Judge Says Police Had Right To Arrest Day Laborers
Tue, 02/05/2008 - 16:17 — Judicial Watch Blog

Rejecting the argument that a group of day laborers were racially profiled and that local police exceeded its authority making immigration arrests, a federal judge has refused to block the deportation of nine illegal immigrants arrested in Connecticut last year.

The men were nabbed during an undercover operation in which local police and federal immigration officers teamed up to target illegal aliens in Danbury last year. A total of 11 were arrested and two have already been deported to Central America.

Now an Ivy League professor and his students are defending the nine remaining men, arguing that they were racially profiled and that Danbury Police was not authorized to make immigration arrests. The goal is for the illegal aliens, some with criminal records, to remain free in the United States.

But federal immigration Judge Michael Straus did not buy the argument, ruling that the "Danbury Police Department initiated contact with the day laborers because there was significant concern regarding the danger they posed to themselves and others when they loitered and even ran into the road to solicit employment.â€