WASHINGTON The Supreme Court has ruled that an undocumented immigrant who uses a phony Social Security number to get work should not be considered an identity thief unless prosecutors can prove he knew the number belonged to a real person.
The court ruled unanimously Monday in favor of Ignacio Carlos Flores-Figueroa, an undocumented worker from Mexico, who was given an additional two years in prison for aggravated identity theft. He presented his employer with Social Security and alien registration numbers that belonged to other people.
The government argued that prosecutors do not have to offer any proof that a defendant knew the identification belonged to someone else and was not simply made up.
The court, in an opinion written by Justice Stephen Breyer, rejected that argument.