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Identity Theft a Growth Industry in Texas Border Towns

Brownsville's Latino residents at high risk of identity theft

By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com

March 9, 2008    
Brownsville, Texas, a city of about 140,000 people, sits on the border with Mexico. It's the southernmost city in the Lone Star State and when it comes to crime, it is typical of most U.S. cities its size, except for one thing: it has an extraordinarily high rate of identity theft.

"I would say that our particular substation takes about five or six identity theft reports each week," Lt. Mark Elbert, of the Brownsville Police Department, told ConsumerAffairs.com. "I suspect the department's Main Station and the West Side Station get more than that."

Cameron County Airport near Brownsville

What makes Brownsville residents so vulnerable to identity theft? Elbert says identity thieves covet the personal documents of the Hispanic residents of the city, who make up about 85 percent of the population.

"When smugglers bring people across the border illegally, they need to get documents for them before they send the people to northern states, where they will find work," Elbert said. "The closest targets are the residents of Brownsville."

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They are also some of the easiest targets. Elbert says Brownsville's legal residents who travel back and forth across the border often carry important documents, like birth certificates and passports, in their purses and wallets, in case they are asked to prove their status..

"We've had cases where women carry their own birth certificate in her purse, as well as the birth certificates for all her children," Elbert said. "So when an identity thief steals her purse, he steals not one identity, but sometimes five or six."

Sometimes residents have their identities stolen without their knowledge. Elbert said they might not know until months later, when the IRS sends them notices of income reported to their Social Security number in a state like Ohio.

Supply and demand

Elbert says identity theft has risen to meet the demand created by "coyotes," who smuggle people from Mexico and Central America and help them get documents before moving them north. The "coyotes" are well paid, and can afford to pay top dollar for authentic identities and documents.

"Because the penalties for smuggling people across the border are so much less than smuggling drugs, a lot of people who used to smuggle drugs and now smuggling people," Elbert said.

Elbert says the police department is attempting to take a proactive approach to the problem, making it harder for identity thieves to steal the documents they need.

"We are trying to get the message out to the community that people who not carry their documents on their person unless absolutely necessary, and when they do they should be extremely careful," Elbert said.

But in a time when anti-immigrant feelings are running high, Americans of Hispanic descent say they are frequently asked to prove their identity and it's not easy to do that without the very documents that make them prey to identity thieves.

Photo source: Texas Governor's Office

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