Thread: CT-Immigrants and their advocates remain unconvinced about I

Immigrants and their advocates remain unconvinced about ICE partnership

New Times
By Dirk Perrefort
Staff Writer
08/15/2009 12:43:16 PM EDT

Immigrants, their advocates skeptical about partnership

DANBURY -- A partnership with local police and federal immigration agents is being touted by some as a tool investigators can use to address serious crimes such as money laundering and human trafficking.

Others, however, who remember federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in the city are worried the partnership could be used for large-scale roundups of illegal immigrants.

"We always said that we would use this program to address criminal activity within the illegal immigrant population," said Mayor Mark Boughton.

"While I can't condone people who have broken the law by coming to this country illegally, that's not the focus. This program is a tool we can use to make the community safer."

Federal officials have said the former agreement ICE used with partnering agencies was vague and allowed some to stray from the original purpose, but the agreement released this summer is more standardized and focuses on major crimes.

The new language in the agreement, however -- at least according to some -- is still vague enough to allow law enforcement agencies to use the partnership in ways other than how it was intended.

"I think there is a danger here of taking ICE at its word," said Ari Holtzblatt, a Yale Law School student representing the group of illegal immigrants who came to be known as the Danbury 11.

The group was arrested during a raid in the city in September 2006, when an undercover officer with the Danbury Police Department picked them up at Kennedy Park under the guise of needing help demolishing a fence.

Instead, the illegal immigrants were brought to a field where ICE agents were waiting.

The group filed a civil rights lawsuit, claiming the city engaged in racial profiling that targeted Latinos.

The lawsuit is pending.

Holtzblatt said several city officials, including the police chief and Boughton, may have to give depositions -- statements made under oath -- about the case in the next few months.

The law student said he is particularly concerned about vague language in the new agreement that could allow local police to turn almost any illegal immigrant over to federal authorities, regardless of the alleged crime.

One of the categories in the partnership agreement that identifies the crimes law enforcement officials should focus on includes the words "criminal aliens who have been convicted or arrested for other offenses," Holtzblatt said.

The language, he said, does nothing to stop officers from using arrests for minor offenses as an excuse to "engage in racial profiling" and check someone's immigrant status with the intent of turning him over to federal authorities.

"There is no real limitation to this," Holtzblatt said. "I'm disappointed that ICE would approve the application of a city that has a demonstrated track record of racial profiling."

When the Danbury 11 lawsuit was filed in September 2007, Boughton said the city was assisting a federal agency, and has assisted other federal agencies in the past, including the FBI, the DEA and the Secret Service.

"This was an ICE operation from the beginning," he said.

Immigration attorney Michael Boyle, who has offices in Danbury and New Haven, said he routinely gets calls from illegal immigrants who have been arrested on misdemeanor charges, such as breach of peace, who have been turned over to federal immigrant authorities.

"There's no question it still happens," he said.

Police Chief Al Baker said the department turns illegal immigrants over to ICE on a routine basis, but only in cases where there is an existing arrest warrant.

"Regardless of how we encounter someone, if there is an outstanding arrest warrant -- whether it's from ICE, the FBI or the state police -- we will honor that warrant," he said. "It's something we've always done."

Jose Pimentel, a community organizer, said some people are concerned about how the program will be implemented.

"Every time someone gets arrested for a major crime, the police call ICE," he said. "If you shoot someone or get caught with three kilos of cocaine, you're [already] getting deported. I think [this program] is just a scare tactic to get people to leave."

Pimentel added that many illegal immigrants have left the city, not only because of the threat of deportation, but because jobs in the construction industry dried up along with the housing market.

"The only ones still here are those who can't go back," he said. "They've been here for 10 or 15 years, have homes that they've purchased, and have kids that have grown up here. It's not as easy for them to just pick up and leave."

City officials and some members of the immigrant community note that if the partnership is used as promised -- targeting only serious crimes -- it could actually benefit illegal immigrants who were previously too afraid to talk to police.

"This is not for the purpose of rounding up individuals in mass immigration sweeps," said Common Council member Thomas Saadi. "This could actually help address criminals who prey on the illegal immigrant community."

Luis Bautista, president of the Ecuadorian Civic Center in Danbury, said employers who take advantage of illegal immigrants, or husbands who beat their wives, could now be reported if the victims aren't as worried about being deported themselves.

The criminals, he said, are the ones who should be worried, "and that's the way it should be."

Some people, however, remain unconvinced.

"Danbury has been conducting arrests of immigrants on minor charges for quite some time even without the [partnership]," said Jean Hislop, a member of the Danbury Alliance, an immigrant rights group. "I highly doubt they will curb their activities now."

"However, immigrant rights groups are closely monitoring how this proceeds and will be vigilant in observing whether this agreement, which we still object to, will follow the new regulations."

Contact Dirk Perrefort

at dperrefort@newstimes.com

or at 203-731-3358.

http://www.newstimes.com/danbury/ci_13124825?source=rss

So, why are they "skeptical" about any efforts to enforce immigration laws? If they are here illegally they have no special rights.

Immigrants and their advocates remain unconvinced about ICE partnership?

They must have meant:
Illegal Immigrants and their advocates remain unconvinced about ICE partnership

"While I can't condone people who have broken the law by coming to this country illegally, that's not the focus. This program is a tool we can use to make the community safer."

Wrong, Mayor Boughton. People who have broken the law by coming here illegally could also be running away from some major crime in their home countries, and even though they have not committed a crime in this country, what is their history, what is their identity.
As far as the sting on illegals picked up to break down a fence, don't start screaming racism! Were there any blacks or whites hanging at the same location looking for day jobs? I doubt it. And it is a statistical fact that the majority here illegally are Hispanic.