Mayor DeStefano and Immigration Judge Michael W. Straus "protecting illegals"...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) June 9, 2009 -- Read this article and see for your self:

Judge halts deportation of 4, cites ICE conduct

By Mary E. O’Leary, Register Topics Editor

NEW HAVEN — Immigration Judge Michael W. Straus has terminated deportation proceedings against four city residents arrested in a 2007 raid because of the conduct of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

Straus found that the four men’s constitutional rights were “egregiously violated.”

Straus said in a recent ruling that ICE agents illegally entered the apartments of the four men “without a warrant, without probable cause and without consent,” a violation of their 4th and 5th amendments protections.

The judge found the actions of the agents, where they forcibly entered private homes and failed to demonstrate probable cause for arrest were not even “on the margin” of acceptable behavior.

Two of the men lived on one floor of a two-family house in Fair Haven, and the other two lived on another floor of the same building.

“They are all pretty happy,” said Anant Saraswat, of his clients, who continue to live in the area. “If the government doesn’t appeal, it is as if it (the arrests) never happened.”

In addition to ending removal proceedings, Straus suppressed any evidence gathered by ICE because the men’s constitutional protections to due process were violated and they never had a chance to cross-examine their accusers.

It was unclear Sunday night whether the Department of Homeland Security would appeal the ruling.

Saraswat is one of two law student interns with the Jerome N. Frank Services Organization at the Yale Law School who worked on the cases.

The four men were among 17 of the 30 residents arrested by ICE agencts June 6, 2007, in New Haven in an early-morning raid and charged with being in the country illegally.

Straus found the lawyers at the clinic substantiated a prima facie case for six of the individuals, a decision that shifted the burden of proof back to ICE. A prima facie case refers to showing a judge through essential facts that there is enough evidence for a case to exist.

“Case law dictates that the burden now falls on the Department of Homeland Security to produce evidence in support of its burden. The DHS has simply failed to do so,” Straus ruled.

In all six cases, ICE refused to send the arresting ICE agents to be cross-examined in Straus’s court in Hartford.

In the case of both households, Straus found the testimony of the four men to be credible and consistent with other witnesses.

In two cases, agents entered the bedrooms of two men without their consent. Also, for each household, the agents pushed their way in when a door was opened slightly, according to testimony in Straus’s ruling. The raids took place around 6:30 a.m.

With agents, who were armed, at both the front and back doors, the occupants did not feel they could leave, according to testimony. In all four cases, the agents only had warrants for men who did not live at the addresses where the raids took place.

In one of the households, a 10-year-girl witnessed the raid and her father testified “the female agent grabbed her roughly and took her into her bedroom.” The father said his daughter was “terrified.”

Straus said the fact that the raids targeted private residence was pertinent to his decision. “The touchstone of the Fourth Amendment is ‘reasonableness’ and, by natural extension, one’s reasonable expectation of privacy.”

In one of the cases, the judge said ICE agents continued to ask a man about his immigration status after he indicated he did not wish to respond. The questioning was in English, despite the need for translation by his young son. Straus spoke of the “risk of coercion” in such situations when exits from the home are blocked.

Saraswat said the legal clinic has appealed the 11 cases where Straus ruled the lawyers had not made a prima facie case that the individuals’ constitutional rights had been violated.

Now read the comments on this issue: Seems the media is having a problem reporting the "facts" surrounding this case. As evidenced by the True Americans Comments below:

Reader Comments
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of nhregister.com.


moby1 wrote on Jun 8, 2009 8:13 AM:

" Their rights were violated? What rights? They are here illegally stealing from the US citizen. They take our jobs, our social services that many LEGAL citizens need, they take our affordable housing, they drive without a license or insurance and when there is an accident the LEGAL citizen is left holding the bag. As soon as they cross the border they are a criminal because they are here ILLEGALLY. There is no disputing that point. I don't want to hear that they are trying to get a better life because if that is the case then they can follow the legal process. What kind of a better life is it always worrying about being sent home? "

AllCingEye wrote on Jun 8, 2009 8:56 AM:

" We are in big trouble as a nation when judges don't understand the constitution. The constitution is for American citizens not for people who violated our laws and came here illegally! This ignorant man needs to be removed from the bench, and be forced to go back to law school. What part of the word illegal to people not understand? We are all being discriminated against when these ignorant judges pick and choose what laws to enforce and what laws to ignore. Wake up American citizens before these illegals bankrupt us. I don't want to hear the responses of me being a racist or whatever because I am all for legal immigration, my grandfather came here legally after WWII. He couldn't speak the language and they said welcome to America and good luck. He and his family has to simulate into society without being coddled to where he didn't want to learn the language and become an American citizen. "

AllCingEye wrote on Jun 8, 2009 8:59 AM:

" correction " what part of the word illegal do people not understand" "

barterman1955 wrote on Jun 8, 2009 9:11 AM:

" this is just a small example of what's going to happen in the future.the reason that this is going on is that the longer they can keep the illegals here with bogus court rulings the longer they have to make them legal.it's an additional 20-25 million extra votes.start brushing up on your spanish because pretty soon it will be the first language.that's why they teach english as a second language,because it's going to be secondary. "

brucecrowder wrote on Jun 8, 2009 9:55 AM:

" Where does it say these immigrants are here illegally? Regardless, breaking a law doesn't throw all of your rights out the window. These agents should have simply done their jobs properly and there would be no issue. "

joe from pensacola fl wrote on Jun 8, 2009 10:01 AM:

" i concurr...what rights were violated?

since when do illegals have the same rights as citizens? i'm all for human rights as in not beating the crap out of them, but the agents should not have to get a warrant to arrest any illegal alien. "

Aquanett wrote on Jun 8, 2009 10:05 AM:

" Only in America! What perceived rights does an illegal alien possess? To begin with, they are in this country ILLEGALLY. That alone should be considered probable cause for search and seizure. The Constitution provides rights for CITIZENS, and these dirtbags are NOT citizens. Lets hurry up and seal our borders before all of the US is as bad as states like CA and AZ, which already practically resemble lawless, 3rd world countries. "

Steve wrote on Jun 8, 2009 10:09 AM:

" It is obvious that immigration judge Micheal Straus is totally incompetent and should be thrown off the bench. Illegal means illegal. Period! Illegals are criminals! It's these types of goofie rulings that hurts all of us. Obviously this judge is a mental retard! "

Kikbxr wrote on Jun 8, 2009 10:12 AM:

" It is true theses people are illegal. According to "our laws" They should be deported. If you want to change things, instead of griping to each other, you need to call your state federal representitives and complain to them.

Have you read the mexican constitution? It's a felony to be in that country illegally. It states that all illegals will be aggressivly hunted and then put in prison. It states that there will be no aid or other services to illegals. Maybe we should be taking a page from their playbook??
President Roosevelt said basically that if you want to live in this country. Learn our language and live by our rules. We live under one flag and one language. We are Americans we need to start acting like it. We have been so busy over the last 65 years worrying about what the rest of the world thought about us and trying to make everyone like us that we buried our dignity and traditions along the way. Just look at who got into the white house.

Change is coming to this country alright and it's not going to be pretty. They are taking our rights away slowly, they are trying to take our guns by trying to impose yearly taxes on owning them. They are trying to make it a felony to own ammunition if it doesn't have serial numbers on it. The plan is to strip us of our ability to keep and bear arms that way they can keep us compliant a lot easier wothout fear of us rising against them.
I say if we are going to fight and preserve our way of life, we need to do it soon before we have nothing to fight with except stcks and stones.

Read this whole article and comments at:http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2009/06/08/news/a3-neimmigration.txt

Would you like to make a comment: Write to "americans@usanot4sale.com"

More information can be found online at http://usanot4sale.com

americans     biased     constitution     illegal aliens     judge michael w. straus     Mayor Destefano     unfair justice