Illegal Alien Sues, Saying NYPD Called in Feds...

Illegal Alien Sues, Saying NYPD Called in Feds


By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN
Staff Reporter of the Sun
March 31, 2008




An unlicensed cab driver will seek to show a federal jury this week that the police department is failing to abide by Mayor Bloomberg's pledge that the city won't alert immigration authorities to illegal aliens who otherwise obey the law.

The case of the cab driver, Waheed Saleh of Jenin in the West Bank, indicates that a New York City police lieutenant casually tipped off a federal immigration officer about Mr. Saleh's immigration status, court documents in the case show.

Mr. Saleh's civil trial against the lieutenant and another police officer is expected to begin tomorrow. It may be the first time that the city has been called to account in connection with Mr. Bloomberg's Executive Order 41. Issued in 2003, that order was intended to encourage illegal immigrants to seek out help from the police department and other agencies and allay fears that the city would turn their names over to federal immigration officials.

Court records show that police officers considered Mr. Saleh to be a troublemaker who could turn violent when confronted by the minor annoyances of big-city life, such as a dispute over a parking spot or the high price of cigarettes. In one instance, officers responded to a 911 call from a bodega employee who claimed Mr. Saleh threw a pack of cigarettes at him after a dispute over its price, according to court documents. In another instance, police officers broke up a fistfight between Mr. Saleh and another man over a parking spot, according to depositions. Police believed that Mr. Saleh, earlier in the fight, had tried to use his vehicle to ram a person standing in the street, the documents say.

Mr. Saleh maintains that the immigration tip-off was in retaliation for the repeated complaints he had made against the second police officer he is suing, Kishon Hickman, who policed the intersection of 231st Street and Broadway in the Bronx, where Mr. Saleh often sought fares for his cab. The complaints, which alleged general harassment but were never substantiated, were made to the Civilian Complaint Review Board, which investigates allegations of police misconduct.

Mr. Saleh's lawsuit claims that the retaliation he believes he faced in response to his complaints amounts to a violation of his First Amendment rights. Two acquaintances of Mr. Saleh have filed affidavits in court claiming that Officer Hickman told them to tell Mr. Saleh to drop his complaints or the police would cause him difficulties.

Depositions of police officers and federal immigration officials do indicate that police at the 50th precinct did try to get Mr. Saleh deported. When an agent with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Rodger Werner, was at the precinct house in late 2003 or early 2004 in search of someone other than Mr. Saleh, a police lieutenant, Kevin Nicholson, volunteered him with Mr. Saleh's name, Mr. Nicholson, who is now a captain, said in a deposition. And on December 20, 2004, Mr. Nicholson and other officers tipped off the federal agents that Mr. Saleh could be found at his usual intersection. Mr. Nicholson sat in a nearby car until the federal immigration agents had arrested Mr. Saleh.



http://www2.nysun.com/article/73898