Ecuadoran is 1st to face deportation in wake of 2007 ICE raid in New Haven (New Haven Register)

Ecuadoran is 1st to face deportation in wake of 2007 ICE raid in New Haven

By Mary E. O’Leary
Register Topics Editor
Published: Thursday, December 02, 2010

NEW HAVEN — Washington Colala, 44, is facing his last weekend in the United States and leaving behind a 10-year-old daughter, unless immigration officials allow him to stay to see through a civil rights challenge to his deportation.

His attorneys at the Jerome Frank Legal Service Organization at the Yale Law School are appealing to John Morton, the director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to use his discretion to put off Colala’s removal Monday — at least until he can testify.

The appeal addresses both Colala’s specific situation and what the attorneys see is a general problem of ICE deporting individuals in the midst of civil rights claims involving warrantless search and seizure.

"ICE is moving to remove ... people out of the country as their credible civil rights claims are pending and thereby officials seek to avoid liability for potentially very serious constititional violations," said lawyer intern Mark Pedulla.

Colala, formerly a teacher in Ecuador, is an illegal immigrant who has been doing construction work in the U.S. for 15 years, sending money home to his wife and three other children.

He was one 32 people picked up over three days in early June 2007 by ICE agents, mainly in New Haven, and the first that ICE is deporting after removal procedures played out in his case.

Colala is also part of the civil rights case filed last year by 11 of the men picked up in Fair Haven without warrants on the first day of that raid; a constitutional challenge is before U.S. District Court Judge Stefan Underhill in Bridgeport.

Immigration Judge Michael Straus in Hartford has already ruled in the case of five of the immigrants arrested in 2007, including Colala’s housemate, that the actions of the ICE agents showed an "egregious" disregard for their constitutional rights, and he suppressed any evidence against them. Straus’ decision on the housemate was based on Colala’s testimony.

Straus failed to suppress the evidence against 10 others, but the Bureau of Immigration Appeals has returned seven of those cases to Straus, ruling he had acted in error, while three others are pending.

LatinoJustice PRLDEF and the National Council of La Raza are also sending letters to Morton challenging ICE’s actions.

"What other law enforcement agency has the power — to use the collegial term — to get rid of the evidence and to keep a legitimate civil rights issue from proceeding?" said Foster Maer, senior litigation counsel for LatinoJustice, formerly the Puerto Rican Defense and Education Foundation.

Ross Feinstein, spokesman for ICE in New England, did not return a call seeking comment.

Colala, who had left his home early on the morning of the June 6, 2007, raid, returned to retrieve something he had forgotten and testified that he was confronted by ICE agents, who without benefit of a warrant, forced him, at gunpoint, to open the door to his apartment. He said he was handcuffed and not told the men were ICE agents until they were there for half an hour.

"It was quite humiliating," Colala said Thursday, as his lawyers translated for him.

Unlike almost half of the 32 immigrants picked up — 29 in New Haven and three in North Haven — Colala did not use the law school lawyers to separately fight removal proceedings.

Rather than invoking constitutional challenges to the raid, his attorney pursued a more traditional appeal, called cancellation of removal, which allows some illegal immigrants with U.S. citizen children to stay.

Few, however, qualify under this rubric and a three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals said it did not have jurisdiction to overturn the ICE deportation order against Colala, although his lawyers are seeking a ruling from the full panel.

Since he got the ICE order Sept. 15, Colala said it has been "quite difficult both for me and also because it involves my family. ... They depend 100 percent on me."

As he waits out a fast closing legal limbo, Colala said, "It is a little bit like a time bomb. Each moment in each day is a little bit more desperate."

Law student Rebecca Scholtz said once Colala returns to Pastaza, Ecuador, he will not be able to participate effectively in the case long distance for lack of adequate telecommunications.

Colala wants the opportunity to be vindicated in the lawsuit, but even if the court finds his rights were violated, he will still be deported.

"It’s a classic legal technicality. Establishing a constitutional violation won’t cure an administrative finding," said Muneer Ahmad, clinical professor and supervisor at the law clinic.

Asked at a press conference Thursday why he wants to pursue the case, Colala said: "After an experience such as this, I felt the need to be a spokesperson for other people who have had their rights violated and felt the need to fight for my rights."

He praised the law school lawyers and the Rev. James Manship at St. Rosa Church for helping the immigrants.

Colala was asked how he would respond to those who feel he broke the law and is now paying for it. He said he came to make a better life for his children.

"What I feel ... is that immigration in this country doesn’t understand humanity, the human side of this issue. That they don’t analyze the situation and the problems of each person. It is almost like they didn’t have a family themselves," he said.