More than a dozen illegal immigrants are facing federal charges for allegedly stealing the identities of U.S. citizens and defrauding the Social Security Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced Friday.
According to a press release from ICE’s Tampa field office, 18 undocumented individuals—12 of them from Honduras—have been charged with aggravated identity theft, misuse of Social Security numbers, and making false statements about their citizenship to unlawfully gain employment. The group also includes one Guatemalan and one Mexican national, with indictments issued on various dates over the past two years. If convicted on all charges, each defendant faces a minimum of two years and up to 12 years in federal prison, ICE stated. Democrats have repeatedly claimed that migrants in the U.S. illegally are not committing crimes.
The arrests were part of a coordinated inter-agency operation involving ICE, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the U.S. Department of Labor, and multiple local law enforcement agencies across Florida. The crackdown aligns with the Trump administration’s broader effort to combat identity theft committed by illegal immigrants. In a separate case, a woman from Arizona recently pleaded guilty in federal court to participating in a scheme that defrauded U.S. companies out of approximately $17 million, funneling the proceeds to both herself and the authoritarian regime in North Korea.
Christina Marie Chapman, 48, of Litchfield Park, Arizona, pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, identity theft, and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
Chapman participated in a scheme that enabled foreign IT workers to impersonate U.S. citizens and secure remote jobs with over 300 American companies. The operation generated nearly $17 million in illegal proceeds for both Chapman and the government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), the release stated. Additionally, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has reached an agreement with ICE to assist in locating and detaining illegal immigrants with outstanding deportation orders. The agency is also forming a dedicated task force focused on identifying and apprehending individuals involved in identity theft and Social Security fraud.