Thread: 3 arrested as immigration agents hit North Haven deli

3 arrested as immigration agents hit North Haven deli
Mary E. O'Leary, Register Topics Editor
06/12/2007

Agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement were back in Greater New Haven Monday, this time picking up three men who worked at a deli in North Haven.


A worker at Liuzzi Gourmet Delicatessen on State Street, who would not identify himself, said ICE agents showed up midmorning looking for a man who was not there. An ICE official said that three other men were then arrested at the store for being here illegally.


Also, New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr. Monday sent a letter to Michael Chertoff, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, complaining that the raids by ICE agents Wednesday in New Haven, with one in West Haven, where 32 people were arrested, violated constitutional protections.

The city's congressional delegation — Democratic Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, Independent Joseph I. Lieberman and U.S. Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro, D-New Haven — also wrote to Chertoff basically asking the same questions posed by DeStefano and if ICE contacted social service agencies to ensure the families left behind would be helped.

"We are asking the Office of Professional Conduct and the inspector general to look into this. We won't stand for the violation of constitutional rights and racial profiling in New Haven," DeStefano said, who requested a halt on future raids until Chertoff investigates the charges.

Bruce Chadbourne, field office director for ICE New England, denied any improprieties by ICE agents.

"As far as I know, during this operation, all agents conducted themselves in a very professional manner and went strictly by the book," Chadbourne said.

Based on affidavits taken from witnesses to last week's raids, DeStefano said ICE agents did not show warrants before entering the eight homes in New Haven and did not seek permission to enter, but rather pushed their way in.

DeStefano said the apartments were searched for identification and weapons without warrants, while the agents "did not show badges, shields, offer names or give any information to the victims and detainees about who they were or what their purpose was."

In several instances, the affidavits charge that the agents used racial profiling, once at Chick's Drive In in West Haven, where two Latino workers were asked to show identification. One was a citizen, while the other was here illegally and was arrested. Also, a Latino man walking on Trumbull Street in New Haven was detained and subsequently arrested.

A white witness to the Chick's arrest said, "When they came in, they did not ask all of us for ID. Why not ask me or my son, just because our skin is white? They only asked Rosa and Maria," she said.

Joseph "Chick" Celantano, owner of Chick's, declined to comment.

The affidavits described children, many of them U.S. citizens, being traumatized with several now suffering from insomnia and afraid to allow their parents out of their sight.

Chadbourne said ICE's policy is for agents to identify themselves as police or federal officers. "We ask for consent to enter any dwelling. We don't force our way in," Chadbourne said. "We go to specific targets and the information leads us to that address for a fugitive case."

Chadbourne also said they only had warrants for five of the people they picked up and "the others were illegally in the United States" or collateral arrests.

DeStefano feels the raid in New Haven, a rare event, was timed to intimidate the city, which just adopted a municipal identification plan for citizens and illegal aliens to help access city services and to help immigrants feel more comfortable approaching police. Chadbourne denied any knowledge of the ID plan and said the raid was planned "weeks in advance," but DeStefano said it was curious timing by ICE which has 600,000 warrants it can serve throughout the country.

He criticized the aribitrary nature of the arrests and asked "what possible good is coming out of this effort? It would seem that some are just hellbent on proving a point and in the process are terrorizing a part of our community." Michael Wishnie, a Yale University law professor who is coordinating a team of volunteer attorneys representing the people arrested, said they believe one of the warrants may have been served on the wrong man and they are working to sort that out.

Wishnie said most of the 32 arrested are being held at Wyatt, a private detention center outside Providence, R.I.; one woman is detained in Cumberland County Jail in Maine; two women are in Suffolk County Jail in Boston; two men are in Franklin County Jail in Greenfield, Mass. and there are two individuals they cannot locate and Homeland Security will not say where they are.

Chadbourne insisted 29 were arrested in New Haven and 32 targeted in the state last week.

Wishnie said three people have posted $15,000 bails and a fourth was in the process of posting bail, while there will be bond hearings for 18 of the group Thursday in Hartford federal court. A judge is being brought in from Virginia, because the sitting judge in immigration court had a medical emergency.

Wishnie said they are looking at a possible lawsuit, but the important thing first is reuniting those arrested with their families, if at all possible.

Junta for Progressive Action has set up a temporary food pantry to help the immigrants since the breadwinners for many of the families are in jail. Sarahi Almonte, director of Junta, said they have received calls from people afraid to leave their homes or to pick up their children at school.

DeStefano said ICE did admit violating its internal protocol by failing to notify the city police department prior to the raid.

Chadbourne said there were no more raids planned here in the near future,

"But we are going to continue, as mandated by Congress, to enforce the immigration laws of the United States. Anyone whose legal status is questionable in the United States has to be concerned," Chadbourne said.

http://www.nhregister.com/site/news.cfm ... 7514&rfi=6

"But we are going to continue, as mandated by Congress, to enforce the immigration laws of the United States. Anyone whose legal status is questionable in the United States has to be concerned," Chadbourne said.

What I wouldn't give to hear that repeated every day on the evening news for the next 6 months! Better yet, how about a new weekly TV series on roundups of illegals, drug runners, gang members, and sex slave rings? Maybe call it, "Putting 'em on ICE!" Move over America's Most Wanted!