Colorado County Settles Seizure of Tax Returns Case

The Greeley Tribune reports that Weld County, Colorado will pay almost $300,000 to the American Civil Liberties Union in a settlement involving a 2-year-old lawsuit over illegal immigration and identity theft. Weld District Attorney Ken Buck on Monday announced he had settled with the ACLU, which sued in 2009 over the Operation Numbers Games campaign in 2008, claiming the campaign violated the suspects’ Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure.  The settlementl calls for the county to pay the ACLU attorneys fees of $295,000.

In a October 2008 raid, Weld sheriff’s deputies found 1,338 suspects after seizing roughly 5,000 tax returns from Amalia’s Translation and Tax Service in Greeley in a search for illegal immigrants committing identity theft.

KJ