GREELEY — A Greeley tax preparer targeted by Weld County officials for helping illegal immigrants testified Monday that she is doing nothing illegal and is helping the government collect valuable income tax.
“I don’t believe I’m helping criminals,” said Amalia Cerrillo, owner of Amalia’s Translation and Tax Service. “I’m helping working people obey tax laws.”
The American Civil Liberties Union is suing Weld County Sheriff John Cooke and District Attorney Ken Buck in district court on behalf of Cerrillo over a search of her business last fall.
Deputies took more than 5,000 tax documents and other personal information from the business after learning that a man suspected of possessing a stolen Social Security number had filed his taxes there along with other suspected illegal immigrants.
The search was part of a combined effort to crack down on as many as 1,338 suspects using false or stolen Social Security numbers to work in Weld County.
But the ACLU argues that the sweep violated privacy laws and that the search of the Amalia’s business was illegal.
Buck and Cooke, however, say they were within the law to search the business, and the search was approved by a Weld County district judge.
The ACLU suit asks that the documents be returned to Cerrillo’s business or be put in the custody of a district court, and asks that Weld County be barred from using her company to prosecute illegal immigrants.
Cerrillo testified that she is registered with the IRS because illegal immigrants are required to pay taxes. Also, she said she is required by the IRS to keep the workers’ tax documents private.
“I just don’t tell them their records are confidential, I assure them,” said Cerrillo, who has prepared tax documents in Greeley for 10 years.
She testified that Weld County deputies took not only her clients’ records, but her personal records and computer hard drives.
A judge has ruled that documents seized at Amalia’s involving the stolen Social Security cards cannot be used in a separate criminal case because of a “lack of probable cause.”
Testimony is scheduled to continue today.
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com
