COMMUNITY COMMENTARY:

In the ongoing debate over illegal immigration, those in favor of letting them cross our border cite numerous positives — they do the jobs average Americans can’t or won’t do, and they pay taxes like any other citizen.

However, the one thing you will never hear such people defend is the blatant and continual theft of Social Security numbers by illegal immigrants and the forging of documents to provide “legal” cover for their actions.

A person’s Social Security number (SSN) is a near-unique identifier, and a universal method used by government agencies, credit card companies and private lenders to identify an individual. The federal government, through the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies, has tried fighting identity theft rings that provide stolen numbers to prospective buyers for use in the United States.

All too often the victims of these crimes are unaware that someone else is using their identity until it is too late. They find their credit has been ruined and are left with heaping mountains of debt.

In August, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced the Social Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security would be jointly sending letters to businesses alerting them that if one or more of their employees had problems with their SSNs, they would have 90 days to clear up the problem or face criminal fines and other sanctions.

Just last month, a liberal federal judge placed an indefinite delay on sending out these “no match” letters. Judge Charles Breyer, appointed by President Clinton to the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, wrote in his decision that the rule could lead to the firing of legally authorized workers.

Though the ruling does not toss aside the possibility of ever sending out such letters to businesses, Breyer remained highly skeptical of the government’s arguments — indicating that in the many months to come when a final decision is made, it will likely be against the government.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, there were 41,396 reported incidents of identity theft in California alone in 2006.

That is 15,000 more victims than the next closest state, Texas — and these are just for reported cases.

California had more than 113 thefts reported per 100,000 residents, placing it a close third in the nation behind Arizona and Nevada.

In fact, every single state along the U.S.-Mexico border has more than 80 identity theft victims per 100,000 residents, a far worse statistic than any other region in the country.

A more damning statistic is that 15 cities in California are listed in the top 50 metropolitan areas of complaints per 100,000 residents, as well as 3 of the top 5 areas. The greater Riverside-San Bernardino area had a whopping 5,536 identity theft complaints last year.

When looking at those sheer numbers, with associated costs upward of $50 billion nationally, it seems silly to put off doing something to try and discover identity fraud in our workplaces. But, rather than enforce the law as it stands and prevent illegal immigrants from stealing a legal citizen’s identity, Judge Breyer sided with the ACLU. And that’s a shame.

Assemblyman JIM SILVA represents the 67th Assembly District, which includes Huntington Beach. He previously served as an Orange County Supervisor, serving the 2nd District.