Thread: CO - ACLU suit against Weld County DA goes to trial

ACLU suit against Weld County DA goes to trial
By IVAN MORENO
Posted: 03/09/2009 04:08:13 AM MDT
Updated: 03/09/2009 05:21:41 PM MDT


GREELEY, Colo.—The seizure of illegal immigrants' tax returns by Weld County authorities violated people's privacy and could undermine confidence in the tax system, the American Civil Liberties said Monday.
The arguments came during the first day of an ACLU lawsuit against the Weld County district attorney's office and the sheriff's office, which seized more than 1,000 records from a tax preparer's business in an identity theft investigation.

The files have caused Amalia Cerrillo's clients to be arrested "and her to be viewed as the typhoid Mary of the immigrant community," ACLU attorney Reid Neureiter said in his opening arguments.

District Attorney Ken Buck has said as many as 1,300 illegal immigrants were breaking the law by filing taxes using false or stolen identities.

But the ACLU says the tax records are confidential and authorities had no right to seize them from Amalia's Translation and Tax Services in Greeley.

The ACLU is demanding that authorities return or destroy the tax files taken from the business.

Tom Lyons, an attorney for the Weld County sheriff's office, said those records were not confidential because they were never in the possession of the IRS and they were part of a criminal investigation.

Prosecutors say 54 cases are pending, in addition to six that were filed through a grand jury. Some defendants have already pleaded guilty to charges of identity theft and criminal impersonation.

District attorney's spokeswoman Jennifer Finch said those who have plead guilty can receive a four-year suspended prison sentence if they comply with deportation proceedings.

Immigrant advocates, like the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, say the people charged are being punished for doing what the law requires them to do—pay taxes.

Regardless of legal status, people who earn income in the U.S. are required to pay taxes.

Buck says the defendants were breaking the law by being in the country illegally in the first place.


http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_11870157

The files have caused Amalia Cerrillo's clients to be arrested "and her to be viewed as the typhoid Mary of the immigrant community," ACLU attorney Reid Neureiter said in his opening arguments.

District Attorney Ken Buck has said as many as 1,300 illegal immigrants were breaking the law by filing taxes using false or stolen identities.

No they didn't - file taxes?