Kansas seeks Supreme Court ruling in undocumented immigrant ID theft cases

Kansas officials are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse state Supreme Court rulings that prevents the prosecution of undocumented immigrants for identity theft.

In three rulings last week, the Kansas Supreme Court said that federal immigration law preempted Kansas law from enforcing state criminal law in those those cases.

“We are not convinced the Kansas court’s application of the federal immigration statute is correct, so we are requesting review of all three cases by the U.S. Supreme Court,” Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt said in a written statement. “The Kansas court reasoned that the state cannot prosecute a defendant for falsifying state or private legal documents if the defendant also put the same false information on federal forms for employment verification. I doubt Congress intended that peculiar result.”

On September 8, the Kansas Supreme Court voted 5-2 to overturn the Johnson County convictions of three defendants for identity theft and making false information on state tax forms or other legal documents.

“I appreciate Attorney General Schmidt’s willingness to ask the United States Supreme Court to review these decisions,” Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe said, also in a written statement. “I am also unconvinced that this is a proper application of federal law. We are committed to continuing the fight to protect our citizens from identity theft and to hold all offenders accountable.”

This story was originally published September 15, 2017 at 12:10 PM with the headline "Kansas seeks Supreme Court ruling in undocumented immigrant ID theft cases."