Emerging from 50 Years ‘in the Shadows,’ Illegal Alien Identity Thief

Living in the shadows for 50 years has to be tough. At some point during a half-century, trips to the supermarket, the clinic or a simple walk in the fresh air are unavoidable. But 69-year-old illegal alien Rene Ortiz Quintana defied the odds, which shifted in his favor once federal immigration authorities stopped looking for him, or any other illegal immigrant, and after he stole the identity of Ruben Gallardo, a deceased military veteran.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) sees identity theft by those in the country illegally as a problem without a solution – short of legalizing the lawbreakers.

Gallardo died in 1994, and according to an ABC News report, Quintana, who lived in the U.S. “for about 50 years,” assumed the veteran’s identity in 2012. During the four years since Quintana became Gallardo, he collected Social Security, VA, federal, state and local benefits that totaled about $30,000.

Identity fraud is one of illegal immigration’s most widespread, but underreported crimes. Stealing a Social Security number is a felony, and can lead to destroyed credit of the unsuspecting target. Watch an illegal immigrant, identified as “Guillermo,” explain here that he stole a child’s identity so he could “work” and “eat.” Children are prime targets for thieves like Guillermo. An estimated 10 percent of child identities have been stolen.

Even though there are thousands of examples of blatant identity fraud that have ruined innocent American lives like the Guenterberg family in Wisconsin, Congress has no intention to intervene. Despite the billions of dollars lost, the task of ending identity fraud is simply too overwhelming, according to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

During the 2013 Gang of Eight debate, Schumer said: “I just don’t see how, when you've lived here 10 years, and you’ve had many different identities, many different numbers, you’re going to remember them all.” Schumer’s solution was to give every illegal alien amnesty, and then they’d have valid ID!

The scams and the squandered fortune in illegitimate payouts goes on, and on, and on. Billions in inappropriate earned income tax credits have been doled out to aliens, between $13.3 billion and $16.6 billion in 2013 alone, according to the Inspector General for Tax Administration. Add to those billions, billions more paid in child tax credits to illegal aliens that may or may not have as many children as they claim or may or may not live in the U.S., and the multibillion dollar total is shocking. As former Illinois Sen. Everett Dirksen once allegedly said: “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.”