Illegal immigrant uses stolen identity to get kidney transplant — on taxpayers’ dime

An illegal immigrant used the stolen identity of an American to sign up for Medicare and collect some $400,000 in taxpayer-funded care — including getting a kidney transplant that would have gone to a U.S. citizen.

Jeremias Otoniel Herrera Rosales, who is Guatemalan, spent more than a decade living under the name Daniel Glenn Guerra. He wasn’t able to hold a job due to his poor health, but he did live off government assistance that he received because he was using an American’s identity.

That included getting the kidney transplant in 2019, paid for by Uncle Sam.

He was sentenced last week in Sioux City, Iowa, to 16 months in prison.

Prosecutors said — and Rosales admitted — that meant someone else missed out on the chance to get the kidney.

“The defendant took and received an organ transplant under a false identity from someone else that otherwise would have obtained it,” Ronald Timmons, an assistant U.S. attorney, told the court.

Rosales was convicted along with his wife, Jennifer Guadalupe Herrera, and Jaklyn Guerra, her sister. Both women are U.S. citizens. They were sentenced to a one-month imprisonment.

All three were ordered to pay a total of half a million dollars in restitution.

The stolen identity belonged to Guerra’s son, who lived under another name most of his life and was surprised to learn someone was using his real name, according to the investigator who pursued the case.

At some point, the identity victim confronted Rosales, according to court documents.

Investigators also confronted Rosales in 2020. They figured that would put a stop to his fraud.

When they went to arrest him last year they were surprised to find he was still using the stolen identity and collecting Medicare benefits.

Prosecutors said Rosales could have tried to win citizenship as the spouse of a U.S. citizen and would have been in the clear applying for government benefits. It’s not clear why he didn’t take that step.

President Biden recently announced a deportation amnesty for illegal immigrants married to U.S. citizens. It would apply to roughly 500,000 people who have been in the U.S. for at least 10 years and were married at the time the president announced his policy.

Despite the announcement, the administration has yet to detail the program’s parameters, so it’s unclear whether Rosales’ criminal conviction would be enough to make him ineligible.