ACLU accuses probation officials of violating immigrants’ rights

Carolyn Hileman* | March 12, 2007

NEW HAVEN, Conn. –Immigrant rights advocates are accusing state probation officials of breaking the law by working with federal authorities to arrest illegal immigrants. The American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut and other advocacy groups call the practice a “shameful subversion” of the purpose of probation to rehabilitate. They say it makes it less likely that people who are not citizens will comply with or accept plea deals involving probation. “We think that it’s inhumane,” said Renee Redman, legal director of the ACLU of Connecticut. The ACLU and the Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic of Yale Law School sent a letter to state judicial officials Wednesday demanding that probation officers stop interrogating defendants on probation about their immigration status and facilitating arrests for immigration violations. They contend probation officers lack the authority to gather such information and that the practice violates due process rights and a state privacy law.The Voice

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