I've been closely monitoring the events surrounding the immigration raids in New Haven and it seems like the overflowing outrage from the Fair Haven community and Mayor John DeStefano made ICE blink, and I don't think Mayor Boughton is going to be happy with the results...

As another rally protested a federal sweep of local immigrants, a government official Tuesday announced a suspension of raids in the New Haven area.

The official, Bruce Chadbourne, field office director of New England Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office, told the Associated Press in this article he was “temporarily” calling off raids here.

However, he made clear he wasn’t apologizing or agreeing with complaints made Monday by New Haven’s mayor that last week’s sweep of between 29 and 33 undocumented workers (the numbers depend on which side of the controversy you ask) violated families’ civil rights as well as federal guidelines.

More sweeps in town had been expected on Tuesday, but none were known to have occurred. In the past few days City Hall has pressed its complaints to the federal government, claiming it the feds were retaliating against New Haven for its new immigrant-friendly municipal ID program. (The feds denied it.) Also, U.S. Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro and U.S. Sens. Chris Dodd and Joe Lieberman wrote the head of the Department of Homeland Security seeking information about the raids.

ICE spokeswoman Paula Grenier Tuesday declined to elaborate on Chadbourne’s published comments; she said he made them Monday and was unavailable for comment Tuesday.

She declined to say how long “temporary” means. She did say the suspension covers all of Connecticut. She said she knew of no raids taking place on Tuesday; there was a rumor of a raid in Milford.

[...]

At a Tuesday afternoon protest outside City Hall, some 100 activists denounced the raids again. They were joined by singer Lila Downs (pictured), who was in town to perform Tuesday night at the Arts & Ideas festival.

“My community is not a terrorist community. It is a hard-working community to seeks to take care of itself,” declared Sarahi Almonte. She runs Junta for Progressive Action, a group at the center, along with Unidad Latina en Acción, of immigration-reform efforts and support for targeted immigrants.

[...]

Speakers at the rally announced that a “Stop the Raids” march will begin Saturday at Grand Avenue and Front Street at 3 a.m. Activists from the Federation of Hospital and University Employees (at Yale and Yale-New Haven) were out in force Tuesday and planned to participate in Saturday’s march. Yale union organizer Barbara Vereen (pictured) noted that Yale tried to induce immigrants to cross picket lines during a 2003 strike in order to fill strikers’ jobs. The immigrants refused. “We’re going to stand by the same immigrants that stood by us,” Vereen said.

I know John DeStefano as I followed him throughout his 2006 gubernatorial campaign and had the pleasure of interviewing him on more than one occasion and let's just say that he's one tough politician who was really pissed off over the way ICE handled their raids in his city last week.

Unlike in present Danbury where the mayor and his cronies embrace the likes of Elise Marciano and her whack-pack, DeStefano and his administration calling the anti-immigrant groups what they really are (racists) and the branches of the Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Control were rendered irrelevant in a matter of days. To witness the community come out in force and rip the disciples of Paul Streitz to shreds was simply amazing.

The outpouring of support from the community, along with the support of City Hall, Congressmen, senators, presidential nominees, and the tremendous amount of attention the entire situation received in the national media really made a significant impact on the public and brought attention to a situation that many in Danbury and other parts of the country have been talking about for years...that the ICE raids are inhumane. From the feedback from bloggers across the country, the events in New Haven has really put a spotlight on the inhumanity of ICE raids and this is due in large part of a mayor who finally had the courage to stand up to ICE and say "enough is enough."

I have to congratulate my good friends at the New Haven Independent who have covered the situation in New Haven from day one. Melissa Bailey and Paul Bass deserve an award coverage in the entire matter. Trust me, we haven't heard the last of this story.