Thread: Immigrant’s detainment sparks outcry (updated)

Immigrant’s detainment sparks outcry

By Nicole Narea, Clinton Wang
Contributing Reporter and Staff Reporter
Friday, November 2, 2012

Juana Islas, a New Haven resident and undocumented Mexican immigrant, broke down in tears before a crowd gathered at City Hall Thursday evening as she recounted the story of how her brother Josemaria Islas may now face deportation after having just settled misdemeanor charges.

Josemaria Islas, who is currently in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, was arrested last July by the Hamden police investigating an attempted armed robbery. Though the victim identified Islas as the perpetrator, he was not convicted of any crime due to a lack of evidence, and instead he enrolled in a state rehabilitation program allowing individuals charged with non-serious crimes to have charges waived after a period of probation. But rather than releasing Islas to move forward with rehabilitation, judicial marshals continued to detain him in voluntary compliance with an ICE hold request, which may lead to his deportation. But immigrant rights advocates are criticizing the judicial marshals’ decision to honor the hold request — authorized under the federal Secure Communities program — because Gov. Dannel Malloy had previously promised in March not to comply with hold requests for non-violent offenders.

Secure Communities, which was implemented statewide Feb. 22, allows ICE officials to check police fingerprints of criminal suspects against ICE and FBI databases in an effort to deport criminals residing in the country illegally. When ICE officials believe a suspect may be undocumented, they can issue a detainment request asking the state to hold the individual in custody pending deportation proceedings. But the program has faced heated criticism from immigrant rights groups and members of the Latino community as unnecessarily targeting non-violent criminals and undermining community policing. In an effort to curb the program’s implementation, Malloy announced in March that Connecticut would only honor detainment requests for serious offenders who meet certain objective criteria, and given that Islas has not been convicted of a crime, his detention has incited further criticism of Secure Communities.

Advocacy groups rallied to protest Islas’ detention at a press conference that drew 17 people including members of the Islas family, advocacy group Unidad Latina en Acción (ULA), a City Hall representative and members of the Divinity School student organization, Seminarians for a Democratic Society. Prior to his arrest, Islas was a volunteer for ULA and an advocate for immigration rights.

ULA pressed Malloy to urge Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to dismiss Islas’ case and develop a clear policy to address Secure Communities detainment requests. ULA volunteer Megan Fountain ’07 said that Mike Lawlor, Connecticut’s undersecretary for criminal justice policy and planning, had betrayed his promise that Islas would not be transferred to ICE custody and demanded that the state “develop a much clearer position” on the enforcement of Secure Communities.

“There still is no cohesive or transparent standard of dealing with ICE hold requests,” Fountain said.

Lawlor, however, said Malloy is already a vocal critic of Secure Communities. Malloy ordered an investigation of the program in July and announced he would only honor detainment requests for serious offenders such as convicted criminals, gang members and suspected terrorists.

But Malloy’s executive policy does not apply to Islas, who was detained under a court order, Lawlor said. Though Malloy cannot overturn such a legal ruling, he has repeatedly pressured state judicial marshals not to comply with Secure Communities’ detainment requests for non-criminals, Lawlor added. Lawlor said Malloy has also urged advocacy groups to engage members of the judicial branch in a conversation about Secure Communities.

“We can’t compel the judicial branch to follow our policy,” Lawlor said. “We have encouraged advocacy groups to put pressure on the right people.”

Fountain said ULA had not reached out to judicial officials.

ULA organizer John Lugo said undocumented immigrants seek refuge in New Haven due to policies that limit questions about an individual’s immigration status during routine law enforcement interactions. City officials, including Mayor John DeStefano Jr., have denounced the Secure Communities program. Both DeStefano and Malloy said the program could breed mistrust between local immigrant communities and police. Under Secure Communities, they said, undocumented immigrants have come to view the local police as arms of federal deportation agencies and are consequently reluctant to turn to law enforcement when they are witnesses or victims of crime, fearing they will be deported.

“Secure Communities is a misguided and mishandled program that will make neither New Haven nor the State more secure,” City Hall spokeswoman Elizabeth Benton ’04 said. “The program runs counterproductive to the relationships our police department has worked hard to establish with immigrant communities.”

A Yale Law School study found that nearly 70 percent of people deported from ICE hold requests in Fairfield County were not convicted criminals, violent offenders or threats to public safety or national security.

Immigrant

I'm not sure what " judicial marshals" are but I'm glad they take the law seriously and do their job.

The Connecticut Judicial Marshals are Court Officers in the state of Connecticut. The Judicial Marshals are sworn peace officers but are not Connecticut POST Certified Police Officers. They perform prisoner transport and courthouse security.
The Connecticut Judicial Marshal System was created to replace the now defunct Connecticut County Sheriffs in 2000 and now performs all of the services that the county sheriffs departments carried out:

• Prisoner transport and processing
• Judicial security
• Bailiff
• Courthouse Security
• 24-hour prisoner lockup jails and cell blocks

Judicial Marshals are required to be biennially certified in the use of pepper spray, handcuffs, defensive batons, and CPR.

Connecticut Judicial Marshal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Boo hoo. Go back to your home country and enter the U.S. legally.

By Nicole Narea
Contributing Reporter
Friday, November 30, 2012
Yale Daily News


The detention of Josemaria Islas, an undocumented immigrant, sparked an outcry among immigrants’ rights groups. Photo by Jacob Geiger.

A federal immigration judge announced Thursday that Josemaria Islas, a local undocumented Mexican immigrant whose detention incited widespread controversy, will be released from the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after posting bond.

Islas, who was arrested by Hamden police in July, was detained at a Massachusetts jail earlier this month in voluntary compliance with an ICE hold request authorized under the federal Secure Communities program. Islas’ case sparked an outcry among immigrants’ rights groups and politicians including Gov. Dannel Malloy and Mayor John DeStefano Jr., all of whom decried the detention as an example of overly aggressive ICE policy. But on Thursday, a Hartford immigration judge announced Islas’ release on $4,000 bond, leading to celebration among a crowd of 35 supporters gathered outside the courthouse.

“Josemaria’s case is unfortunately just one of too many cases where individuals with little to no criminal history are subject to deportation,” DeStefano said in an email to the News, calling Secure Communities “counterproductive” to the relationships the police department has attempted to establish in immigrant communities.

ICE spokesman Ross Feinstein, however, countered that Islas has exhibited grounds for becoming “a priority for removal” as an undocumented immigrant who has repeatedly violated immigration law. He said Islas was been deported on four separate occasions in 2005, entering again without permission.

At the time of his arrest, Islas was charged with a misdemeanor of attempted armed robbery after the robbery victim identified him as the offender. But Islas was not convicted of any crime due to lack of evidence.

“Our priorities in New Haven, Conn., are the same as our priorities nationwide, which target illegal aliens based on our stated immigration enforcement priorities,” Feinstein said. “ICE has adopted clear priorities that call for the agency’s enforcement resources to be focused on the identification and removal of those that have broken criminal laws, recently crossed our border, repeatedly violated immigration law or are fugitives from immigration court.”

Secure Communities, which was implemented statewide Feb. 22, allows ICE officials to check police fingerprints of criminal suspects against ICE and FBI databases in an effort to deport criminals residing in the country illegally. When ICE officials believe a suspect may be undocumented, they can issue a detainment request asking the state to hold the individual in custody pending deportation proceedings. Such hold requests are not legally compulsory, and Gov. Dannel Malloy, a strong critic of the program, has repeatedly promised since March not to comply with those for non-violent offenders. Nevertheless, the program has garnered criticism for unnecessarily targeting nonviolent criminals and undermining community policing.

But while Islas is a nonviolent offender, Malloy cannot overturn the judicial branch’s decision to place him in ICE’s custody, as the state judiciary has a tradition of complying with all hold requests without discretion. But Judge Patrick Carroll, Connecticut’s deputy chief court administrator, announced in a Thursday release that the policy is under review. He said state judicial officials are working with members of the executive branch to “develop a uniform policy” to honor Secure Communities detainment requests for only violent offenders.

In an effort to put additional pressure on the judicial branch to amend its policies in a timely manner, Mike Lawlor, a top aide for Malloy, joined forces with local advocacy groups to denounce the Secure Communities program at Thursday’s press conference. Latrina Kelly-James of Junta for Progressive Action, a New Haven immigrant rights advocacy group, applauded Lawlor for his “continued support of immigration policy change” and said they are “unified as advocates.”

“Secure Communities puts state and local government in the middle of a no-win situation,” Lawlor said. “It couldn’t be any clearer that there is so much wrong with current immigration laws.”

Ana Maria Rivera of Junta for Progressive Action said she hopes that increased cooperation among branches of state government and the community will ensure that Islas’ incarceration marks the “last case of wrongful detainment we will see in Connecticut.”

Lawlor said the state cannot afford “the breakdown of trust” in immigrant communities if state and federal authorities are overly aggressive in targeting undocumented aliens for deportation.

Junta for Progressive Action estimates that approximately 10,000 to 15,000 undocumented Latino immigrants reside in New Haven.

Detained immigrant released | Yale Daily News