Fake IDs - For Mexicans it's a felony, for college kids it's a misdemeanor.

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Latinos assail Maricopa County Attorney Montgomery over ID-theft charges

By Jim Walsh The Republic | azcentral.com Fri Feb 15, 2013 10:28 PM

Hispanic activists say undocumented immigrants are victims of selective enforcement and inequality under Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery’s prosecution of identity-theft charges.

The activists said that, although college students receive alcohol-diversion classes for using a fake identification card to obtain liquor, undocumented immigrants are charged with felonies and spend months in jail for the same offense.

“What’s the bigger crime, using a fake ID to get drunk or to support a family,’’ said Lydia Guzman, a spokeswoman for the League of United Latin American Citizens.

Tempe police said this week that they had seized more than 1,700 fake ID cards last year, with most defendants avoiding records by attending the diversion program.

The activists said Montgomery’s true intent is to set up undocumented immigrants for deportation, a charge Montgomery denied emphatically, saying he has no authority over federal immigration policies.

“This office does not, this office will not, engage in any systemic effort to deport people from the United States,’’ Montgomery said.

Montgomery said LULAC’s argument is “irresponsible’’ because Arizona law bars him from prosecuting young adults for using fake IDs to obtain alcohol as identity theft because the crime is a misdemeanor and is covered by a different statute.

He said the identity theft and forgery charges his office files against undocumented immigrants are appropriate and have been effective in significantly reducing identity theft in Arizona.

“For about a decade, Arizona was Number 1 in the nation for identity theft,’’ Montgomery said.

But in 2011, Arizona dropped to fourth in identity theft, he said, with the number of complaints falling from more than 10,000 in 2006 to fewer than 7,000.

The percentage of identity-theft cases motivated by employment also has dropped from 39 percent in 2006 to 25 percent in 2011, Montgomery said.

“The percentage of ID-theft cases for employment has declined significantly,’’ Montgomery said. “Arizona law prohibits treating those cases the same way.’’

But Delia Salvatierra, a defense attorney who specializes in immigration, said identify-theft laws should be enforced against drug addicts stealing people’s bank-account numbers to rip them off.

She said Montgomery’s office has become harsher by filling a higher class of felony forgery charges to prevent undocumented immigrants from being released on bond.

Salvatierra said prosecutors used to file lesser criminal impersonation charges that allowed defendants to post bond.

She said defendants are often charged with multiple counts of forgery and eventually plead guilty to one count, leading to certain deportation by federal authorities.

“It’s a decision he makes because he wants an immigration consequence,’’ Salvatierra said. “It’s to separate families and permanently banish (immigrants) from the country.’’

David Cutrer, another attorney, said he defended two clients who were eventually found not guilty of identity theft and forgery, with one spending six months in jail, the other nine months in jail.

“They are hell-bent on prosecuting these cases, whether the evidence supports them or not,’’ Cutrer said.

He said Montgomery is “not a bad man by any stretch of the imagination, but politics are involved here.’’