New Haven Mayor Pissed that Feds Followed his Immigration Enforcement Advice

On 6 June, Immigration and Customs Enforcement rounded up a number of illegal aliens living in New Haven, CT. This truly pissed off the Mayor, which in a normal city would be difficult to understand, since they were targeting illegal aliens who had criminal warrants issued against them. As it so happens in a city where one in ten residents is an illegal alien, they came across some that they were not looking for and they too were arrested. (Just like a policement would arrest a criminal he runs across, even if nobody reported it.) Normally, public officials are quick to compliment the actions of law enforcement. Not so the mayor of New Haven, CT.

ICE made no attempt to work in collaboration with local police, DeStefano charged: The city was notified of the raids by a phone call to the police headquarters on the general 911 line at 7:20 a.m., an hour and a half after the raids had begun.

ICE agents were working to serve 20 outstanding fugitive warrants on specific individuals, according to city officials. Instead of asking local police's help to track down those individuals, ICE "terrorized" the neighborhood, DeStefano charged. - New Haven Independent

The mayor sounds like he has a legitimate complaint, right. You would expect that the Feds work with the local authorities. However, perhaps the Feds read New Haven's document 'A City to Model' posted on the City's official website, which has as one of six proposals:

3. Developing a New Haven Police Department policy of non-enforcement of federal immigration laws.

While our national security matters to cities, certain matters are best handled by federal agencies. The U.S. Department of Justice is attempting to convince local authorities that they too, should be involved in enforcing immigration laws by, for example, loading immigrant records into the databases that police officers use. Yet cities nationwide are resisting this attempt to divert their law enforcement resources.

The New Haven Police Department should join this trend and develop a formal policy that will keep its officers focused on the mission of combating local crime and leave immigration enforcement to the federal government, which is best suited for such work. - Guide "A City to Model" (Six Proposals for Protecting Public Safety and Improving Relationships Between Immigrant Communities and the City of New Haven) posted on New Have Mayor's website (PDF Link)

The thinking of the Mayor and the illegal immigration group that created the guide is that the local police will not be trusted by the local illegal immigrant population if they arrest people for being in the country illegally, or even ask people about their immigration status. (In other words, they want to be sure that the illegal aliens have no reason to fear being arrested by the police.) This is seen as harmful to the community as it is believed that local illegals will not report crimes for fears of being arrested themselves. (Forget that they would not have been targets had they not come here illegally.)

The proposal for police to ignore a person's immigration status was turned into official policy by police executive order in December, 2006:

• Officers shall not make arrests based on administrative warrants for arrest or removal entered by ICE into the FBI’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database, including administrative immigration warrants for persons with outstanding removal, deportation or exclusion orders. Enforcement of the civil provisions of U.S. immigration law is the responsibility of federal immigration officials. - City of New Haven

One could simply dismiss this clown if he wasn't already mayor of a large city. That makes him dangerous, especially considering that this order above instructs the police to ignore arrest warrants issued by Immigration Authorities to detain known criminal illegal aliens. These are illegal aliens who have been involved in criminal activity after arriving here (as compared to the others who seem to think that entering the country illegally is not a crime.)

Is there any doubt why ICE did not warn New Haven officials about their plans? Now ICE most likely targeted New Haven as a result of its decision to issue illegal aliens resident cards. This was another of the proposals suggested by the local illegal immigrant rights group, JUNATA for Progressive Action, which has also been approved by the City. (To tell you the truth, it is hard to see where the Mayor's office ends and the rights group begins.)

Targeting New Haven for enforcement of immigration laws and rounding up illegal aliens makes sense. After all, New Haven is one place where the illegals are.

The mayor just figured that he could take advantage of past Federal inaction to act on his own, and then blame the Federal Government's inaction as the reason why he needed to act as he did. Unfortunately for him, they have now acted and he has clearly shown whose side he is on.

At least he can now claim that New Haven police are not involved in enforcing immigration law, as was his goal.

More info:
DeStefano: Feds "Terrorized" Fair Haven; Matos: This Won't Stop Us - New Haven Independent

John DeStefano linked to Mexico collaborators (CT governor race) - Lone Wacko