http://www.newstimeslive.com/story.php?id=1031581

Feb 16 2007 4:30 AM
Immigrant group plans forum
Rights coalition wants to put a stop to raids across the Northeast
By Elizabeth Putnam
THE NEWS-TIMES

DANBURY -- An immigrants' rights group that formed last year in response to the arrests of 11 Ecuadorean day laborers near Kennedy Park is holding a forum Feb. 25 to draw attention to what it says is illegal conduct against immigrants by the federal government.
Stop the Raids, a Danbury-based coalition of representatives from immigrant groups, churches and activist groups in the area, is holding the event at Western Connecticut State University with immigrant communities throughout the Northeast, said Jean Hislop, a Stop the Raids member.

"It's time these raids stop," Hislop said. "I think that the anti-immigrant groups are having forums all the time. It's a rare but powerful thing when immigrants and their supporters make their presence known. That's what we are going to do."

Speakers at the event will include Ana Avendano, associate general counsel and director of AFL-CIO's Immigrant Workers Program; two people arrested in December by federal agents in the Swift & Co. meat-packing plant raids that occurred in six states; and an attorney from the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund who represents immigrant groups in Hazelton, Pa., Riverside, N.J., and Mamaroneck, N.Y.

The group that includes members of the Danbury Area Coalition for the Rights of Immigrants and the Ecuadorian Civic Center of Danbury is expecting hundreds of people from New York and New Jersey and all over New England to attend the event.

"We are part of this movement -- a civil rights movement of our generation. Danbury is a community significant like those cities in the 1960s," Chris Towne, a Stop the Raids member, said.

Towne, also a member of the Danbury Peace Coalition, said he joined Stop the Raids because Danbury immigrants have been victims of illegal raids by U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement, most recently in September.

"What happened here cannot be tolerated," he said.

On Sept. 19, an undercover officer from the U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement who was disguised as a contractor arrested 11 day laborers at Kennedy Park on immigration violations.

The arrested men were Focilon Lliuspe, Juan Barrera, Isacc Maldononado, Carlos Simbanach, Rodolfo Cabrera, Jose Duma, Nicolas Sanchez, Daniel Chavez, Manuel Alvaraein, Jose Fernandez and Edgar Predrouan.

Since then, lawyers for the Jerome N. Frank Legal Service Organization at the Yale Law School legal clinic have agreed to defend seven of the day laborers for free. They are researching whether the roundup was unconstitutional.

In December, the lawyers filed a lawsuit with the Department of Homeland Security seeking documents that describe the roundup and the department's collaboration with Danbury police.

Rebecca Engel, a law student with the legal clinic, said Thursday that Homeland Security has not yet released any documents but has filed for two extensions for more time.

The law students also continue to research whether they will sue Danbury in connection with the raid, she said.

Engel said two of the 11 arrested day laborers opted for voluntary departure, and two others are being represented by other attorneys.

The remaining seven were released on bail, she said.