Courant.com
Judge properly stops deportation proceedings against four illegal aliens
July 11, 2009
When authorities enter a home to make an arrest, they are obliged to follow some basic legal procedures to avoid trampling fundamental rights. But that didn't happen often enough during Immigration and Customs Enforcement sweeps around New Haven two years ago.
We applaud the recent rulings by Immigration Judge Michael Straus decrying ICE agents' "egregious" violations of rights in the 2007 roundup.
Judge Straus is known as a tough judge, often sympathetic to government rationale for making arrests. But he was right to stop deportation hearings against four of the defendants who were not the targets of the ICE raids and for whom agents did not have proper warrants or probable cause for arrest.
The sweeps took place almost immediately after New Haven began giving out official ID cards to residents, and the timing appeared retaliatory.
Of the more than 30 people arrested over two days, agents had arrest warrants for only five. The agents had no search warrants for seven homes they entered, according to Michael Wishnie, the Yale law professor coordinating the defense.
One case is illustrative. Agents, with no search or arrest warrants, demanded to enter a home at 6:30 a.m. When a resident opened the door a crack, they swarmed in without his OK. They roughly handled a 10-year-old girl in the apartment and refused to answer questions. They didn't answer questions in court, either, refusing to submit to cross-examination.
Entering the country illegally is not to be condoned, but neither is ignoring the Constitution when entering homes and arresting people.
http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-ice-raids-new-haven.art.artjul11,0,7711678.story
