New Haven Independent

By unanimous vote at a hearing in Hartford, the FOIC ruled the state police had broken state FOI laws by refusing to release raid-related documents. Click here to read the FOIC decision released Thursday. (It’s a proposed decision, expected to receive final approval.)

The information request was first filed by JUNTA for Progressive Action and Unidad Latina en Acción, with the help of attorneys from the Yale Law School’s. Concerned that the raids had violated citizens’ civil rights, and had been unfair “retaliation” for the ID program, they sent an FOI request to the state and to federal immigration authorities. Only the state FOI request has been ruled on.

According to the decision, the state police must release all documents related to both the raids and to New Haven’s immigrant-friendly ID card program.

Some documents— such as the infamous “fun time!” emails, in which the feds invite state cops to “come play” and have a “fun time!” by hunting down and capturing immigrants — have already been released.

Others, such as a 10-page operations plan created by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, have been released in part — click here to read the plan, with redactions made in black marker. It gives a step-by-step layout of the raids, including a surveillance period to ascertain immigrants’ schedules and locations prior to making arrests.

The FOIC has ordered the black marker to be lifted, and the full plan revealed.

“The public has the right to know how they’re tax dollars are being spent,” said Simon Moshenberg of the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization, a Yale Law clinic.

More emails between the state cops and homeland security are expected to be released, according to Moshenberg.