Junta for Progressive Action
Mary E. O’Leary , Register Topics Editor
An immigration-control group that made headlines in Danbury earlier this year is coming to Greater New Haven tonight, setting up an expected confrontation with advocates of the area’s undocumented workers from Central and South America.
Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Control has called a meeting for 6:30 p.m. at the American Legion hall at 337 Main St. in West Haven.
those ready to listen to the CTCIC. A similar counter-protest is expected tonight.
CTCIC sprung up earlier in the year to fight in-state tuition rates for immigrant children and then rallied in favor of deputizing state police to enforce federal immigration laws as requested by Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton.
Leonard C. Boyle, Connecticut’s public safety commissioner, ultimately recommended against deploying troopers in this capacity as a poor use of state resources.
Now the group wants business owners who hire undocumented workers to be arrested and says local and state police have the "inherent authority" to go after people who are out of legal status, under an opinion issued by the Justice Department in 2002.
That opinion was kept secret until a Freedom of Information request, which went up to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, made it public last month. It overturns two previous Justice Department opinions that separated enforcement of criminal and immigration laws.
Paul Streitz, a co-founder of CTCIC, in a press statement said, "If a few employers find themselves facing five years of imprisonment, massive fines and the confiscation of vehicles, they will quickly find legal workers."
New Haven is considering having the Police Department issue a general order stating that its officers will not act as immigration agents. It would basically codify what has been department policy for some time, said Assistant Chief Bryan Norwood.
"We’ve been operating like this for years," he said. "There is such a strong immigrant population in New Haven, that we have learned over the years that in order for them to trust us, we can’t actively ask immigration status when we are trying to do an investigation."
Many cities have taken similar stands across the country, and the International Association of Chiefs of Police has come out against a proposed federal law that would deny funds to local departments that did not enforce federal immigration laws.
"We have seen a lot of pushback from local agencies," said Omar Jadwat, a staff lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project.
He said the Justice Department’s opinion misconstrues decisions in which police assisted in federal criminal enforcement and extends that to the enforcement of civil laws.
Jadwat said the language is so broad that it could be used to force local departments to enforce tax, environmental and other federal administrative violations.
Elise Marciano, head of the Danbury chapter of the CTCIC, said immigrants are taking restaurant and construction jobs from Americans and driving down wages.
"Why does Danbury, Conn., need 15,000 uneducated, untrained laborers? I don’t understand it," she said of the estimated number of undocumented in that town.
Kica Matos, executive director of Junta for Progressive Action in New Haven, said she agrees with CTCIC that the immigration system needs reform.
"However, we do not believe that solutions are to be found in drumming up fears about ‘the other.’ It is that kind of fear that allowed the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and allowed segregation in this country," she said.
Mary E O’Leary can be reached at moleary@nhregister.com or 789-5731.