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Immigration judge grants illegal aliens 4th, 5th amendment rights
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Yale Law School faculty and students convinced a federal immigration judge to grant constitutional rights to four illegal aliens last week ending a two-year legal squabble in Fair Haven, Conn. Immigration Judge Michael Straus ruled Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents went into the immigrants' homes without warrants, probable cause or their consent, and he put a stop to deportation proceedings against the four defendants.
The raid was just one of several carried out by ICE in June 2007 immediately following New Haven’s approval of a city I.D. plan aimed at helping undocumented workers open bank accounts.
In one decision the judge wrote, "…The agents failed to ask preliminary questions that might demonstrate probable cause or at least reasonable suspicion.” In another, Straus said the “scant evidence” presented by the government amounted to “unsubstantiated hearsay, and, at points, hearsay upon hearsay.”
The U.S. government claimed its agents had asked consent to enter, and followed appropriate procedures. The agents submitted their testimony by affidavit only. Government lawyers refused to call them to the stand or make them available for cross-examination.
Straus found a number of “evidentiary omissions” in the affidavits.
According to court records, 32 people were arrested in ICE raids around New Haven, Conn., in the early morning hours of June 6, 2007. Thirty were released on bond or supervision orders. Seventeen of those 30 immigrants challenged their arrests in court. Yale students represented 17 aliens.
Straus denied motions in 11 of the 17 cases, granted motions in four of them and reserved decision in the remaining two. Of the 11 cases in which motions were denied, one person was later granted asylum by the judge and the other 10 have appealed.
Federal authorities could appeal Straus’ ruling. He said the case can be appealed to the Board of Immigration Appeals, then to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York.
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