U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement(ICE) dudes don’t seem to have a very high batting average when it comes to lawsuits by undocumented immigrants picked up in high-profile Connecticut deportation sweeps.
The latest ICE strikeout came in New Haven, where 11 men picked up in a series of raids in June 2007 announced a settlement of their suit for wrongful arrest, a deal that will cost federal taxpayers $350,000. The immigrants involved will also see an end to deportation actions against them.
Last year, a different group of immigrants who were arrested in Danbury in 2006 won a $250,000 federal settlement (plus $400,000 from the city of Danbury) for a different ICE-related action. In that case, the men were picked up by Danbury cops posing at contractors looking for day laborers, and the police then turned them over to federal officials.
The New Haven case involved the arrest of more than 29 people on June 6-7, 2007 by ICE agents. Those raids included instances where ICE entered immigrants’ homes without warrants.
Both the Danbury and New Haven immigration lawsuits were filed on behalf of the arrested men by students and lawyers from the Yale Law School-based Worker & Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic.
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