1300 alleged criminals among us
Once again illegal immigration put Greeley and Weld County in the national spotlight. This time as ground zero for identity theft. From one tax preparer alone, law enforcement found 1300 possible cases of identity theft. Imagine, 1300 victims from all over the country whose lives have been violated and in some cases financially devastated while 1300 plus alleged criminals walk free among us.
According to 9News, suspected identity thieves netted some $1.6 million in tax refunds. That isn’t the only cost. Weld County taxpayers have shoulder the financial burden for the District Attorney’s office whose case load just increased by 50 percent; and the Sheriff’s Office which has to investigate, arrest and house the suspects.
Retiring Senator Wayne Allard is the only member of Colorado’s congressional delegation to show any leadership on this issue. As reported in the Greeley Tribune:
“What is incredible is that the federal government, specifically the Internal Revenue Service, is enabling this,” Allard said. “Under current policy, the IRS is under no obligation to share information with other agencies upon the discovery of a Social Security number being used with multiple names, or in the case where it is discovered that an individual has more than one person reporting earnings for him or her during a single tax year. "
Allard also again proposed a change to current law that would allow the IRS and Social Security Administration to share information on suspected illegal immigrants with the Department of Homeland Security, a change he proposed during this session.
Sadly the rest of the Coloardo congressional has shown zero leadership. Most disappointing is congresswoman elect Besty Markey. Weld County is her district but Markey has been silent until quoted in the Tribune a week after the story broke, Congresswoman-elect Betsy Markey, D-Fort Collins, said Thursday that she hadn 't had a chance to speak with Allard about his proposal to close the information gap between the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security, but that she agrees the country needs to get control of the identity theft problem.
"We do need to start working on immigration reform, " Markey said. "It's a complex problem. "
Markey said any fix needs to meet demand from farmers for labor in their fields and still "bring people out of the shadows. "
While I appreciate that Markey recognizes the difficulty of dealing with illegal immigration, the legislation that Senator Allard proposed is not complicated or “complex.” It simply gives some help to law enforcement and requires federal agencies to share information.
According to Weld County commissioner elect Sean Conway, who is also Senator Allard’s chief of staff, Markey did not attend a meeting of the Colorado congressional delegation where they discussed Weld County’s identity theft problem. He also said that Congressman elect Mike Coffman and Congressman Doug Lamborn may take a leadership role. Comforting to know that Coffman and Lamborn who don’t even represent the 4th CD at least take pity on us.