Today, President-Elect Barack Obama's nominee for Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano will go through the confirmation process in DC.
Why is this important to Danbury...because of President-Elect and nominee to head DHS have a vastly different approach to immigration enforcement that the anti-immigrant community here in the city WON'T like.
President-Elect Obama and Napolitano are on record as someone who doesn't like the way ICE is enforcing policy. As well noted, in a speech to the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group, Obama has talked about communities being "terrorized by ICE immigration raids." As USA TODAY note, Napolitano has taken a much more moderate approach to immigration that has long irritated the anti-immigrant xenophobes.
Arizona's governor since 2003, Napolitano vetoed hot-button bills to require police enforcement of immigration laws and to bar illegal migrants from receiving state tuition aid and other education benefits.
[...]
Napolitano shuns ideological talk and expresses positions in terms of practicality. The bill last year to require police enforcement of immigration laws was widely opposed by immigrant advocates as punitive. Napolitano called it "simply an unnecessary, unfunded mandate to law enforcement."
That's not to say that Napolitano is against enforcement...but with the economy being the top concern among voters in the country (while the topic of immigration couldn't make the top five on list of concerns), the waste of time spent of by ICE will result to something even the mayor has off-handedly acknowledged...the anti-immigrant pipe dream of a 287g partnership in Danbury will NEVER become a reality.
You can watch Napolitano answer questions during her confirmation hearing live online by below (you can turn the feed off by clicking on the power button on the lower left hand of the video feed). NOTE: Although the hearing is over, you can still watch the video, which is set for a continuous loop.
UPDATE: The live feed is closed. I'll post the Youtube video footage of the hearings once it's available.
04.25.22 (RADIO): WSHU Latino group call on Connecticut lawmakers to open a Danbury charter school
06.03.22 (OP-ED): KUSHNER: "Career Academy ‘a great deal for Danbury"
On September 26, 2007, ten plaintiffs filed suit in response to an arrest of aday laborers at a public park in Danbury, Connecticut. Plaintiffs amended their complaint on November 26, 2007.
The amended complaint states that plaintiffs sought to remedy the continued discriminatory and unauthorized enforcement of federal immigration laws against the Latino residents of the City of Danbury by Danbury's mayor and its police department.
Plaintiffs allege that the arrests violated their Fourth Amendment rights and the Connecticut Constitution because defendants conducted the arrests without valid warrants, in the absence of exigent circumstances, and without probable cause to believe that plaintiffs were engaged in unlawful activity. In addition, plaintiffs allege that defendants improperly stopped, detained, investigated, searched and arrested plaintiffs. Plaintiffs also allege that defendants violated their Fourteenth Amendment rights when they intentionally targeted plaintiffs, and arrested and detained them on the basis of their race, ethnicity and perceived national origin. Plaintiffs raise First Amendment, Due Process and tort claims.
Plaintiffs request declaratory relief, damages and attorneys fees.
Today, President-Elect Barack Obama's nominee for Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano will go through the confirmation process in DC.
On September 26, 2007, ten plaintiffs filed suit in response to an arrest of aday laborers at a public park in Danbury, Connecticut. Plaintiffs amended their complaint on November 26, 2007.
