More ID Theft, Privacy, Fear and Loathing in Colorado

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Recently I wrote about the long, strange and continuing saga of the identity theft investigation known as “Operation Numbers Game” being prosecuted by Weld County [Colorado] District Attorney Ken Buck. You can read all about it in this post but here is a very brief recap.

The investigation began in October after a Texas man told Greeley authorities someone was using his identity. The suspect in that case told authorities he was filing his taxes with a Greeley tax preparer that catered to Latinos in the city about 60 miles north of Denver.

That prompted the sheriff and district attorney to search the business of tax preparer, hoping to find proof that people were working with Social Security numbers that weren’t theirs, and filing taxes with government-issued taxpayer identification numbers.

And the saga continues. This time with the ACLU maintaining that “Operation Numbers Game” was a “fishing expedition” as covered in this article by AP writer Ivan Moreno, printed in the Denver Post.

Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union maintain Weld County authorities went on a “fishing expedition” when they seized thousands of tax documents from suspected illegal immigrants for an identity theft investigation.

The ACLU has asked the Colorado Supreme Court to uphold a District Court ruling that stopped the investigation in April. The judge ruled that Weld County authorities violated people’s privacy and had no probable cause to inspect so many confidential taxpayer records.

Weld’s sheriff and district attorney said in their appeal last month they had substantial evidence to believe hundreds of suspected undocumented immigrants were stealing people’s identities to work in the U.S.

The ACLU said in its Supreme Court brief that except for the suspect accused of stealing the Texas’ man’s identity, investigators had no probable cause to search the thousands of records of other taxpayers.The ACLU said the investigation of [the tax preparer’s] business was akin to getting a search warrant for a hotel where drug dealers are known to stay, and then going through every room to look for drugs.

Four district judges have agreed with the ACLU’s argument that Weld County’s search warrant was unconstitutional; one judge called it “breathtaking in its expansiveness.”

Yeah. What he said. But Weld County is still doggedly pursuing this alleged [by district court judges, the ACLU, and pretty much anybody paying attention] gross violation of civil liberties, claiming that “it was impossible to identify individual suspects in the search warrant because the case centered on identity theft“. Seriously guys, in the folksy words of a recent president, “that dog don’t hunt”. What really makes this attempt at injustice so egregious is that according to immigration experts, this is the “first and only time authorities have used confidential records from an income tax preparer to prosecute undocumented immigrants“. Now I don’t know about you, but the idea that authorities could seize my confidential tax records by virtue of the fact that my tax preparer might have some clients that might be undocumented workers makes me a tad uneasy. Actually quite a bit more than a tad.  And heaven forfend that I should have a Latino surname. And that, my friends, is a statement with ugly implications.

But the ultimate irony of this fiasco is that should “Operation Numbers Game” achieve it’s goals and be completely successful (hey, some folks think wish it could happen) it would be a bad business move for Weld County. The Mexican American Legal Defense & Education Fund sums it up nicely.

The Mexican American Legal Defense & Education Fund also filed a brief with the Supreme Court Friday supporting the ACLU’s arguments. That brief says the confidentiality of tax records is necessary to avoid “the creation of an underground economy,” in which illegal immigrants don’t comply with tax laws, depriving the government of much-needed revenue.

Here’s the deal. I have actual direct firsthand experience with the horrors of this kind of “identity theft”. Several years ago my wife’s social security number was appropriated by (presumably) an undocumented worker in Texas so that they could work. And pay payroll taxes. She discovered this when the IRS contacted her regarding her failure to report income from an agriculture job in Texas. After the initial WTF moment it was pretty easy to convince the IRS of the impracticality of running a business in Colorado and picking vegetables in Texas simultaneously. Especially since the IRS gets to keep the payroll taxes collected from my wife’s impersonator. Bottom line: the damage to the “victim” consisted of several annoying yet amusing contacts from the IRS and the government got some money for nothing. Terrifying stuff.

Finally in an unrelated story, Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck announced that he is still in the race for the Republican nomination for Colorado’s U.S. Senate seat.

Buck said he was swayed by the “hundreds” of e-mails and phone calls he received over the weekend urging him not to get out of the race just because it appeared as if the National Republican Senatorial Committee was behind former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton.
“The feedback was huge. I never knew Perry had so many friends,” Buck said with a laugh, referring to his wife, former vice chairwoman of the state Republican Party. Buck said it was “Washington, D.C., insiders” who were behind the “shenanigans” to try to influence the race.

Unrelated. ‘Nuff said.

For anyone interested in the details of this case, you can find more press coverage as well as the court documents here:
http://www.aclu-co.org/docket/200821/200821_description.html

Thanks to Erik Maulbetsch