AP Forgets to Mention Identity Thief is an Illegal Alien

February 24, 2008 | Filed Under Crime, Democrats/Leftists, Immigration/Immigrants, Media Bias, News, Publius Contributor, Security/Safety, The Law, Warner Todd Huston |

-By Warner Todd Huston

I hate to say it, but for a “news” service that is supposed to thrive on the “facts,” the Associated Press sure seems to leave out an awful lot of them in their wire stories. We’ve seen dozens of examples of that when they conveniently forget to mention the political party affiliation when a public servant caught up in crime or scandal and happens to be a Democrat. We have also seen the AP somehow forget to mention when a criminal happens to be an illegal alien. Well, here is yet anther case where a crime is committed by an illegal and the AP seems to have developed amnesia about the fact that the criminal is an illegal alien.

In AP’s report headlined “Man Accused of Stealing 7-Year-Old’s ID”, the AP gives us the tale of a 7-year-old boy who’s Soc. Sec. # was stolen, the theft discovered when the boy’s mother tried to file her taxes. Their report is short and interestingly lacking one little detail…

CARPENTERSVILLE, Ill. (AP) — Police in a Chicago suburb say the Internal Revenue Service has told a 7-year-old boy he owes back taxes on $60,000 because someone else has been using the youngster’s identity to collect wages and unemployment benefits.

Officers in suburban Carpentersville said Friday the second-grader’s identity has been in use by someone else since 2001.

Detectives have filed a felony identity theft charge against 29-year-old Cirilo Centeno of Streamwood, Ill.

OK, folks, take a wild guess what the legal status of our nefarious Mr. Cirilo Centeno is?

Well, you might be able to guess, but the AP sure isn’t going to help you much. To fill out the facts of the case, we need to turn to the Chicago Daily Herald which reports that one tiny, little missing fact…(my emphasis)

Centeno said he bought the card for $50 from a friend and used it because he is in the country illegally, police said.

Gosh, what a surprise, eh?

Now, why is it that the AP felt it necessary to omit the fact that their criminal subject is an illegal alien? Is it not germane to the story? If they don’t think so, how do they justify that claim?

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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston