By Laura Tillman, The Brownsville Herald
Immigrants who use false documents cannot be prosecuted for identity theft unless they know those documents belong to a real person, the Supreme Court ruled last week.
Local immigration attorneys called the ruling a "huge victory," saying government attorneys have frequently used the threat of an identity theft charge to intimidate undocumented immigrants into pleading guilty for lesser offenses. Identity theft carries a minimum sentence of two years.
"For the average undocumented immigrant who goes to the flea market and buys a social security card, how are they supposed to know if it belonged to a real person or not?" said Jodie Goodwin, a Harlingen-based lawyer who has been practicing immigration law for 14 years.
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