Judge Delays Immigrant's Deportation

Ecuadorean Had Argued He Should Be Allowed To Stay While Pursuing A Lawsuit Against ICE
By MARK SPENCER
The Hartford Courant

7:55 p.m. EST, December 3, 2010

BRIDGEPORT — —
A federal judge has delayed by a week the deportation of an Ecuadorean immigrant who had been ordered to leave the country by Monday.

Washington Colala has argued that he should be able to stay in Connecticut at least temporarily while he pursues a federal civil rights lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that has ordered him deported.

Colala and 10 other immigrants involved in the lawsuit were among those arrested in ICE raids in New Haven in June 2007. They say ICE agents engaged in racial profiling and operated without search or arrest warrants.

Mark Pedulla, a Yale law school student with the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization, said Judge Stefan R. Underhill issued the stay Friday. Yale lawyers notified Underhill, who is hearing the civil rights case in federal court in Bridgeport, that they would file an emergency motion Monday to allow Colala to stay in the country for the duration of the case.

Pedulla said Underhill granted the week extension and scheduled oral arguments on Thursday.


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