New Haven Independent

posted by: Frank Iezzi on June 15, 2007  9:41am

Melissa, you’re showing your bias. Just report the news without slanting it by calling Lou Dobbs an “immigrant basher”. He stands for legal immigration and is not anti Hispanic. If you don’t believe that, how about this fact. His wife is a Hispanic!

Since when is it wrong to uphold the rule of law? What else are you willing to overlook and ignore besides clearly written immigration policies? What other tenents of this society and constitutional guarantees are you liberals going to trample.. freedom of speech? Sorry, I forgot! That’s already here. See Don Imus about that one and ask him about double standards!

Try and look past your ideology and just report the facts. Your readers will add the color in their comments.

posted by: Peter G. on June 15, 2007  10:41am

Mr. Iezzi seem terribly upset about attacks on our rights and freedoms.  But if he’s on board with Lou Dobbs and the anti-immigant movement’s leaders, it is he who is actively helping to shred the Bill of Rights and destroy freedom in the United States.

In New Haven there is considerable evidence that the June 6 ICE raids were carried out in order to collectively punish the people of New Haven for the democratic vote to pass the City ID ordinance.  Moreover, there is evidence that the raids were carried out in a manner that violated the Constitution and ICE’s own policies and that individuals were targeted and arrested on the basis of racial profiling.  Only an independent investigation will show whether ICE’s excuse that this was a “routine” operation holds water.

In the meantime there is good reason to believe that an agency of the federal government conducted a law enforcement action in order to punish the people of New Haven for their political expression and for the democratic decision made by their city government.  If true, this is an egregious violation of the First Amendment.  Regardless of what a person thinks about the correct answer to the problem of immigration in the U.S., anyone concerned with protecting civil liberties would recognize this as a very serious situation in which it is vital that we learn the answer to the question: did ICE carry out raids in order to chill free speech?

Not only is the anti-immigrant movement completely unconcerned with this dangerous possibility, but its leaders and supporters have consistently published two outright lies in order to create a smokescreen to hide this attack on the Constitution.

One lie is that if people are undocumented they don’t have the right to free speech, so therefore ICE couldn’t have violated their First Amendment rights.  This is doubly a lie, not only because the Constitution guarantees free speech to EVERYONE and not just citizens, but because ICE’s retaliation wasn’t just against the undocumented, it was against the democratically elected government of the City of New Haven, which passed the ordinance by a vote of 25 to 1.  The circumstances strongly indicate that ICE’s action was a deliberate attempt to chill free speech and lawful political action.

The second lie is that the City ID ordinance itself is illegal.  Ironically, no one in the federal government has said that it is or has indicated that there will be any effort to challenge the ordinance as a violation of federal immigration law.  But that doesn’t stop “experts” such as Lou Dobbs from lying to the public.

There must be an independent investigation of the June 6 raids, in which ICE is critically examined about how and why and when the raids were planned.  So long as that doesn’t happen, we are leaving unchallenged a blatant abuse of government power and a serious threat to the Constitution.  It is further evidence of how utterly blinded by racism and bigotry the anti-immigrant movement is, that it fails to see that its propaganda is creating a cover for an operation designed to subvert one of our most precious freedoms.

posted by: Bernard Bate on June 15, 2007  11:53am

Note the civility with which Mayor DeStafano welcomed to his C-TV program Paul Streitz, the co-director of the anti-immigrant group, Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Control (which refers to recent immigration as ‘the ethnic cleansing of America’s middle class’). Contrast that civility with the treatment our Mayor received from the the anti-immigrant Lou Dobbs.  What does this tell us about those who stand for civilized enlightenment values—as New Haven has in the past two weeks—and those who fan the nativist flames of hatred?

posted by: nfjanette on June 15, 2007  1:00pm

Mr. Iezzi seem terribly upset about attacks on our rights and freedoms. But if he’s on board with Lou Dobbs and the anti-immigant movement’s leaders, it is he who is actively helping to shred the Bill of Rights and destroy freedom in the United States.

Ah, there’s nothing as good to chew on with my late morning tea than a tasty false liberal dichotomy.  And for dessert, it is followed by gross generalizations about the bounds of free speech including legal efforts to undermine federal law.  Delicious!

posted by: ctblogger on June 15, 2007  4:59pm

He [Dobbs] stands for legal immigration and is not anti Hispanic.

No, Dobbs stands for making up lies about the number of leprosy cases in the US and linking it to illegal immigration and attributing information from white supremacist organizations (as well as welcoming guest with ties to hate-groups) on his problem.

posted by: westvillecharlie on June 15, 2007  5:33pm

melissa, i tried to call mr. destefano’s tv show wednesday night, and the woman hung up on me.  she also hung up in mid sentence of a local restraunteer who was complaining about his workers not coming to work because they were scared (if you don’t believe me watch the re-air friday or wednesday at 7).  the man is manipulative and a phony.  his program is a farce

posted by: eli on June 15, 2007  5:41pm

if you watch the rerun of “in touch with mayor destefano”  you’ll notice the two callers who challanged the mayor were qickly dispatched to the netherworld.  it appears his “callers ” are plants.  and why is he even doing a t.v. show, in the 8 years i’ve lived in new haven, i’ve never seen him on television, save his commercials.  does the mayor feel a real threat to his office, or is he trying apoligize for neglecting new haven these last two years.  of course, he’s above actually apoligizing, or admiting mistakes (coliseum, schools, police, roads, “Q” bridge, you name it).
and, just like the oakies that appear on jerry springer, if you’re going to go on a show like that, don’t act so suprised.  did the mayor think he was going to win a prize or have lou dobbs stoke his ego?  if it sounds and looks like a buzzsaw, it’s a good chance it’s a buzzsaw.

posted by: Taxed To Death in NH on June 15, 2007  11:06pm

Peter G—The venom with which you write is quite useless. Calling people names and trashing their seriously held views is to say the least, unnecessary. And all that is before we begin to slice up your oft repeated and never supported arguments on behalf of illegal immigrants.

First, you say there is “considerable evidence” that ICE raids were efforts to chill political discourse and rataliate against the City of New Haven. No the mayor, or Matos, or Junta or the legal braintrust at Yale has provided one scrap of “evidence” supporting your statment. Not one. Can you provide a memo, a conversation, an affadavit supporting that allegation? I think not. Secondly, we need an investigation of ICE like we need another fix it report on the NH police department. Third, there are some legal opinions that say the City ID card that provides benefits primarily to illegals, is in fact, not legal. There are others who disagree. I’d like to see it argued and let a judge decide. All those with an opinion on it either way who are not lawyers don’t really count. Fourth, ICE did what ICE is paid to do—round up illegals and deport them both collateral and those who had been adjudicated. That’s a blatant intrusion by the federal government? I think not. They were doing their job. And finally…I find it completely dubious that this is a freedom of speech issue—that’s a tired argument. Nobody is trying to shut up the illegals or their advocates—they’re welcome to speak out but if they want to do it legally, it would carry a lot more weight. Until then, I believe I can hear them and their free speech from the other side of the border.