ID Theft, Privacy, Fear and Loathing in Colorado

Like Jerry said, “What a long strange trip it’s been“. But like Yogi said “It ain’t over til it’s over“. Which it isn’t. Yet.

In this case the long strange trip is an identity theft investigation known as “Operation Numbers Game” that is being prosecuted by Weld County [Colorado] District Attorney Ken Buck. As you may have guessed this isn’t your typical ID theft case. It involves quite a few undocumented workers (read illegal aliens) and a DA known for his staunch stand against illegal immigration. The basics of the story are laid out pretty well  in this article by AP writer Ivan Moreno, printed in the Denver Post.

Weld County launched Operation Numbers Game after a Texas man reported his identity was being used. The suspect in that case told authorities he had filed his taxes through a business widely used by immigrants in Greeley.

In October, authorities obtained a search warrant and seized the firm’s computers and thousands of tax documents.

Buck filed identity theft and criminal impersonation charges against more than 70 people. He said as many as 1,300 undocumented immigrants in the area were using false or stolen Social Security numbers.

The ACLU’s lawsuit argued authorities had violated privacy rights. Hiatt ruled for the ACLU, saying the county lacked probable cause for the raid, that it was too broad, and that tax records are confidential. Other Weld County judges with cases from Operation Numbers Game agreed.

Prosecutors dismissed many of the cases without prejudice, giving them the option to file charges again. But some defendants had pleaded guilty and face deportation.

Those charged allegedly used others’ Social Security numbers to work, and Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers to pay taxes.

Weld County argued in its appeal it was impossible to identify individual suspects in the search warrant because the case centered on identity theft.

Buck, a Republican who is expected to run against Democrat Michael Bennet for his U.S. Senate seat, is known for his staunch stand against illegal immigration. But he has maintained Operation Numbers Game was about identity theft, not immigration.

In an unrelated case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in May that undocumented workers can be considered identity thieves only if authorities prove they knew they were using someone else’s Social Security number.

Aside from the basic facts – here is a map (OK more of a trail of breadcrumbs) of this long strange trip so far:

• Jun 23: Colorado Supreme Court will hear tax-files case
• Apr 14: Judge who halted Weld ID-theft case retires, Weld tax-data hunt tossed
• Apr 13: Judge orders Weld officials to return seized tax records
• Mar 11: Weld ID-theft case put on hold
• Mar 10: Weld seized specific files in fake-ID probe, jury told
• Mar 09: Court hears ACLU case against Weld DA
• Jan 28: Seizure of tax files leads to ACLU suit
• Jan 16: ID-theft probe in Weld continues
• Dec 30: Privacy concerns stall 1,000 cases of suspected ID theft
• Dec 14: ID-theft arrests halted over warrant
• Nov 16: Illegal immigrants’ arrests in tax scam could total 1,300

“So what does this have to do with security and privacy?” you may be asking about now. Maybe nothing. Maybe this is truly, as DA Buck asserts, “about identity theft, not immigration”. Yeah you bet. First off, the “identities” that were allegedly stolen here are, in fact, Social Security Numbers. Don’t even get me started on the fundamental idiocy of using SSNs as forms of identity. Second, I tend to agree with the Supreme Court in that “unrelated” case. In fact the case was Flores-Figueroa v. U.S, 129 S.Ct. 1886 (2009) [updated with correct citation – thanks to Chris Webster] and an exhaustive analysis with my keen legal sense (would you believe I read some articles like this one over a beer?) fails to find the “unrelated” part.

Ignacio Carlos Flores-Figueroa, a Mexican immigrant employed at a steel plant in East Moline, Ill., traveled to Chicago and bought numbers from someone who trades in counterfeit IDs.

Unlike earlier fictitious numbers Flores-Figueroa used, these numbers belonged to real people.

Flores-Figueroa had worked at the plant under a false name for six years. His decision to use his real name and exchange one set of phony numbers for another aroused his employer’s suspicions.

He was arrested in 2006 and convicted on false document and identity theft charges.

He appealed his conviction as an identity thief, but the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis upheld the conviction. With appeals courts divided on the issue, the Supreme Court stepped into the case.

Oh yeah, this case is nothing like that. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to minimize the severity of identity theft. This just isn’t it. These were just folks trying to make a living, albeit illegally. But the illegal part was not identity theft. What really bothers me is the creative interpretation of one law to enforce something completely different. Think of these swell examples from our recent past and present:

Terrorist – A person who demonstrates at the Republican National Convention

Hacker – Someone who writes code to watch DVD’s on Linux

Suspected child pornographer – Anyone crossing the border into the US with a laptop computer.

Should the weasels that sold the known good Social Security Numbers to the undocumented workers be prosecuted? Hell yes! Those are actual identity thieves. And Ill bet they are liberals [terrorists] and probably have computers [suspected child pornographers]. DA Buck could surely win with at least one of those angles. A long strange trip indeed.