Posted on 01/31/2007 1:12:31 PM PST by primeval patriot
U.S. District Judge James Cohn has forced a Guatemalan dishwasher to surrender nearly all his life savings to the government because he didn't sign a declaration form before trying to board an airplane.
Pedro Zapeta of Stuart had $59,000 in his bag when Customs agents searched it and confiscated the money at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Sept. 18, 2005. Mr. Zapeta, a 39-year-old Mayan whose native language is Quiche, has said that he was unaware of the requirement to disclose amounts greater than $10,000. On Monday, Judge Cohn ruled that the $10,000 was all that Mr. Zapeta could keep. He must forfeit the rest - $49,000. Mr. Zapeta has no real option for appealing, and is likely to be deported soon.
"It is unconscionable for the government to take that money," said Robert Gershman, Mr. Zapeta's attorney. "They do it because they can. That's the only reason. It's just not right. He could have left with all $59,000 if he had signed the form."
In his six-page ruling, Judge Cohn said that the government had dropped earlier claims that the cash was drug money, and that prosecutors were accusing Mr. Zapeta of a civil currency violation, not a criminal offense. Mr. Gershman argued that Mr. Zapeta should pay a fine of no more than $5,000 for being negligent; he never had flown on a plane. "There is no rule of thumb in these cases," the lawyer said. "They shouldn't just rubber-stamp them with a decision like this."
Mr. Zapeta entered the country illegally 11 years ago and worked as a dishwasher for numerous Stuart restaurants, often holding two jobs at a time for little more than minimum wage. He intended to start a business with relatives upon returning to Guatemala. Mr. Gershman believes that the dishwasher's immigration and social status worked against him: "If Mr. Zapeta were a professional man, or more intellectual, or more mainstream, there's no question that he would not have been treated this way."
This is the guest worker President Bush has in mind when he proposes immigration reform. Pedro Zapeta didn't come to stay. He came to make investment money he can't make back home. Having done so, he was ready to deport himself. Judge Cohn had a chance to make sense out of this bureaucratic bungling. Instead, he displayed little logic and even less compassion.
I care about chavistas being allowed in this country with scads of undeclared cash, getting off scotfree after they are caught, and then spending it in Miami before returning home to Caracas to steal some more. That, to me, is the more disgusting thing going on right now in this country.
Self
Not 49, 59
There's a good chance that taxes were withheld from his pay. (That's what the phony ID is for.) He may actually be up to date on his taxes. Any way you slice it, this judge is a thief.
There may be a good chance he paid taxes. But the article doesn't say he used a phony ID. He may have worked the entire time getting paid in cash under the table. We don't know. Even if he did pay taxes, that isn't enough. The law requires you to FILE a tax return. He definitely didn't do that. Simply not filing carries penalties and accumulated interest on the penalties.
Besides, the Judge didn't make some arbitrary decision about how much to take. He wasn't a thief in any sense. He simply enforced the law -- try to move more than $10K cash outside the country without declaring it and it's forfeit.
I fly internationally regularly and don't recall these signs posted anywhere. I do know about the restriction.
I don't the find the fact that he had saved $59,000 in 11 years to be inconsistent with the dishwasher story, but the fact that he was carrying the whole wad with him in cash certainly does set off the BS alarm. Illegals working here know how to send money back home -- there's a huge industry built around helping them to do so. If the money was really "to start a business with relatives upon returning to Guatemala", most of the money would already have been in Guatemala. Anyone operating in that segment of society is spending a lot of time in rough neighborhoods, and is well aware of their high risk of getting mugged or having their home burglarized and having everything of value stolen.
Yeah, and there is also a good chance he stole somebody's identity in order to be "legal" when he took the dishwashing job.
So then some, poor sap of an American citizen went through years of BS from the SSA and the IRS in trying to get his life straightened out from this "poor" Mayan ruining it to begin with.
Couldn't get a loan, couldn't buy a house, IRS garnishing his wages.
Yeah, I have tons of sympathy this guy paid the US $50k for the privilege of living here for 11 years.
If we want these people to come in from the cold one day (Since "kick 'em all out" is probably unworkable), then legalized looting and pillaging probably isn't a good incentive. Yes, he owes a certain penalty for breaking into the country, but that wasn't what he was charged with. Do we really want a court to take $49,000 out of $59,000 from anyone for a lack of paperwork?
Ok. I'm flexible.
Make him produce 11 years of tax returns with all the legal ramifications that may produce, and if he can prove he made it and paid taxes on it, let him keep it.
11 years worth of tax records... Would you want an American citizen held to that kind of standard? Do we get to confiscate 83% of anyone's assets if they can't come up with the right paperwork?
Be careful what you wish for...
So you're saying he would have had to incriminate himself?
Good bye Fifth Amendment. It was nice knowing you.
The argument against seizures (in drug cases) is always that the person has no rights when the government takes his hard earned cash.
The thing is this never happens if the person can prove where the money came from. Sale of property, earned income, etc., all leave paper trails. Produce the trail and the money is yours. I'm not saying this is right or this is wrong but that's the way it is. And it is used in more than just drug cases.
However property CAN be seized regardless of where the funds came from to purchase it if it can be proved the property was used in the commission of a felony. Speed boats, planes, cars, etc., can all be tagged.
This guy's money was seized because he didn't declare it at customs. This "poor" guy also has a lawyer, probably pro bono. I'm willing to bet that if Mr Lawyer can show in court the money was not ill-gotten, he'll get most or all of it back.
No, standard for us is 7 years, right? Besides, he's not an American citizen.
Oh, one more thing.
Paperwork? Since you all believe his story, and assuming he wasn't cheating the government, at most he has 11 years worth of 1040EZ forms. Eleven whole sheets of paper.
He may even be able to get copies from the IRS.
"I don't think that a job you take AS an illegal is an illegal job, or that they gains you get are "ill-gotten"."
That's the crux of the matter. People disagree on this point.
"Yes, I am saying that being here illegally does NOT mean that honest work is "illegal"."
Did he have an SS number?
"Suppose you were stranded on a mountain in a blizzard, and you came upon a cabin. Would you break in, or would you stay outside and die because breaking and entering is a crime? If you did break in, would you not eat the food in the cabin?
Would that mean you are a person of bad character?"
If I lived in someone else's cabin for 11 years, damn straight!
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