I've been following the events following this morning's ICE raids in Danbury. I'm hearing several conflicting stories on whether nor not all the individuals arrested were picked up on warrants as well as what role (if any) the Danbury P.D. had in the rounding up of the individuals.

I'm checking with a number of sources in the state and will update everyone at later. In the meanwhile, here's a comment from the News-Times that deserves attention (unlike the views of simple-minded buffoons as the infamous voiceofreason who's just as moronic in print as he is in person).

Take close not of the section in BOLD.

Posted by: StopHatinOthers Tue, May 08 2007
To be honest, this article doesn't provide much detail.

My first question is what were they picked up for? Was it for being here 'illegally' or were they suspected of committing a crime. If for a criminal warrant, why not have them arrested by the police? Once booked, if they were found to be here without proper documentation, they can be processed over to the Feds.

So I guess this begs the question. What is the purpose of these raids? To round up 'illegals' or to prosecute suspected criminals?

If they were meant purely as immigration raids, then they are entirely for show and won't solve the problem. Tensions will continue to rise and someone will have to deal with the aftermath once Boughton moves on.

If they were meant as criminal arrests for outstanding warrants, then why ICE? Why not arrest them, process them and move them to the Feds like usual? Again, ICE is deployed in a very contrived situation here. Hopefully someone will start asking some questions soon.

J_Whizzle,

Boughton is a central player in all this. He set the playing field for all this stuff to go down. His methods and politics are harming our community in ways he can't even understand because he's tone deaf. In the end, he will have solved nothing with respect to undocumented immigrants in Danbury and he will have created a great deal of division, hatred and animosity between residents for someone else to patch up.

Lets keep in mind that without Boughton's consent ICE wouldn't be using Danbury as a poster board for the 'lets pretend we're doing something about immigration' project. This way Boughton can throw his base some red meat and the White House can claim they are making progress toward enforcement.

These raids aren't happening in New Haven for a reason. That community has opted for other solutions and I hope we'll do the same come election time.

Now, just like I mentioned during the Danbury 11 case, all one needs to do whenever these raids take place is FOLLOW EACH INDIVIDUAL CASE AND WATCH WHAT HAPPENS. I'll bet the house that many of these individuals will be released and back in Danbury my June.

In fact, I challenge the News-Times to do more than report on these "raids" but do follow-up stories and show what really happens to these individuals and report on the case until conclusion. If the alternate media, such as Tribuna and Danbury's El Canillita, can do it, so can a major newspaper such as the News-Times.

You have a responsibility to report on the story, not just publish news flashes. How about doing a report on how effective (or ineffective) these raids are as well as comparing the amount of arrests by ICE in Danbury versus other cities which have a large amount of immigrants such as New haven or Stamford.

Since I've interviewed know both Mayor John DeStefano and Dan Malloy, I'll be more than happy to step up to the plate if your too busy reporting on such hard-hitting stories as "Bethel native out to steal heart of 'Bachelor.'"

UPDATE: From what I learned there were five warrant and ICE arrested five other individuals on alleged "immigration violations." All individuals are currently in Hartford which means they'll be on the move soon.

HatCityBLOG will follow these cases and report on how many people will actually be deported and how many people will be back in Danbury.

The names of those arrested are as follows:

Segundo Joiqua
Evenilson DeSosa Gomez
Manuel Castro
Manuel Minchala
Marcos Sosa
Jamie Sandoval
Carlos Gonzalez
Marcia Gonzalez
Nadson Ferrera