Thread: Agents arrest 11 day laborers Kennedy Park raid

http://www.newstimeslive.com/news/story.php?id=1015476

Agents arrest 11 day laborers
Illegal immigrants caught in Kennedy Park raid
By Karen Ali and Elizabeth Putnam
THE NEWS-TIMES


DANBURY -- Agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency arrested 11 illegal immigrants from Ecuador on Tuesday who were waiting for jobs near Kennedy Park.

ICE arrived in Danbury at about 6:30 a.m. and targeted the day laborers who wait in and around Kennedy Park for employers to pick them up. The area is a popular spot for immigrants, illegal and legal, who wait for contractors -- often looking for cheap and plentiful labor. At least 100 are there each weekday morning.

Danbury police said that after receiving numerous complaints from residents, police officers began warning the day laborers to stay out of the roadway and in Kennedy Park.

"The daily warnings which were given for a period of over two months were ignored and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency was called for assistance," said Police Capt. Robert Myles. Danbury police helped ICE with the sweep.

Maria-Cinta Lowe, executive director of the Hispanic Center of Greater Danbury, was upset over the news.

The Hispanic center is a community-based organization assisting the Latino population to enter and succeed in the social and economic mainstream of Danbury.

"You would think with all the horrible things happening, they (ICE) would pursue real criminals," Lowe said. "Their only crime is to want something better for their families. They're (ICE) supposed to be looking for terrorists."

The 11 Ecuadoreans were taken into custody, though Paula Grenier, an ICE spokeswoman, said she did not know exactly where they were taken.

The Ecuadoreans are expected to appear before an immigration judge, although Grenier said she wasn't sure when.

Police Chief Al Baker said the department stepped up patrols of the Kennedy Park area earlier this summer after receiving several complaints from drivers about day laborers darting out into traffic.

"We've had some ongoing concerns since mid-summer," Baker said. "I've personally seen it where a person jumps out to a truck they think is going to stop to hire them. There are some real safety and traffic issues there."

Police officers on bicycles usually begin watching the area around 6 a.m., and sometimes patrol cars monitor the area, too, he said.

The arrests occurred Tuesday for no particular reason other than scheduling between local police and immigration officials.

Baker said ICE decided to conduct the illegal immigrant sweep after speaking with him about the safety and traffic concerns.

Sweeps by federal immigration agents are not new to the city.

In June, federal immigration officials captured five illegal immigrants in Danbury as part of a nationwide sweep of former deportees who slipped back into the country. Re-entering the country illegally after being deported is a felony, and anyone who does so faces the possibility of federal prosecution and subsequent removal.

The five men were rounded up in Danbury the morning of June 8. They were held briefly at the Danbury Police Department before ICE agents took them for deportation.

In April, federal authorities and local police teamed up to capture a 24-year-old Brazilian man who was wanted for murder in his native country and was living in the U.S. illegally.

In March, ICE agents, along with state and New Fairfield police arrested three people and busted a brothel catering to illegal immigrants on Barnum Road in New Fairfield that investigators said could be tied to a human trafficking operation that smuggled women into the country and forced them to work as prostitutes.

Tuesday's sweep did not surprise Franklin Teña, president of the Ecuadorean Civic Center, but he was not aware Tuesday afternoon that a sweep occurred. "It's sad," Teña said.

All of the immigrants arrested were from Ecuador, and Teña said it's likely because many of the day laborers at Kennedy Park are Ecuadorian.

The exact number of Ecuadoreans living in Danbury is unknown, but it's probably in the thousands, according to the mayor's office. The number of all immigrants here illegally is largely unknown.

Estimates of the entire city's illegal immigrant population range from 10,000 to 20,000.

Mayor Mark Boughton, who left Tuesday night to attend a conference with U.S. and Brazilian officials on immigration in Sao Paulo, Brazil, has been outspoken about the impact of unchecked immigration on Danbury. He was informed about the sweep early Tuesday.

"This is a signal nationwide that the government is stepping up enforcement," he said Tuesday afternoon.

Boughton, a Republican in his third two-year term, co-founded the Mayors and County Executives for Immigration Reform, a lobbying group that wants secure borders, enforced immigration laws and reimbursement to communities throughout the country for the cost of playing host to so many undocumented people.

About 80 mayors and county executives attended a two-hour workshop in March in Washington, D.C., and have held two conference calls since then. The group's Web site, www.SupportReform.org, includes a petition for reform of the nation's immigration system.

"We will continue to press Congress for reform," Boughton said Tuesday.

http://www.newstimeslive.com/news/story.php?id=1015507

Sep 21 2006 4:00 AM
Immigrant leaders question arrests
Police chief tipped off feds about day laborers


By Elizabeth Putnam
THE NEWS-TIMES


DANBURY -- Leaders in the immigrant communities are questioning why police didn't come to them first with their concerns about day laborers at Kennedy Park instead of going to federal immigration agents and prompting 11 arrests.

"If they are having problems, why don't they call leaders and community organizations and have a meeting to pass this information down and find a solution?" Wilson Hernandez, founder of the Ecuadorian Civic Center in Danbury, said Wednesday.

Agents from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency arrested 11 illegal immigrants from Ecuador on Tuesday morning who were waiting at Kennedy Park in downtown Danbury hoping a contractor would hire them.

On most weekdays, about 100 day laborers stand near the area, and over the past few months, the police have received complaints from drivers that the day laborers have been darting out into traffic in the competition for jobs, causing safety and traffic concerns.

Police Chief Al Baker told federal immigration agents about these concerns, which led to the sweep.

"Usually, they are trying to get (an illegal immigrant) who is accused of another crime, but these people were just trying to get a job," Hernandez said.

Baker said that in hindsight, he would have called leaders of immigrant groups, but he also doesn't want "to get in the habit of contacting special-interest groups about traffic concerns."

Maria-Cinta Lowe, executive director of the Hispanic Center of Greater Danbury, said she has not been able to gather much information on who the 11 immigrants are or where they are now, but she doubts they are in America illegally.

"Do you think they would stand out in the open like that in a park? They would hide," she said.

The mother of one immigrant came to the Hispanic Center on Wednesday, looking for help. Her son had not come home Tuesday after she dropped him off at the park to look for work, Lowe said.

"I think ICE is wasting their time. They should work on issues that are really dangerous (to America)," Lowe said.

Paula Grenier, an ICE spokeswoman, said again Wednesday that she did not know where the Ecuadoreans were taken, but it likely was a state or county jail.

Grenier also said that ICE will not release the names of those in custody, and she can not divulge how ICE knew the 11 immigrants were in Danbury illegally.

"Agents monitor an area and talk to police officials and other sources before making arrests. A lot of it is training and experience, too," she said.

Cynthia Exner, an immigration lawyer in Danbury, said ICE legally doesn't have to release the names and current location of the immigrants, under the Patriot Act.

If an illegal immigrant has been in America for two years or more, then they will go before an immigration judge. Anyone who has been here less than two years will be deported without a hearing, Exner said.

Illegal immigrants picked up for violating immigration law are not assigned a public defender. If they want legal representation, then they must pay for it on their own, she said.

Few day laborers stood waiting for a job in Kennedy Park on Wednesday morning.

Baker, who jogs by the park almost every morning around 6 a.m., said Wednesday morning that only about 5 to 10 people were standing in the park Tuesday at that time.

Around 7:45 a.m. and 10 a.m., between 10 and 20 people were there.


Contact Elizabeth Putnam
at eputnam@newstimes.com

or at (203) 731-3411.