ICE ACCESS SIGNED

It's official. By the end of this month, Danbury will become the first city in Connecticut to sign a partnership

agreement with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) under chapter 287 (g) and send two police detectives for training in immigration law enforcement.

The process started back in 2007, culminating in a protest with thousands of people filling the streets surrounding City Hall the night of the Common Council vote to approve the partnership in February of 2008.The original Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), drafted by the ICE under the Bush administration, differs however, from the one the city will actually sign. Tribuna has compiled a side by side comparison of the main differences.

When signed, the MOA will remain in effect for three years unless terminated earlier by either party.

In an exclusive interview with Tribuna Newspaper on August 19, before the new MOA was released, Mayor Mark Boughton stressed that detectives - not patrol officers -- will be trained by ICE, saying, "Because criminal charges are the priority, these detectives will deal with the criminal element, as well as be trained to deal with the second component of the crime -- the legal status of the offender."

"For instance," explained Boughton, "Having a broken tail light is not a crime -- it is a minor offense. You have to have criminal grounds to pursue the charges and then deal with the immigration status."

However, according to Appendix D of the MOA, there are three categories of criminal aliens that should be "of interest" to the partnering agency, in this case, the Danbury Police Department, and the third level leaves plenty of room for minor offences.

The Standard Operating Procedure also emphasizes efficient management of resources and sets forth priorities for arrest and detention, with Level 1 as the highest:

•Level 1 - Aliens who have been convicted of or arrested for major drug offenses and/or violent offenses such as murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery, and kidnapping;

•Level 2 - Aliens who have been convicted of or arrested for minor drug offenses and/or mainly property offenses such as burglary, larceny, fraud, and money laundering; and

•Level 3 - Aliens who have been convicted of or arrested for other offenses.

"As I said to people all over the city, if you are breaking the law you should be worried, but if you are not, this program does not apply to you. The Obama administration fine-tuned the program and we feel comfortable to move forward with it," said Mayor Boughton in a phone interview.

After ICE notified the city that its 2008 application had been approved, there was widespread community interest in the agreement. A template MOA was posted on the City of Danbury website, and residents are able to leave their comments and questions.

"We received more questions than comments, and among the very few comments, some were just inappropriate, but all in all, about a dozen people expressed their concerns via the website," said Boughton

According to Police Chief Alan Baker, ICE wanted the agreement signed last week, "but we had promised the public to leave it open for comment until September 15," he said. "I anticipate signing it sometime towards the end of this week, [September 18]."

When asked about the three-tier prioritization of criminal aliens, the chief said he had no further details other than what was provided in the template MOA, and that overall, he feels the new MOA is a "much better fit for the entire community."

"I often receive complaints of people taking advantage of the immigrant community with false promises, false documents, threats and extortion," Baker said. "Hopefully, we can better address those crimes with the

program."At the end of August, more than 500 civil rights and immigrant advocate groups sent a letter to President Obama, urging him to cancel a program of cooperation on immigration enforcement between local and federal authorities.

They stated the program has led to racially motivated questioning, traffic stops and "unconstitutional searches and seizures primarily in communities of color." Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has praised the program as a "force multiplier" for federal immigration agents.

Now Danbury will officially become a community with such force, casting a wide net in the name of safety, in an ocean where nothing is really black and white. What remains to be seen is exactly what the catch will yield - the small fish or the big predators who continue to profit within a broken immigration system that washes a sea of immigrants into the shadows.