When immigration agents burst into the apartments of four illegal immigrants in New Haven three years ago, they violated the men’s rights, a judge ruled last year. ICE’s plans to deport them have been put on ice, so to speak.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents went into the four men's apartments without warrants, probable cause and without their consent, federal Judge Michael Straus ruled in June 2009.
The immigrants' rights were "egregiously violated," he said.
The agents' actions were not even "on the margin" of acceptable behavior, Straus said.
The four men were among about 30 people arrested by federal agents and charged with being in the country illegally during raids on June 6, 2007.
Anant Saraswat, one of two law student interns with the Jerome N. Frank Services Organization at the Yale Law School who worked on the cases, told the New Haven Register that the legal clinic has appealed 11 cases where Straus ruled the lawyers had not made a prima facie case that the individuals’ constitutional rights had been violated.
It's not clear whether the Department of Homeland Security will appeal the ruling.
