Thread: CO: Huge immigration raid in Weld County is still going

The federal government is admittedly torn between enforcing its immigration laws and a desire for the tax revenue illegal immigrants pay while in the United States — not to mention the spending they do here.

What??? My state of Georgia has an ample supply of these illegal invaders. The majority of the illegals are paid “under the tableâ€

Colorado judge stops tax crackdown on illegal workers
Officials have been searching federal income tax returns for falsified or stolen Social Security numbers. A Weld County judge questions the operation's legality.
By DeeDee Correll
December 13, 2008
Reporting from Denver -- A judge in Colorado's Weld County has ordered officials to halt an unorthodox sweep of illegal immigrants suspected of identity theft, saying the local sheriff and district attorney may not have had the authority to conduct the operation.

In October, Weld County Sheriff John Cooke and Dist. Atty. Ken Buck launched "Operation Numbers Game," serving a warrant to search thousands of federal income tax returns at the Greeley, Colo., office of a tax preparer with a primarily Latino clientele.


Authorities said the search yielded 1,300 names of people suspected of falsifying or stealing Social Security numbers. So far, 35 have been arrested for investigation of identity theft or criminal impersonation.

The approach is believed to be the first of its kind and has sparked the interest of prosecutors throughout the Southwest.

But Weld County District Judge James Hartmann this week questioned whether the search -- which was authorized by another Weld County district judge -- was legal.


Hartmann noted that federal law protects the confidentiality of federal income tax returns, including those in the possession of a tax preparer. That fact calls into question prosecutions that appear to be "based almost exclusively on information contained in the federal tax returns," Hartmann wrote in his order, which instructs Buck to defend the legality of the search warrant.

Buck was unavailable to comment Friday. But in an interview with the Greeley Tribune, he called the operation valid.

Federal law addresses "when the IRS can release information, but it doesn't prohibit people from getting tax returns in other ways," he told the newspaper. "We obtained a lawful court order. It will be clear that we can proceed with these cases."

In August, Cooke arrested a local man accused of stealing a Social Security number. When the suspect told detectives he had obtained a tax identification number and filed federal returns with the help of tax preparer Amalia Cerrillo, authorities decided to investigate her other clients. Cerrillo is not accused of wrongdoing.

Individual tax identification numbers were created by the Internal Revenue Service in 1996 for taxpayers who don't qualify for a Social Security number but have a tax liability. Many illegal immigrants use these tax ID numbers to file their returns, attaching W-2 forms with the false Social Security numbers they used to get a job.

Weld officials have criticized the IRS for processing returns that include such information.

Latino activists have criticized the operation as targeting people who are trying to do the right thing by paying their taxes.

Correll is a Times staff writer.

deedee.correll@latimes.com



http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-na ... 5799.story

Here's another approach, go after the employers of those found using stolen or phony SS numbers and make them pay back that $2.6 million stolen by their illegal alien employees.

Is anyone notifying the TRUE owners of the SS numbers? Ya know, the hispanics who have had their IDs stolen? The hispanics who the IRS will penalize for non-payment of taxes on jobs they don't have? The hispanics who are turned down for disability because they person who stole their ID is already on it?

Where are the "hispanic" activists for these hispanics???

Operation Number Games case will be heard this afternoon

December 29, 2008

Staff reports,
Weld District Court Judge Jim Hartmann is expected to hear arguments this afternoon on the merits of the Operation Number Games case initiated in November by the Weld County Sheriff's Office and Weld County District Attorney's Office.

A hearing is scheduled at 1:30 p.m. this afternoon in Hartmann's court room in Greeley.

On Nov. 14, officials from the Weld DA's and sheriff's offices announced they were working together on Operation Number Games, a sweep of more than 1,300 illegal immigrants who were suspected of using false or stolen Social Security numbers and identities. Officials originally said they hoped to arrest about 25 people every week, but the arrests have not come that quickly. So far, 37 people had been arrested and charged as part of the operation, according to the district attorney’s office.

Hartmann recently halted prosecution of the cases after announcing he had questions about the legality of using private tax information to identify these illegal immigrants. He cited a federal statute that he believed guaranteed a right of privacy for the tax information used to identify the suspects. The judge said he believed the case should come under federal jurisdiction, and the state was not the proper agency for enforcement.

www.greeleytribune.com

Is this guy nuts? If you are willing to go to court to prove that someone has been using your SSN, the evidence you will probably produce is your pay receipts, and your tax returns before someone stole the SSN. Why is it an American citizen's privacy is violable, but the privacy of an illegal identity thief is sacred. This wuss apprently just wants to wash his hands of any responsibility.

Judge seeks to eliminate tax records from identity theft cases


Sharon Dunn

Weld District Attorney Ken Buck has a decision to make.

When it comes to forthcoming arrests in the campaign Operation Number Games, he’ll be able to proceed without obstacle if he chooses not to include defendants’ actual federal tax returns in the cases.

Before a courtroom packed with onlookers, Weld District Court Judge James Hartmann today told Buck that there should be no problem in filing the remaining 1,200 cases in the identity theft sweeps as long as they no longer contained actual federal tax returns.

The Weld District Attorney and Weld Sheriff’s Office coordinated on the operation, which targeted more than 1,300 people suspected of gaining tax returns with false or stolen identities.

So far, 118 cases have been filed with the court, though not all defendants have been arrested. Authorities have seized two years worth of federally approved tax returns from Amalia's Tax Service, 1501 9th St., in Greeley, claiming that the suspects gained as much as $2.7 million combined in tax returns based on false Social Security numbers. Suspects have been charged with identity theft, criminal impersonation or both.

“There is an easy solution to the issue now before the court,â€