Marco Silva is a pastor who travels around the U.S. to talk to churches and collect money for an orphanage in his home country, Peru.

In 2013, Silva was driving across Nebraska on I-80 when he was stopped in Seward County for “failing to signal a lane change”– though no ticket was issued, deputies asked to search Silva’s vehicle.

Silva consented to the search of his car and deputies found about $14,000 in cash and checks. He faced several hours of questioning and harassment before the county seized all the money.

During the interrogation, Silva told the deputies about the orphanage he was collecting money for, but they were sure that he was involved with drugs or trafficking. His money was seized through a process called civil forfeiture.

Civil forfeiture is when officials are allowed to take private property if suspected of being involved in criminal activity. At the time of the incident, Nebraska had been one of the largest recipients of federal funds coming from civil forfeiture.

Check out our report about civil forfeiture in Nebraska.

Silva called the ACLU for assistance and we intervened in the case immediately. Creighton Law Student Matthew took the complaint to the the county and helped Silva retrieve his money back. In all, it took Silva three months to get it back, two days after the Matthew and the ACLU stepped in.

Not all forfeitures are a bad thing – there are appropriate times to seize property. But there were increasingly more cases where people who are not being charged or have no criminal past are having their property taken – just like Marco Silva.

In April of this year, Governor Pete Ricketts signed LB 1106 – a bill that eliminates the taking of private property without a criminal conviction. The monumental bill gained national media attention from news outlets such as Forbes and Esquire. Our state is now one of nine that has strict laws and regulations about how civil forfeiture can be conducted.   

The ACLU of Nebraska is proud of this bill and that people like Marco Silva will no longer have to worry about their property being taken unfairly. This was a victory for our state and the rights of our people!


2016 is the 50th anniversary of the ACLU of Nebraska. We will feature several memories from our five decades of defending freedom in the Cornhusker state here. Do you have a favorite memory? Share it with us!