Thread: Illegal Immigration Crisis in Danbury

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Illegal Immigration Crisis in Danbury

(Danbury-WTNH, Nov. 3, 2005 11:10 PM) _ The City of Danbury has become a major battleground in the war over illegal immigration. It's estimated Danbury has any where from 10,000 to 20,000 new immigrants. And while immigrants have helped revitalize the city's downtown, the number of undocumented workers have also put a severe strain on city services.

by Team 8 Investigator Alan Cohn
It's up to the federal government to do with illegal immigration but it's local communities that have to deal its effects. Ground Zero in Connecticut without a doubt is Danbury.

These days Main Street in Danbury looks more like a main street you would find in a South American town. Thousands of the city's residents are from Brazil, Ecuador, and Mexico. Many of them are here illegally and many are here for the same reason.

"My country is poor there is not much work," says one immigrant.

Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton says he is "incredibly frustrated."

"We want to be reimbursed for the cost of hosting so many people who are not legal. There is a tremendous impact."

The problem, Boughton says, the sheer number of illegal immigrants is "putting incredible pressure" on city services, particularly its housing.

We went along with members of a city task force as they investigate cases of illegal and dangerous housing in Danbury.

"Is it fair to say this is a death trap?"
"Yes it is. This is terrible here," says Deputy Fire Marshal Jim Johnson. "Somebody can die here tonight. Basically firefighters would never know someone is in here.

"There is no electric in here so what they've done is run a cord from the other room through here and plugged into the mess up and over."

7 Main street. Zoned for four apartments. Inspectors find six, some with 8 or more illegal immigrants living in each apartment.

Manuel is a from Ecuador and works as a painter.

"How did you get into the country?"
"Though Mexico."

Some of the immigrants living here sleep in tiny crawl spaces with no windows and make-shift walls blocking escape routes. Most of the smoke detectors in the building don't work.

On the second floor we found another immigrant living on a porch. Deputy Fire Marshall Johnson confronted Nelson Coelho, the representative of the out-of-state landlord.

"A lady died in January of this year because of a guy sleeping on the porch like this and locked the door and she couldn't get out."

"Did you have any idea somebody was living in here," we asked.
"No," says Coelho. "In the house I knew someone was living in the house, but not in this little area."

In many cases it's not the landlord's fault, says Emanuela Lima, editor of the Brazilian newspaper Tribuna. She says middle men often rent the apartments then sublet them to immigrants who pay $300 a week.

"They are doing a business. What they do is rent out that apartment to 3, 5, 6, 8 different people who live in the household. And they are the ones who go to the landlord and pay rent. And now you have the city and landlords being deceived."

But it's the landlords who are being held responsible and fined by the city for code violations. The head of the taskforce wants immigrants to know the inspections are not a witch hunt to root out illegal immigrants.

"It's all about people being safe," says Sean Harrity from the City of Danbury. "Legal or illegal status to us doesn't have anything to do with this."

The taskforce doesn't only target illegal immigrants. It investigates all complaints of housing and fire code violations. And if you're wondering why taskforce members don't take illegal immigrants into custody, the answer is they have no authority to. It's up to federal authorities. In fact, in order to get illegal immigrants to cooperate during these inspections city officials make it clear they are not there to arrest them.

In Part Two airing Friday at 11, we'll go undercover to show you how illegal immigrants are getting driver's licenses and other documents like Social Security cards.

Sounds like if the landlord violates any kind of safety code, they should lose the property. That would solve the problem of cramming too many people in. If there's a consequence it'll stop.

If the person who rents brings in others & the landlord has no knowledge of it, I don't think the landlord should be responsible unless the landlord lives on the premises. But when he does find out, everybody should be put to the curb.