Immigration Judge Michael Straus has ruled that federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will be asked to take the stand to defend their actions during their 2007 raid in Fair Haven.
The decision was counted as a victory by the Yale lawyers who represent 17 of the immigrants arrested in the raid. The lawyers argue that ICE agents violated their clients’ constitutional rights during the raids and and that any evidence collected should therefore be suppressed. Lawyers for the government deny the claim.
For previous coverage of the hearings, see here, here, and here.
The judge’s ruling means that the Yale lawyers have successfully created a prima facie case for their clients. The burden of proof therefore shifts to the government, which now has to show that the ICE agents did not violate constitutional rights.
However, Judge Straus’ ruling applies to only six of the 17 respondents.
Jane Lewis, a Yale law student working on the case, said that 10 of other 11 respondents intend to appeal the judge’s decision. The final respondent, the only woman, is applying for asylum, claiming that she was a victim of domestic abuse in her native country.
Lewis said that four of the six defendants covered by the ruling lived at 200 Peck St. at the time of the raids. A fifth was picked up on the street while waiting to catch a bus. The other lived on Fillmore Street.
“There’s no sort of common thread I can identify with these six cases,” she said.
The judge has not yet issued a written opinion.
Lewis said that the six respondents were “very pleased” with the news and looking forward to hearing the ICE agents’ testimony. “They deserve to hear an explanation for what happened to them.”
Lewis also said that it was significant that Straus made this decision, since immigration judges “rarely, if ever … call immigration officers into court to testify.”