Documents: Feds Tried To Stop ID

Weeks before they raided Fair Haven to round up undoc- umented workers, the feds were working hard to stop New Haven from issuing immigrant-friendly ID cards.

That’s the story revealed in a newly released batch of internal emails among officials of the Connecticut U.S. Attorney’s Office and the federal Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) unit.

The story adds a new twist to a controversy sparked by ​“Operation Return to Sender,” the June 6, 2007, ICE raids that led to the arrests of 31 immigrants allegedly living in New Haven without legal permission.

City officials blasted the raids in part because they called them retaliatory: They accused the feds of rounding up immigrants in response to New Haven’s decision to issue the landmark ID cards, which offer people in town access to city services and secondary identification to open bank accounts. While available to all citizens, the cards were largely designed to incorporate New Haven’s growing immigrant community, including families here illegally, into civic life.

The raid took place two days after New Haven’s Board of Aldermen voted to approve the ID plan. It was the first ICE raid of its kind in New haven.

Federal officials defended the raids and adamantly denied that they had anything to do with the ID cards. Reached Friday, U.S. Attorney spokesman Tom Carson declined comment for this article.

The preoccupation with stopping the ID program was unmistakable in a review of the newly released batch of emails. Hundreds of pages of the documents were made available this week to two immigrants-rights groups on the heels of federal and state rulings in Freedom of Information Act cases. (Read Mary O’Leary’s Register story on those rulings here.) The two groups, Unidad Latino en Acción and Junta for Progressive Action, have sought information on the raids from state and federal agencies.

A question growing out of the released documents: How closely did the U.S. Attorney’s Office coordinate efforts against the card with ICE and the Department of Homeland Security? It’s clear here that well before the raids, officials from the agencies were in communication about efforts to stop the city from issuing the cards. But no document definitively states the the raids would take place because of the cards.

Much information remains missing. The hundreds of pages released this week include dozens of fully blacked-out pages and many more with partially redacted information. (In one case the government censors blacked out the last four digits of the mayor’s public phone number, which appears elsewhere in the files.) The pro-immigrant groups’ attorneys, from Yale Law School, are continuing to press for further releases.

Beginning on March 28, 2007, continuing to the days before and then immediately after the raids, the feds coordinated an effort to ​“discourage” Mayor John DeStefano from proceeding with the ID cards and making New Haven ​“a sanctuary city.” Officials sought to make DeStefano ​“understand the consequences of what he is doing” ​“earlier rather than later.”

The information visible in the partially redacted files ​“horrified” city Community Services Administrator Kica Matos (pictured at the top of this story), who designed the ID card program.

“They couldn’t find a legal way to stop this. So they brought in the strong arm of the law,” Matos said Friday.

She also noted that the files reveal that the feds from the outset classified 22 of those arrested as ​“non-fugitive aliens” with no criminal history. At the time of the raids, the feds had claimed they came to town to execute warrants on known criminals and fugitives. City officials and immigrants’ activists accused them of sweeping through Fair Haven, busting into the homes of sleeping families, and terrorizing children, all in a random act of opposition to the ID plan.

The feds have consistently denied that they launched the raids in retaliation to the ID card. In the newly released files, a top Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official called the charge ​“outrageous.”

The official, DHS Deputy Chief of Staff Adam Isles, was reacting to two critical letters about the raid which were sent to President Bush by two national Latino organizations.

“[T]he only thing that’s outrageous here is the accusation that the operation was retaliatory in nature (i.e. for New Haven’s ID card initiative),” Isles wrote.

“* First of all, the operation was apparently approved in early May, a month BEFORE the ID card initiative was blessed.

“* More importantly, while the ID card initiative was not the basis for ICE operation, nor should we tolerate the notion that it should serve as a shield from otherwise duly authorized Federal law enforcement operations.”

“Headaches In New Haven”

The newly released documents show that, while it’s true that ​“Operation Return to Sender” was indeed planned in April and approved in May, the feds had been strategizing about how to stop the pending ID card plan since at least late March.

“Peter, I just had a conversation [redacted],” Assistant U.S. Attorney Krishna Patel wrote on March 28, 2007, to Peter Jongbloed, chief of the criminal division of the Connecticut office. “[Redacted] has been talking to his headquarters about the fact that New Haven is becoming a sanctuary city. There are apparently two people who know a lot about sanctuary cities and [redacted] is getting in touch with one or both. [Redacted] suggested having one of the individuals come down and meet with us regarding these issues and then our office can decide what, if anything, needs to be done. I think it is a good idea. What do you think? The issues that have come up appear to be some of the ones that we have considered: 1) ID cards being used as identification cards for I‑9 forms and for opening up bank accounts; 2) whether the town can be exempt from I‑9 forms; and 3) what directives the New Haven police department will be given and whether it could impact our task forces. Thanks, Krishna.”

Jongbloed’s response: ​“Thank Krishna. We should meet as soon as possible. PSJ”

The U.S. Attorney’s put ICE Association Legal Adviser Paul E. Gleason in the loop of the subsequent email correspondence. Gleason wrote the following on May 11, 2007 (the recipients’ names were all redacted):

“Wanted to give you a heads-up. I just got off a conference call with [redacted] Peter Jongbloed and Krishna Patel regarding headaches in New Haven. [Redacted] is putting together a brief letter outlining some of the concerns with a ​‘city identification card’ and plans to forward it to OPLA [Office of the Principal Legal Advisor] and OCC [Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism] Boston for our review.
​“It was great seeing you in Boston, it is a terrific city.
​“Have a good weekend.
​“Paul.”

As copies of local media reports on the ID card proposal circulated to an ever-expanding cc list of federal officials, Patel wrote a May 21 email to colleagues entitled, ​“RE: New Haven proposes first ID card for undocumented immigrants.”

“[W]e need to work on getting our letter to the mayor earlier rather than later. I will talk to Peter J. about the possibility of releasing the letter so the Mayor understands the consequences of what he is doing. Krishna”

An official from the FBI​’s then-Court Street office (whose name was redacted) drafted a ​“rough letter” to DeStefano passed around to ICE and U.S. Attorney offices. ​“I know the USAO is looking for some guidance as what they can say to the mayor to discourage him from implementing this ID card program… This will be coming from the USA, no nexus to ICE.” An ICE official edited the talking points and sent them back to the U.S. attorneys.

Less than 48 hours before the June 6 raids commenced, a Hartford Courant article about the ID card plan made the email rounds. Jongbloed commented on the article in an email to a redacted list of recipients: ​“This article focuses the issue of the New Haven identification card and raises a number of concerns —(1) undocumented people (drug dealers, terrorists …) getting id cards in fictitious names and then using the cards to open up bank accounts and (2) the City acting as a bank issuing debit cards. Let’s keep chatting on this one.”

Later the same day, Yongbloed forwarded articles to a counselor to CHS chief Michael Chertoff. ​“Ms. Mandelker — thank you for returning my call yesterday on the municipal identification card issue here in New Haven. As promised, I’m forwarding you a few recent articles about it… As the articles make clear, the City expects to issue the cards to those unlawfully in this country.” Jongbloed forwarded this email to a redacted list of recipients and reported, ​“I’m trying to get DOJ geared up on this one. We’ll see.”

“Geraldo Is Running His Mouth”

As soon as the June 6 raid took place, emails began flying through ICE and the Justice Department about the outrage from critics.

“Geraldo is running his mouth and ripping us because … ​‘people are running scared in New Haven from the ICE agents who are busting down doors and ripping babies from their mothers. The government is terrorizing these poor people when they should be chasing terrorists and not the poor Jose Ramos’ of the world just trying to make a living,’” complained ICE​’s director of detention and removal operations, John Torres. ​“unreal.”

CNN​’s Lou Dobbs was more sympathetic, as a staffer alerted ICE to a critical piece on DeStefano allegedly ​“compromising” federal raids of immigrants.

Also, the emails show that the offices of U.S. Sens. Chris Dodd and Joe Lieberman and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro pressed officials immediately after the raids to answer Mayor DeStefano’s questions about the timing and other details. DHS officials scurried to respond and to decide whether DHS Chief Chertoff should call DeStefano himself. (At first a lower-level official called; Chertoff eventually did.)

Dodd wanted to speak personally with DHS​’s Chertoff.

Dodd ​“is adamant about making contact with the Secretary [Chertoff] this afternoon if at all possible,” DHS Senate liaison Lee Morris wrote to fellow DHS staffers on Friday, June 15. ​“I recommend the Secretary take the call. While remaining firm on immigration enforcement principles, he can take advantage of the opportunity to also address the larger immigration bill.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. Attorney’s Office continued to press DeStefano to change his mind on the ID cards. Two weeks after the raid, federal officials met with DeStefano and Matos. Neither side convinced the others. Peter Jongbloed reported on the meeting in a June 20 memo to ICE​’s Gleason.

“We … explained our national security concerns… The City officials explained that the ID cards were in response to a request by undocumented aliens to become party of the City or, in other words, a validation of the aliens’ presence,” Jongbloed reported in part. ​“From our discussion, it was clear that they did not appreciate the real problems created by their cards, such as the ability to get employment or get on a jet… It is clear that, unfortunately, the City has not sought, nor did it advisors provide, critical criticism of its plan…

“The meeting provided an opportunity to discuss the facts surrounding recent [immigration] arrests in the New Haven area. The City maintains it was in response to the ID card plan. We told them it was not, that those targeted had serious criminal records, and that it was a federal and state task force conducting one of many routine operations.”

With new information now out, and more possibly to come, that last point, at least, will remain open to debate.