Posted on 09/27/2007 7:53:26 AM PDT by 3AngelaD
Danbury - Lawyers representing a group of day laborers swept up in an immigration raid last year...filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Danbury and federal officials. The suit alleges city police illegally conducted an undercover raid with federal ICE agents at Kennedy Park, arresting the men who have become known as the Danbury 11.
City police had no authority to enforce federal immigration law and relied on racial profiling rather than probable cause to randomly arrest immigrants at the downtown park early on Sept. 19, 2006, said Geri Greenspan, one of a group of Yale Law School professors and students representing the men...
In a press conference, Boughton said Danbury police provided logistical support to an ICE operation, complied with all laws and would continue to assist federal authorities when called on.
"Frankly, we are not going to be bullied by Yale or anybody else as it relates to the equal application and the neutral applications of the laws of the city of Danbury," he said.
Nine of the Danbury 11 are fighting deportation with an aggressive legal strategy developed by Yale's Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization. Two were voluntarily deported shortly after the raid and the others were detained for two to five weeks before being released on bail...another immigrant, who was picked up in what his lawyers call an illegal traffic stop in February in Danbury, also is a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
Several immigrant activists said a climate of fear now pervades the immigrant community in Danbury...
At an immigration court hearing on the issue in Hartford earlier this month, John Marley, a lawyer for ICE, accused the Yale lawyers of omitting crucial facts about how the raid took place, even accusing them of "fraud."...
(Excerpt) Read more at courant.com ...
“...climate of fear now pervades the immigrant community in Danbury...”
Why? If you’re here LEGALLY you have nothing to worry about. If you’re here ILLEGALLY? Cry me a river.
Hello?? Isn't it supposed to be that way when they are here illegally?
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