The federal government will pay $350,000 to a group of illegal immigrants and permit them to stay in the country pursuant to a settlement reached in a lawsuit they filed after they were arrested. The immigrants claimed the government violated their constitutional rights when federal agents raided a “Latino” neighborhood in New Haven, Conn., in 2007. Their reward for refusing to obey American laws is the largest settlement ever in a case involving an immigration raid.
The leftist legal team is celebrating their success in frustrating the enforcement of immigration law, but the settlement is no surprise given the Obama administration’s decision in August to consider amnesty for 300,000 illegals awaiting deportation.
The Case
The case began when agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement swept into the Fair Haven section of New Haven, which is predominantly “Latino,” news reports say. The agents arrested between 29 and 32 illegals, according to various accounts, on June 6, 2007, two days after New Haven approved its Elm City Resident Card. Any resident may obtain the card, which is used to help those without ID open bank accounts and conduct other business. Supposedly, they also help protect illegals from robbery and murder because they are afraid to cooperate with police for fear of deportation. For practical purposes, the card declares — with no federal authority — that illegal aliens are legal residents of the United States. The card cemented New Haven’s status as a sanctuary city for illegals.
After the arrests, the leftist legal team of lawyers and law students from Yale Law School’s Worker and Immmigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic immediately filed a retaliatory lawsuit against the federal government.
According to the Yale Daily News, the non-citizens claimed ICE violated their rights under the Constitution. “In a 64-page complaint, three Yale Law School faculty members and four law students representing the immigrants allege that local, state and federal ICE officials violated the Fourth, Fifth and 10th Amendments by planning and executing the raids,” the newspaper reported at the time.
The lawsuit names about 30 ICE officials and agents as defendants in total, from former Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for ICE Julie Myers to the about two dozen ICE agents who participated in the raids. The lawsuit seeks a jury trial, compensation from ICE officials for court expenses and damages, and an acknowledgment from the court that the raids were illegal.
The News and the New York Times told tales of terrified immigrants in chains and victimized by Gestapo-like tactics.
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