City ID opponents appeal FOI ruling
Monday, September 1, 2008 5:33 AM EDT
By Mary E. O’LearyRegister Topics Editor

NEW HAVEN — Opponents of the Elm City Municipal ID card have filed an appeal of a state ruling that allowed New Haven to keep information on the cardholders private.

The state’s Homeland Security chief, James Thomas, had ordered the city not to release the names, addresses and photos of the 6,000 cardholders because it could put them in harm’s way. Thomas also felt that disclosure would ultimately close down the program, which he said promoted cooperation among the city’s large illegal immigrant community with police.

The finding of FOI member Sherman London, who acted as the hearing officer in the case, that Thomas and the city had correctly interpreted that the records were exempt from disclosure, was upheld in a 3-1 July vote of the full commission, with Chairman Andrew O’Keefe dissenting.

The card is controversial because it is available to all city residents and is seen as a way of integrating illegal immigrants into the life of the city, while providing them with identification to open bank accounts, which a number of local banks now accept as a secondary ID.


Dustin Gold of the Community Watchdog Project, an anti-illegal immigrant group, and Christopher Powell, acting as an individual, filed the appeal to the FOI ruling Friday in Superior Court in New Britain.They are represented by former New Haven Corporation Counsel Patricia Cofrancesco and will be assisted by Michael Hephman of the national Immigration Reform Law Institute.

In the appeal, Gold and Powell argue that Thomas’s and the city’s interpretation illegally expanded the categories of exemption allowed under the FOI act.

They claim the FOI Commission “improperly delved into the motives of the plaintiffsâ€