NIF Needs to Drop Amnesty Push and Stand Up for American Kids

By Ronald W. Mortensen on November 4, 2013

National Immigration Forum (NIF) board member and former Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff has once again acknowledged that illegal aliens commit child identity theft.

Shurtleff's acknowledgement came in a tweet that he sent in response to other tweets commenting on an earlier blog of mine:


However, unlike in 2005 when Shurtleff said he would prosecute and deport illegal aliens committing child identity theft, as an NIF board member he now advocates giving them legal status and amnesty for their crimes so they will stop stealing the identities of American children.

It would appear that both Shurtleff and the National Immigration Forum lack compassion for the victims of illegal alien identity theft, otherwise their focus would be on helping innocent American kids and their families undo the harm done to them rather than sacrificing them for the benefit of illegal aliens.

The National Immigration Forum needs to stand up for American kids. It knows that illegal aliens are committing rampant child identity theft and it knows that innocent American children are suffering terrible harm at the hands of illegal aliens using their identities because one of its board members (Shurtleff) has said so.

The NIF should also know that it is wrong to put the interests of illegal aliens ahead of the interests of American children and it should further know that it would be wrong to reward illegal aliens with legal status after the harm they have done to innocent American children and their families.

Hopefully, the NIF will drop its push for amnesty for child identity thieves. And hopefully it will encourage Congress to pass legislation designed to (1) protect American children from illegal alien employment-related identity theft; (2) help American families recover their children's identities; and (3) to undo the terrible harm that illegal aliens have caused these American families.

Oh, and what about the mortgage fraud bust mentioned in Shurtleff's tweet? Well that certainly wasn't the focus of Shurtleff's press conference in 2005. According to the Deseret News, Shurtleff was clearly taking credit for busting illegal aliens who were using the Social Security numbers of 5,000 Utah children under age 18 to get jobs, which was just the tip of the iceberg, since only the Social Security numbers of kids on public assistance were checked. The Deseret News story included the following:

But Bailey's parents, Scott and Kelly Smith, found out their daughter's identity had been compromised after the Utah Department of Workforce Services found an Orem restaurant employee with Bailey's Social Security number. Either someone had stolen her identity or the 5-year-old had been commuting from Ogden to Orem every day without her parents' knowledge. ...

According to the Utah Attorney General's Office, other victims are an 8-year-old Orem boy who appears to own a cleaning company and works as a prep cook at two upscale Salt Lake restaurants. An 11-year-old Salt Lake boy appears to work for an express air freight company, authorities found. ...

The Social Security Administration initiated the current investigation when it alerted state officials about a problem in Utah with compromised Social Security numbers.

The ensuing investigation by the Identity Theft Task Force's Operation Protect the Children turned up at least 1,800 forged Social Security numbers assigned to Utah children 12 or under. Lt. Kevin Pepper, an investigator with the task force, said 3,200 victims fell between the ages of 13 and 18 years old.

Ninety percent of the cases involve illegal aliens who use the identities to find work, Ingleby [Office of the Inspector General, Social Security Administration] said.