GREELEY, Colo.—A judge has halted an identity theft investigation targeting illegal immigrants in Colorado, saying prosecutors wrongly seized records from an income tax preparer.
The judge on Monday ordered Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck and the Weld County Sheriff’s Department to return or destroy the evidence within seven days.
Buck declined comment but his attorney, Lisa Hogan, said he will appeal the ruling.
Investigators had seized copies of tax returns filed as far back as 2006 from Amalia’s Translation and Tax Services in Greeley after a Texas man alerted Weld County authorities that someone was using his identity.
Buck and sheriff’s investigators allege that up to 1,300 immigrants were filing tax returns using false or stolen identities.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit, contending the records were confidential under federal law. Buck argued the seizures didn’t violate confidentiality laws because the records were not obtained from the Internal Revenue Service and because they were part of a criminal investigation.
District Judge James Hiatt from neighboring Larimer County ruled the seizure was over-broad and violated the privacy rights of the people whose records were taken.
Hiatt said investigators’ actions were akin to taking all the medical records from a doctor’s office because one patient was a drug user engaged criminal activities.
Hiatt issued a preliminary injunction barring prosecutors from filing any new cases and said none of the tax information could be used in any cases still pending in court.
Charges have already been filed against at least 60 people, and some defendants have pleaded guilty to identity theft and criminal impersonation. Hiatt said he couldn’t halt the pending cases or overturn the cases where defendants pleaded guilty, but he said he expects at least some of those defendants to file litigation.
Immigration attorneys have said the people facing charges in the case had used Social Security numbers that weren’t theirs, but not to file taxes. The attorneys said those people had used Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers issued by the IRS for people who do not have Social Security numbers.
Mark Siverstein, legal director for the ACLU in Colorado, said the ruling could have an impact on other law enforcement agencies that were thinking of copying Buck’s investigation, called Operation Numbers Game.
“It’s certainly my hope that this ruling will send a message that they should refrain from imitating ‘Operation Numbers Game’ and its investigative methods,” he said.
The National Immigration Law Center in Los Angeles had expressed concern about the investigation, saying it was the first time law-enforcement officials had used tax records to try to prosecute illegal immigrants.
The center’s executive director, Marielena Hincapie, praised Monday’s ruling and said she hoped its timing two days before the April 15 tax deadline would ease the fear of illegal immigrants who file taxes every year.
Former IRS Commissioner Mark Everson told Congress in 2006 that illegal immigrants reported almost $50 billion in tax liability from 1996 to 2003.
Immigrant advocates, including the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, said Operation Numbers Game was punishing people for doing what the law requires them to do—pay taxes.
Everyone who earns income in the U.S. is required to pay taxes regardless of legal status.
Buck has staunchly defended the investigation, saying illegal immigrants are violating U.S. law by being in the country in the first place. He said requiring them to pay taxes is absurd.
