Aurora’s Dayton Street Day Labor Center was unusually quiet for a few weeks this year, after federal raids drove away immigrants who came for help applying for work authorization and finding jobs.
It was a worrying sight for Dayton Street’s staff — especially with Tax Day approaching.
The organization had been preparing to launch free clinics to help their clients file returns. Even immigrants without work authorization are required to pay.
So organizer Kadi Kouyate spent weeks calling people, one by one, trying to convince them to come back. And they did. For one week in March, the little building off Colfax Avenue brimmed with people ready for help with their paperwork.
“It was complete chaos here,” said Kouyate, who spent more than a decade helping immigrants with taxes before she brought the service to Dayton Street.
She was glad to help — but she knows her client’s fears weren’t misplaced.
President Donald Trump’s administration is attempting to use tax filings to pursue people for deportation, despite the fact that the Internal Revenue Service is required to keep records confidential under federal statute.
It’s another threat to a population that’s endured performative shows of force by federal agents and rancorous political rhetoric — and it’s not the first time tax records have been used to target immigrants in Colorado.
