New Haven Independent

Posted by: Bill | December 12, 2008 7:26 AM

I commend ICE for trying to enforce the immigration laws. Too bad the mayor of New Haven doesn't have the balls to do it.

Posted by: JP | December 12, 2008 8:40 AM

I agree I don't see a problem with the government enforcing the law.

Posted by: 2nd Amendment | December 12, 2008 9:33 AM

At least my FEDERAL tax dollars are paying for something around here. Keep rounding 'em up.

Posted by: Alphonse Credenza | December 12, 2008 10:16 AM

Agreed. But where are they now? Why aren't they going after that list of ID holders?

Posted by: Streever | December 12, 2008 11:09 AM

Great story Paul, thanks for breaking this.

I don't think it's appropriate that the federal government enforce the law in a retaliatory way, no matter what that law is. New Haven has every legal right to institute an ID card program. I don't think the federal government should "punish" us for a progressive move. They could open a dialogue, look at national solutions, or do something else productive. Writing about each others balls in e-mails seems less productive.

I don't think the Fed has the right so sweep our city & target random people who appear to be immigrants.

If they just arrested those they had warrants/etc for I could understand, but to target anyone who looks hispanic, & commend each other on each other's balls, seems a little crass, inappropriate, & an overstep of power.

I'm proud that our City has stood by our FULLY LEGAL right to implement an ID card program.

The practice of illegal immigration does need a fix: but considering the cost and impracticality of rounding up everyone who is here illegally & transporting them safely to their nations of origin makes me think that it's not a law enforcement fix.

Posted by: Streever | December 12, 2008 11:10 AM

For those of you against the city on this:

Please explain how the ID card program is illegal.

Thanks.

Posted by: cedarhillresident | December 12, 2008 12:55 PM

JP
You know what I don't have a problem with goverment enforcing the law as much as the next guy....but after 14 million people made it into this country because they did not enforce it, to get in cheap labor for the daddy warbucks types and then this cheap labor start to open thier eyes and relize they to have human rights, we all of a sudden want to enforce the law!(law of convenience?) These guys (ICE) put guns to the heads of kids parents in front of the kids! These raids where not done for any other reason but to spite the mayor and the start of the ID card. This was not what ICE was formed for! I am glad that this is all happening. Talk is good! Events like this can at the least make positive change in the laws. DUDES that made comments here news flash.... we are not going to send 14 million people home! So complain all you want! This whole situation that happened to most of these poor people was not the american way!

Posted by: Streever | December 12, 2008 1:15 PM

I agree CHR!

14 million people aren't being mailed home.

Our federal government failed us. We can't arrest our way out of this problem, so let's find some solutions that can actually work.

If people are so afraid of the undocumented, let's document them.

Kudos to the mayor on HIS C.O. Jones. The Mayor has made a really smart long term choice here, and it's a bit lazy to look at this through black & white filters. It's a far more complex matter than single-issue people like Dustin Gold and his cronies would have you believe.

Posted by: anon | December 12, 2008 3:57 PM

No more evidence of a link has emerged with the latest FOI offerings as there was in the beginning -- DeStefano's claim that the coincidence in timing constituted retaliation.

What is going on here is an investigation of a possible link.

If you don't know the difference then you don't know how to think.

Posted by: City Hall Watch | December 12, 2008 5:33 PM

This whole discussion amuses me. You have the children at Yale without parental oversight floundering about looking for a conspiracy; you have the extreme lefties who embrace every tom, dick and harry who manages to walk across our borders regardless of legality unless one of them plants a bomb up their butt or takes their job, and then you have the histrionics of the mayor and his merry band of enablers and worshipers at City Hall who have so much time on their hands they can waste taxpayer's money by holding press conferences and marches. Put up a tent. We have a circus.

This isn't and never was about human rights. It's about politics. And balls. The mayor wants to pretend he has some, and the Feds, they drop trou to prove they're bigger. Period.

What would happen if the Feds just enforced the law, the students spent time studying and the mayor put real energy into running the city well? These other activities may be more fun, but they don't help us live better.

Posted by: BenjaminL | December 13, 2008 10:22 AM

Good for ICE! This should be a country of laws and not flagrant disregard for laws.

It's ridiculous that folks in the Philippines and Taiwan, for example, have to wait patiently for decades for a chance for a green card, while those from the Western Hemisphere feel entitled to stroll right over the border whenever they get tired of the rampant corruption and backwardness in their homelands.

Who knows, if the ICE continues its testicular fortitude, a constrained supply of low-skilled labor might actually contribute to raising wages at the low end. What a concept!

Posted by: Fedupwithliberals | December 14, 2008 6:35 AM

"Please explain how the ID card program is illegal."

STREEVER

An action that supports illegal behavior, or criminals, is illegal by definition. Sorta like harboring criminals. The city is engaging in harboring criminals. You remember what a criminal is, right, or should we explain that concept as well?

Posted by: David Streever | December 14, 2008 1:13 PM

FedUpWithLiberals,

it's just a "city resident card". It gives you access to a library. You can use it as a debit card. It's a useful tool for any resident of New Haven. It is a way to keep $$$ that is made in New Haven, in New Haven, and a way to keep our city-run libraries accessible to people who live in New Haven.

How does this abet an undocumented individual? Oh boy! They can use a library now! Oh boy! They can put money into an account & spend it!

I'm sorry, but I fail to see how any of the uses are illegal in any way, shape, or form.

If we go by your definition, public roads are illegal, because they allow undocumented individuals the ability to travel through our city.

I think you trapped yourself this time. Or are you dedicated to eradicating public roads? are you campaigning for that?

Posted by: cedarhillresident | December 14, 2008 1:33 PM

Fed up I agree that it can be viewed as an illegal act but...always a but :) A famous lady's words of wisdom about the american way may apply here...
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

Posted by: mike | December 14, 2008 1:58 PM

No ID are not illegal to issue, I think every
American citizen should have one. This would
eliminate profiling.

Yes it is illegal to enter the US at 3:AM
by walking across the border. No misdemeanor
nonsense, please.

The logical thing to do, is give all the illegal
aliens 3 yearns to register, after that if they
are caught they are deported.

They is a good start. After the 3 years no one will have any excuses.

Posted by: James | December 15, 2008 1:01 PM

Mike, that's very pretty. Is that a sonnet? No, no iambic pentameter or rhyming couplets... Maybe more like free verse. Either way, I think more people should express their opinions via poetry. Good on you!

Posted by: ned | December 15, 2008 6:26 PM

I wonder what Lorraine Henderson has to say about this?

Posted by: anon | December 17, 2008 1:31 PM

ICE guys can be major boneheads, so far that is what we have learned from the FOI releases on the raid.

Again, the link to retaliation is still a speculative assertion by Destefano based on the only evidence of a link we have to this day: the coincidence in timing.

Maybe Paul can dig deeper in the documents, maybe the FOI releases will give leads, and yale will keep working on it I suppose, but so far what do we really have?

I can think of far more compelling evidence in other cases in new haven right now.