NJ-Judge refuses to dismiss suit on immigrant raids
Judge refuses to dismiss suit on immigrant raids
Saturday, May 16, 2009
BY ELIZABETH LLORENTE
NorthJersey.com
A decision by a federal judge in Newark allows a lawsuit to proceed in which the plaintiffs argue that warrantless raids on immigrants' homes by federal agents are unconstitutional.
In his written decision released this month, Judge Peter Sheridan denied a request for dismissal by immigration officials. He rejected several arguments by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including:
* That high-level officers of the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, were entitled to immunity.
* That the raids involved immigration issues and therefore complaints about constitutional rights by the plaintiffs, who are immigrants, are the jurisdiction of Immigration Court, not U.S. District Court in Newark.
Sheridan did concur with immigration officials' request that five of the 13 plaintiffs who were anonymous in the complaint should be either identified or dropped from the lawsuit, which was filed last year by the Seton Hall Law School Center for Social Justice and Roseland-based Lowenstein Sandler PC, on behalf of the immigrants.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs, who include undocumented immigrants, legal immigrants and naturalized citizens, praised the 43-page decision.
"This decision confirms that high-ranking government officials are not above the law even when called to account for actions against vulnerable immigrant populations," said Professor Baher Azmy of the Seton Hall Law School Center for Social Justice.
"We're eager to develop a connection between aggressive enforcement policies created by [a former DHS executive] and a system of wholesale constitutional violations that were happening on the ground all over the country," Azmy said.
"We do not believe this is the work of a few bad apples but that is a result of policy decisions made at high levels of government."
The plaintiffs' complaint contends that ICE has engaged in a pattern of pre-dawn raids at the homes of immigrants in which agents misrepresent themselves as local police to lull people into allowing them into their residences. The lawsuit, one of many around the country alleging that such raids often violate constitutional rights, said the practice arose from policies set by high-ranking DHS and ICE officials in Washington.
ICE public affairs officer Harold Ort said: "ICE will not comment on pending litigation."
E-mail: llorente@northjersey.com
http://www.northjersey.com/news/immigra ... 95782.html
Illegals have no rights in OUR country.
The judge did not stand up for our rule of law. Yet another traitor to the American people.
At first I read this too quickly and thought the Judge was actually helping the Amercan people. After reviewing more carefully I see that I misunderstood............perhaps it was wishful thinking on my part that the Judge would do the right thing for our citizens and country.
Sorry board people, I didn't mean to alarm you, I initially misundestood.
