crime in North America

Despite stories of organized criminal "types" becoming more and more involved in Internet crime, organized crime (itself) is a phenomenon that's been around for a long time.

The Internet is merely another "avenue" for "organized criminals" to commit their misdeeds.

I happened to read an interesting article by Joan Delaney of the Epoch Times in Canada about the Triads (Chinese Mafia), which have been operating in North America since we imported a lot of Chinese nationals in the 1850s to work the gold fields and build the railroads.

The article states:

A 2004 Criminal Intelligence Service Canada (CISC) report stated that Asian organized crime presents a major threat in Canada because of its many widespread and well-run criminal operations. CISC said Asian-based street gang violence is on the rise in several cities, and that the street gangs have connections with more sophisticated Asian organized crime groups—in other words, the Triads.

At a local level, Asian gangs are involved in a long list of criminal activities: credit card fraud, luxury car theft, prostitution, home invasions, staged vehicle accidents, contract killings, assaults, welfare and employment insurance fraud, drug trafficking, software piracy, loan-sharking, and illegal gaming. While scattered from coast to coast, Asian gangs are most active in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, and Toronto, the CISC report said.

Epoch story, here.

Interestingly enough the article also cites the Triads as being tied to the Vietnamese gangs and even the Hells Angels.

Note that these "outfits," probably expanded their activities to Canada from the United States.

Going to the CISC report, which I found published on the Internet, I found a lot of interesting information about organized criminal activity in North America and even a pretty good "analysis" of potential ties to terrorist groups.

CISC report, here.

Note that the report references a lot more that Asian crime and is a pretty interesting "read" for anyone interested in the subject.