Deportation of an illegal immigrant in the US is a lengthy process if the illegal immigrant is not convicted of a serious crime. Often, authorities accelerated the expulsion of illegal immigrants by charging them with aggravated identity theft. The aggravating circumstance involves the use of fake documents to commit other offenses and is punishable by an additional two-year prison term.
This practice was common during the George W. Bush administration. For example, charges of aggravated identity theft were brought against most of the roughly 400 illegal immigrants detained at a meatpacking plant in Iowa in 2008.
“The court’s decision protects the fundamental ideals of justice for some of the least protected workers in our society. An immigrant who uses a fake Social Security number to get a job does not intend to harm anyone, and there is no need to spend our taxes on their two-year detention,” the New York Times quotes Chicago human rights lawyer Chuck Roth as saying.