As the last honest man in Danbury continues his crusade to mislead the public about the opposition to his lastest political stunt, more media outlets aren't taking the bait and are hitting back hard.

Republican Mayor Boughton, one of the main proponents of the bill, said in an interview with the New York Times that “the intention is to target criminal aliens,” to stop document forgery and drug smuggling. The mayor and other council members insisted there would not be sweeps or roundups. However, members of Danbury’s immigrant population reacted with anger and fear, citing already high levels of police harassment and racial profiling in this city of 80,000 to 90,000 residents, more than a third of whom are foreign born.

In one instance, a social worker with American citizenship described being stopped three times in one month. “I can’t change the way I look; I’m short, I’m brown, and boy do I have a Brazilian accent!” she said. The police sniffed her car for drugs and asked if she knew what was going on in the alley behind a nearby pizza parlor (hatcityblog.com).

The passage of ICE ACCESS is only the latest in a series of repressive measures targeting immigrants in Danbury, whose number has burgeoned over the past decade. Like many small cities and suburbs across the US, once centers of manufacturing and trade, Danbury had seen its main street boarded up as factories closed and big box stores and malls replaced local tradesmen.

Downtown Danbury—once known as the “Hatting Capital of the World”—had become an economic wasteland in the 1980s. However, the tides of globalization flow two ways, and over the course of the 1990s immigrants were drawn to the area by low-paying service and construction jobs, as well as educational opportunities at Western Connecticut State University and proximity to New York City, less than an hour and a half away. According to the Hartford Courant, from 1990 to 2000 the city’s population grew by 14 percent, the largest growth of any city of comparable size in the state.

By 2006, Danbury had a greater proportion of foreign-born residents than any other city in Connecticut, a total of 34 percent, up 7 percent since 2000 alone, according to census data.

The city has a sizeable community from Brazil, as well as Connecticut’s largest population of people from Cambodia, the Dominican Republic and Ecuador, and the second largest population in the state from India. As a result, Main Street was revitalized with businesses and restaurants largely owned by and catering to the needs of the new immigrant community.

The Chamber of Commerce and City Hall have seized on this economic growth to attract additional investment, and boast of Danbury being “a multicultural, multi-industrial city united in purpose and bursting with energy and pride,” as Mayor Mark Boughton said in his annual State of the City address at the Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce annual award luncheon in 2005 (Fairfield County Business Journal, 26 December 2005).

However, as economic polarization between the town’s working people—immigrant and non-immigrant alike—and the town’s wealthier residents increases, Mayor Boughton has whipped up anti-immigrant sentiments to deflect social tensions. No newcomer himself, Boughton, age 43, traces his ancestry in Danbury back 300 years. He just won his fourth two-year term in office to become the city’s longest-serving Republican mayor.

Boughton’s anti-immigrant bias has been confirmed in his appearances on right-wing demagogue Lou Dobbs’ show on CNN. Rumored to have national political aspirations, Boughton campaigned on behalf of similarly pro-big business Mitt Romney for Republican Party presidential nominee until he dropped out of the race last week. He now supports McCain, though his stance on illegal immigration remains closer to Romney’s desire to ship all undocumented workers out of the US.

Boughton has also used “quality of life” legislation to intimidate and harass immigrant residents. Housing inspection teams have been sent out to find the telltale multiple satellite dishes or numerous cars in driveways indicating subdivided homes where dozens of mostly immigrant workers live in basements and attics.

A crackdown on backyard volleyball games, a favorite pastime of the Ecuadorian community, was undertaken in the summer of 2005 on the pretext that they were occasions for illegal activity. Already back in April 2005, the mayor tried to deputize police as federal immigration officers, but Leonard C. Boyle, commissioner of the State Department of Public Safety, denied his request, saying the city and state had other means of enforcement (New York Times, 2 August 2005).

Local residents are right to fear that the police will use the new deputization from the INS to hunt for illegal immigrants. In 2006, a police sting operation in the town park where day laborers wait for jobs picked up 11 illegal immigrants by offering them work, and then arrested them.

However, the turn to police intimidation and use of immigrants as scapegoats in Danbury is far from unique. An increasing number of immigrants live in the towns, small cities and suburbs in the United States that have been hardest hit by the recent economic downturn, not just traditional magnets like New York and Los Angeles. Isolated in ethnic enclaves, often with limited language skills and few resources or legal protection, immigrant workers are amongst the most exploited.

“I’ve seen young men who are 17 or 18 years old, and their family has sent them to help support their family in Ecuador,” Maria-Cinta Lowe, executive director of the Hispanic Center of Greater Danbury, told the Hartford Courant. “I’ve had people tell me, ‘I thought I would find heaven, and I found hell.’”

The Fairfield County Weekly isn't taking the bait either.

The terms "Main Street" and "immigrant business community" can be used somewhat synonymously in Danbury. While a few banks and insurance companies remain downtown, ethnic restaurants; exotic gift shops; media outlets specializing in foreign CDs and DVDs; travel agencies; and beauty salons, tax agencies and medical offices that have bi- or trilingual staff have carved a niche for themselves in the area that the Danbury Fair Mall dried up in the late-'80s.

"Ten years ago, this place was a ghost town," said an owner of a 30-year downtown staple who preferred not to be named. "They are upset because they worked for this, and fear it could be a ghost town again."

Mayor Mark Boughton says it's all one big misunderstanding. He has pointed out that in previous protests, many of those who have stood in front of City Hall have been activist kids bused in from area colleges. "That's fair in America," he told us, "but they don't show the sentiment of Danbury."

4,000+ people don't show the sentiment of Danbury? NOw, who's out of touch?

"If I got all the misinformation that comes from activists and is printed in a few biweekly newspapers, I'd be pretty upset too," says Boughton.

Oh trust me, I'm going to deal with this lie is a BIG, BIG way really, really soon.

He has "no idea" if people are leaving Danbury over this. And the "big economic issue is the [national] economy. We're at all time low in issuing building permits."

Boughton's Dec. 14 State of the City Address indicated a rosy economy, noting that "While the downturn in the residential real estate market has impacted many areas, Danbury continues to be a desirable place to raise a family. Our business community continues to enjoy a positive economic climate and a positive outlook."

"That was before the housing crash," Boughton says; foreclosures, he adds, have since increased in and around Danbury.

Don't worry, I'm going to deal with this lie also.

Moreover, he says, "If you tailor your business to a small segment of the population, it's going to be at risk. This is a chance for these businesses to expand and adapt and reach a broader audience."

A Elise Marciano talking-point, way to show your true colors Mark!

As for Tribuna's decision to drop its support: "They are under a lot of pressure from people who are against this; advertisers have dropped out because of it."

Categorically not true, says Lima. "We may have had one or two people who have stopped taking out ads because they can no longer afford to," she says. "We're doing this because most of our staff are immigrants, and because we know how hard it is to come here. We don't forget that."

Man, Boughton even lying about the Tribuna? Wow, talk about chopping off the hand that fed you...stunning.

As for the dishonest one claiming that the Community News spread lies and fear throughout the community, editor Breno da Mata knocks it out of the park.

"It's two police officers who will go after violent criminals," says Breno da Mata, editor of the Portugese-language Comunidade News. "That is my understanding, and that is what we've been reporting."

He added "I doubt Mark Boughton reads Portuguese so maybe someone mis-translated it for him, but I think this is a matter of politics...

"People are scared because they don't trust Mark Boughton," da Mata adds, "not because they read my newspaper or misunderstand what the police and city say."

And history has shown that one should not trust ONE WORD that comes out of this mayor's mouth:

• Numerous lies about the parade ordinance and lies about being serious in fixing the parade ordinance.

• Numerous misleading statements about being serious in fixing the sex offender ordinance.

• Getting along with the Democrats over 90 percent of the time.

• Taking credit for projects which were started under the previous administration while blaming the problems of the city on the previous administration.

• Claiming that the charter states that first 30 minutes of the Common Council meeting is for public speaking and that it can not be extended.

• Stating that he didn't want to shell out money for broadcasting meetings at City Hall because the cost (which rose every time he talked about it in the press) WHILE having no problem proposing a "doggie park" which would have cost taxpayers aprox 15,000.

• No idea about the Galante money.

• Not telling the whole story about the latest bond package inhis presentation to the land trust.

It's finally great to see that the media is catching on to what's really going on here and why they should always be critical when interviewing the mayor and I'm glad to have been of service.

...and if you think this is good, wait till you see the local access show that's in the works.