Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced charges Thursday against 28 for stealing identities of U.S. citizens and using them to get government benefits, NBC News reported.
Most of the 28 are undocumented immigrants; 22 are undocumented Dominican Republic nationals who stole identities of mostly Puerto Ricans who were displaced in September's Hurricane Maria, Sessions said.
They got government benefits including Medicaid and federally subsidized housing in Massachusetts, using stolen Social Security numbers and other documents, the report said.
"Two people, same name, same numbers: One in Puerto Rico and one in Massachusetts, receiving Medicaid benefits," Sessions said. "In some cases, both people with the same identity were receiving medical services on the same day, in both jurisdictions, 1,600 miles apart."
The attorney general said in one instance, a Puerto Rican affected by the hurricane applied for government housing and was told he was already getting it — in Massachusetts.
In some cases, the individuals who committed the identity thefts also got driver's licenses and registered to vote, Sessions said.
Twenty-one of the 28 have been arrested and are in federal or state custody, and several are undergoing processing for deportation, Sessions said, NBC News reported.
Those arrested will face a two-year federal prison sentence, NBC reported.
"These government programs are intended to help the poor, the elderly, American citizens — not those who are trespassing in the country . . . this kind of fraud is a theft from our seniors, a theft from our taxpayers, and theft from the needy, a theft from America," Sessions said.
In another identity theft case, a Mexican national obtained a birth certificate of a U.S. citizen in 1980 and used it to get a Social Security number and a driver's license, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
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