As a nationwide immigration debate returns to New Haven’s door, Mayor John DeStefano lambasted the federal raids on undocumented residents Wednesday as a “symbolic act of intimidation” against the city in the wake of an immigrant-friendly ID plan.
Speaking late Wednesday afternoon in New Haven’s historic Wooster Square park, in the heart of the Italian-American sector of town, DeStefano defended the city’s role as a sanctuary city for immigrants. He recounted why he believes federal raids were an act of retribution against the city.
The mayor and a crowd of community, religious and political leaders less than 12 hours after federal immigration agents swept through Fair Haven, raiding homes and arresting 29 allegedly illegal immigrants. The raids happened just 36 hours after the city passed a landmark municipal ID program.
“Because we spoke loud and clear for justice, we are under attack,” said Fair Haven Alderwoman Migdalia Castro, who on Monday joined alders in a 25 – 1 vote to approve the plan to offer identification cards to all residents, regardless of immigration status.
“If you think you will make an example of us, no — you’re wrong! We will make an example of you!” said local Pastor Emilio Hernandez, sending a message to the feds.
Federal officials maintain the raids were “routine” and had no connection to the ID plan, but declined to give information on when the last such raid took place —click here for a fuller explanation.
DeStefano, who’s taken the national spotlight as the immigration debate gets played out on local turf, rejected the claim by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office that the raids were a “routine” attempt to track down criminals.
ICE made no attempt to work in collaboration with local police, DeStefano charged: The city was notified of the raids by a phone call to the police headquarters on the general 911 line at 7:20 a.m., an hour and a half after the raids had begun.
ICE agents were working to serve 20 outstanding fugitive warrants on specific individuals, according to city officials. Instead of asking local police’s help to track down those individuals, ICE “terrorized” the neighborhood, DeStefano charged.
In one home on Atwater street, ICE entered with no warrants, searched all the rooms of the house, and rounded up four men and one woman some children, according to the mayor. “They separated the men and the women, and even had the children on the floor.”
The raids have left children without their fathers, and the Fair Haven community afraid to go outside, community leaders said. Arresting fathers in front of children, “they terrorized the children that were there,” said Kica Matos (pictured), City Hall’s point person for immigration policy.
In another home, a father and two children were detained until someone else came home, at which point the father was taken away. Since the mother could not be found, the two children remain parentless, DeStefano said.
In each of the raids, according to city officials, women who had children were left behind, and the men were taken away. Two women without children were also arrested and taken out of state, according to Matos.
“This was a symbolic act of law enforcement by an agency that is not able to control its mission or how it executes its responsibilities,” DeStefano charged.
In the process of attempting to serve 20 fugitive warrants, ICE served only 10 but picked up “an additional 20 to 30” allegedly undocumented residents whom they found along the way, DeStefano said. In total, through churches and community organizations, the city has identified 29 people arrested today from Fair Haven homes, a number confirmed by an ICE spokeswoman.
By not working with the police department to track down individuals, and by picking up other people along the way, the ICE showed the raids were not just an attempt to find certain criminals, but “an act of intimidation” on the city of New Haven in response to the ID plan, DeStefano charged.
“This has nothing to do with the information on the cards,” opined Bob Solomon of the Yale Law Clinic, which has offered to represent all detainees caught in the raids. “This is just an act of terrorism related to New Haven being a sanctuary city.”
Solomon decried the Bush administration’s crackdown: “A combination of power and loss of humanity is a very dangerous thing, and that is what we are seeing today.”
Meanwhile in Fair Haven, immigrants rights groups fanned the streets with flyers advising residents of their rights.
“There’s a lot of fear in the community, there’s a lot of anger, there’s a lot of hurt,” said Sarahi Almonte, the new head of JUNTA for Progressive Action, one of the city’s leading immigrant rights advocacy groups. She spent time walking up and down Grand Avenue reaching out to residents. “We told them to keep their doors closed,” she said. If a warrant is served, the person named should emerge and close the door behind them, she advised, so that other family members are not wrapped up in the raid. “Give your name and say you have a lawyer.”
Would the raids deter the city from issuing the ID card as planned on July 3?
“This is not going to stop us at all,” responded Matos. “If anything, we are going to be more determined to get this up and running by the targeted date.”