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Our mission is to reverse the trend of mass incarceration in Colorado. We are a coalition of nearly 7,000 individual members and over 100 faith and community organizations who have united to stop perpetual prison expansion in Colorado through policy and sentence reform.

Our chief areas of interest include drug policy reform, women in prison, racial injustice, the impact of incarceration on children and families, the problems associated with re-entry and stopping the practice of using private prisons in our state.

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Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Prosecutor Denies Violating Rights In ID Probe

the Denver Post
DENVER—Colorado authorities say they did not violate anyone's privacy rights when they seized thousands of tax documents to investigate undocumented immigrants for identity theft.

In a late Monday filing, Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck and Sheriff John Cook also said a judge erred in halting the probe.

They asked the Colorado Supreme Court to overturn the April ruling by District Court Judge James Hiatt and argued there is substantial evidence that hundreds of undocumented immigrants were stealing people's identities to file their taxes through a tax preparer.

Immigration experts say it was the first and only time authorities have used confidential records from an income tax preparer to prosecute undocumented immigrants.

The Internal Revenue service requires everyone who earns income in the U.S. to file taxes regardless of legal status, and undocumented immigrants have a tax liability of billions of dollars.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

While i think every illegal immigrant should be deported, in the meantime i also think we should look at Ken Bucks income tax. He might have cheated??
When will we start following the constitution? I applaud Judge Hiat's decision.djw

Anonymous said...

It's far worse than anyone realizes. The illegals are not only assuming "an" identity for multiple purposes, they are assuming multiple identities. I have a client who owns a concrete company. He had immigrants working for him and had gotten Social Security information for all. On one occasion, he hired a man and thinking it would only be temporary, agreed to pay the man cash (under the table). After a couple of weeks, my associate decided he was busy enough to keep the man permanent, but told him he would have to put him on the regular payroll and withhold taxes. The man quit as a result. A few weeks later, the man was back under a different name with different credentials. My associate later discovered that the man in question had been drawind unemployment and welfare benefits from 3 different states under 3 different identities. Those were only the ones my associate found out abut. Who knows how many there might actually have been. He could have been drawing under several different identities in the same state.
Yet, if I am contacted by police and tell them my name is Sarah, when in fact it is Sonya, I am charged with a felony identity theft charge.
How does this work (or fail to work)?

Anonymous said...

Its pretty simple, we have a failed immigration program. How do we correct it? Change the leadership and do as Eisenhauer did in 1955. Take that a step further and thats to not hire non citizens. No more green cards. We have to many unmployed folks here now.djw

Anonymous said...

I have a thoery with regards to solving the immigration problem. If we give illegal immigrants (from whatever country) to this country just what their respective countries would give us as illegal immigrants in their countries, we would have no immigration problem. If we did not give them free housing, medical, food, education, welfare subsistence, etc., they woud have no reason to come here. We even give them preferential treatment in many situations. If we did as I propose, we would not need to employ bilingual employees at every level of society. We would have no need for the fences or the border patrol. Our prisons and courts would not be over-crowded. We would not have ICE, INS, or deportation expenses. We would not have to pay for special bilingual education. Our native citizens would have access to housing, jobs, medical treatment, education, housing, benefits, assistance, tax breaks, free or low interst loans, etc.
If I go to another country, whether it be Mexico or Pakistan or wherever, their country is not going to allow me anything as an illegal immigrant. They will not provide for me, let me work, or even let me stay in their country. In order to stay in Mexico long term (obtain a FM3 or FM4), you have to be able to prove at least $2800/mo income from outside Mexico. They want you to bring in money, not try to make it there or expect to live off their counrtry in any way, shape, or form. All we have to do is follow suit and provide for the immigrants in our country accordingly. Then, we would not have any immigration problem.