Legal Commentary

ICE Agents Conduct Illegal Raids in New Haven

By TChris

Two days after the City of New Haven, Connecticut agreed to issue identification cards to all city residents regardless of their citizenship or documentation, federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted early morning raids of New Haven homes that resulted in the arrests of 32 undocumented residents. ICE denies accusations made by city officials that it intended the raids to send a retaliatory message about its disapproval of the city's issuance of identity cards to undocumented workers. Whatever motivated the raids, it was clear to an immigration judge who presided over the deportation hearings of four arrestees that ICE agents "flagrantly violated" their Fourth Amendment rights by entering the homes without a warrant, without probable cause, and without consent.

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[The immigrants] said in affidavits that agents barged into both homes after residents had opened their doors only a little. ... Witnesses alleged in court documents that parents were arrested in front of their frightened children, agents refused to identify themselves and told people in the homes to shut up.

The immigration judge terminated the deportation proceedings against the four immigrants. The immigrants benefited from the excellent representation provided by Yale Law School students, who in turn benefited from the kind of "hands-on" learning experience that law schools too rarely provide.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on June 09, 2009 (boomark / email).