http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-ct ... ines-local

Immigrant Arrests Put Community On Edge


By MARK SPENCER
Courant Staff Writer

April 26 2006

Carlos Martinez, an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador, was walking down Main Street in East Hartford in February when a friend stopped him.

"Your family has been arrested," his friend told him. "Don't go to your house."

"It's my family," he replied. "I'm going to go."

When he got to his apartment at 516 Burnside Ave., it was empty. His two brothers and a cousin were gone. Martinez, 38, said he has not seen them since that day.

Sources in the small, East Hartford Salvadoran community say at least six men were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents assisted by East Hartford police in January and February, unjustly accused of being members of Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, a violent gang with roots in El Salvador and Los Angeles that has spread across the United States.

Most local police departments say they have no interest in arresting illegal immigrants who have not committed crimes. Even in Danbury, when Mayor Mark Boughton last year tried unsuccessfully to have state police enforce immigration law, he said he didn't want his police doing it because it could discourage immigrants from cooperating in criminal investigations.

Immigration activists say the East Hartford arrests have disrupted the delicate process of building trust between police and immigrants. Immigration enforcement officials say they simply targeted a ruthless gang. East Hartford police say they have no intention of arresting immigrants who are otherwise law abiding.

But some immigrants in East Hartford now say they feel intimidated by local police after seeing people they describe as law abiding and hard working caught in a gang dragnet.

"We're all afraid the same thing might happen to us," said a relative of some of the men arrested, who did not want his name used for fear of being targeted by police.

The Connecticut Regional Coalition for Immigrants Rights has scheduled a press conference at 5 p.m. today at East Hartford Public Library to denounce the arrests. Marela Zacarias, a member of the coalition, said Salvadorans in East Hartford who were previously politically inactive have been emboldened by recent demonstrations around the country for immigrants' rights.

"We want them to stop racial profiling and the unwarranted arrest of immigrants in East Hartford," Zacarias said.

Of the six confirmed arrests, four of the men are awaiting deportation in detention centers in Massachusetts, where people arrested by ICE in Connecticut are often held. One was deported April 8 and another is being held in Connecticut on local charges, but will eventually be turned over to ICE.

"These six are either members or associates of MS-13," said Paula Grenier, an ICE public affairs officer in Boston.

Last year ICE launched Operation Community Shield, a national effort with local law enforcement to arrest, prosecute or deport MS-13 members. Since the operation was expanded to include other gangs, more than 2,388 members of 239 different gangs in at least 23 states had been arrested as of March, according to ICE. As of March, Grenier said, 10 arrests have been made in Connecticut under Operation Community Shield.

El Salvador Restaurant at 514 Burnside is a popular spot for local Salvadorans, occupying a storefront in one of the buildings where an apartment was raided. Owner Delmy Villanueva said she knew six of the men arrested and they all worked hard.

She said ICE and East Hartford police came to the restaurant asking about MS-13 and intimidated her workers. When she heard of the arrests, she called East Hartford police to tell them they had gotten the wrong people, she said.

She said she would report gang activity to the police if she saw it, but those arrested were not gang members.

"I think they should see the person first," Villanueva said. "Are they contributing to society? If someone is always getting arrested, yes, deport them."

Michael Boyle, an immigration attorney with offices in North Haven and Danbury, said local police often have a hard time dealing with an influx of immigrants.

"There are frequently problems that stem more from lack of understanding or nervousness with a new population than actually heavy crime on the ground," he said.

Although MS-13 is a rapidly growing gang nationally, it had not been reported in Connecticut until last year. At a 1-year-old's party in East Hartford in October, a melee broke out and about a half dozen people were stabbed or hit with broken beer bottles.

Police said witnesses reported that some of those involved in the fight belonged to gangs, including MS-13. Sources in the Salvadoran community say that was the genesis of what they describe as rumors of MS-13 being in town, although they say the fight was just a drunken brawl.

Officer Hugo Benettieri, spokesman for the East Hartford police, declined to comment on MS-13, saying the department does not discuss intelligence information. He said he believed ICE initiated the arrests earlier this year, although he said he was still trying to confirm that.

"We don't go out there looking for immigration violations," Benettieri said. "If they're just illegal immigrants, we have no interest in them unless they're involved in criminal activity."