New Haven (CT) Mayor Questions Whether ICE Raid Related To ID Program

New Haven (CT) mayor John DeStefano questions whether an ICE raid in New Haven on June 6, 2007 was retaliation for how New Haven two days before (June 4) adopted an identification card program to offer cards without requiring proof of immigration status.

John Christoffersen of the Associated Press reported in an article "Critics: Immigration Raid Retaliatory" on January 27, 2008 that ICE has repeatedly denied that the timing of the raid had anything to do with the approval of the identification card program.

The Associated Press obtained an email showing that on June 5, ICE officers informed ICE director Julie Myers of the identification card approval and that a raid would draw substantial media coverage. Mayor DeStefano questions whether their concern about the New Haven ID program played a factor in going ahead with the New Haven raids. An article by Victor Zapana in the Yale Daily News on January 28 ("Email raises supspicion of immigration raids' timing") clarifies that Mayor DeStefano does not think the raids were retaliatory.

Yale Law professor Michael Wishnie notes that the email does not prove retaliation but it may cast doubt on ICE statements that the raid had nothing to do with the ID program. ICE spokesperson Paula Grenier told the AP that the email to Julie Myers was merely passing along information and unrelated to the raid's timing.

These developments raise important questions about whether ICE is conducting raids in a proper, unbiased manner. If there are reasons to suspect that ICE is acting improperly, immigration judges should hear evidence on the issue and force ICE to release documents to explain what really happened. Depending on what the judges find out, the immigration judges should then decide whether ICE may legally proceed with removal proceedings or whether to terminate the cases based on a finding of whether ICE acted improperly and illegally in conducting the raids.