ICE Returns To Tweed, Makes Another Arrest

By Thomas Breen, New Haven Independent

NEW HAVEN, CT — For the second Friday in a row, federal immigration agents at Tweed New Haven Airport arrested someone who legally entered the U.S. years ago and who appears to have no criminal record.

Meanwhile, a newly unsealed document in a different federal court case offers new information about efforts by a 19-year-old Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU) student to secure his own freedom after being arrested by ICE at Tweed while traveling to visit his girlfriend.

That latest Tweed-ICE arrest took place on Friday, Sept. 11.

A federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested Ainara Andreina Calderon Pena, “an illegal alien from Ecuador,” at the Morris Cove regional airport.

The DHS spokesperson stated that Calderon Pena “legally entered the country through New York City, New York,” in August 2022. “She chose to overstay her welcome in violation of our nation’s laws. She will remain in ICE custody pending removal proceedings and will receive due process.”

ICE’s online detainee locator shows that, as of Monday morning, Calderon Pena is in ICE custody — though it does not say at which facility. State court records do not show any pending criminal cases or convictions associated with Calderon Pena.

Federal court records show that Calderon Pena has contested the legality of her arrest and detention by filing a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts.

Calderon Pena’s petition is currently sealed, meaning that the contents of the document are not visible to the public. Her case is scheduled to have a status conference before U.S. Judge Patti B. Sarris at 4 p.m. Monday.

Calderon Pena’s attorney in this case is Janne Reisch, who declined to provide a comment for this story.

Unsealed Court Filing: 19-Year-Old SCSU Student Was Flying To NC To Visit His Girlfriend, Has Pending Asylum Case

While Calderon Pena’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus remains sealed, a similar court document in another Tweed-ICE case is newly available to the public.

The detainee in that case, a SCSU basketball player named Deng Deng, was arrested by ICE at Tweed New Haven Airport on Sept. 4.

Deng and his New Haven-based attorney, Glenn Formica of The American Immigrant Legal Clinic, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus on Sept. 5 in which they seek to secure Deng’s freedom.

That petition was first filed, and sealed, in the U.S. District Court of Connecticut. Deng’s case has since been moved to the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts. As of Monday morning, Deng’s petition is now unsealed.

The petition states that Deng is a 19-year-old citizen of South Sudan. He “was lawfully admitted to the United States as a minor on an F-1 student visa” in order for him to attend high school in Virginia.

He has a pending application for asylum on file with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and holds a valid Employment Authorization Document issued by USCIS, according to the petition.

The petition states that Deng was boarding a flight to North Carolina to visit his girlfriend when he was detained by ICE. “A witness described the officers as ‘very aggressive.'”

According to ICE’s online detainee locator, Deng is still being held at the Wyatt Detention Facility in Rhode Island.

The petition challenges the lawfulness of Deng’s arrest and immediate detention. “It is not clearly known at this time whether ICE had an administrative warrant for his arrest prior to his detention.”

The petition states that the officer who seized Deng at Tweed “told him that he was ‘in violation of’ Temporary Protected Status — a status [Deng] has never held. [Deng] has only ever had a pending TPS applications, which has never been adjudicated. The stated basis for the arrest was therefore factually false and legally incoherent, and it evidences the absence of any individualized, particularized determination that [Deng] was removable or likely to escape before a warrant could be obtained.”

The legal filing also states that Deng “has no criminal history whatsoever. He has never been arrested, charged, or convicted of any offense, and has never had an interaction with law enforcement in the United States or in any foreign country.” And it states that his application for asylum is based on his “well-founded fear” of persecution if returned to South Sudan.

The petition claims that Deng’s ongoing detention violates his rights under the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment, the Fourth Amendment, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act.

“The seizure of the Petitioner in this case was part of an indiscriminate round of seizures of Connecticut residents and travelers, mothers and fathers waiting at bus stops while accompanying their children on the way to school, or driving on their way to work, waiting at locations to be picked up for their daily work, with a number of the seizures taking place right in front of the children who were being accompanied by parents to keep them safe,” the petition reads.

“Petitioner — a nineteen-year-old student with no criminal history, a lawful admission, a pending asylum application, and valid work authorization in his wallet — was seized while walking through an airport terminal. The irreparable harm of these unlawful arrests is immeasurable.”

David Wesling, the director of ICE’s Boston Field Office, is listed as the lead “respondent” in Deng’s petition, alongside ICE Acting Director David Venturella, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, and U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche. The federal government has not yet responded to Deng’s petition claims by the publication time of this article.

Ongoing Tweed Presence

Anne Watkins of the New Haven Immigrants Coalition told the Independent on Monday that ICE made arrests at the airport last Thursday and Friday. (ICE only confirmed one such arrest, that of Calderon Pena on Friday.)

“We know they have been given full access to the airport,” Watkins said. “We know that they are detaining people. … We know they’re parking at Tweed property.” (An Avports spokesperson previously told the Independent that the airport management company is required under federal law to provide access to qualifying government employees, including ICE agents.)

Watkins urged community members to call the New Haven Immigrants hotline number — at 854-666-4472, or 854-NO-MIGRA — if they see any ICE detentions in town, including at Tweed.

“We’re telling our people not to fly. This is not the time,” said John Lugo, the lead organizer with Unidad Latina en Accion. “Right now, it’s hunting grounds for us all the time. We cannot risk ourselves flying, using the airport.”

At the same time, he said, these recent ICE arrests at Tweed raise the question of what the City of New Haven is doing to protect people from ICE agents at the airport. “The same policy we passed for the courthouses, we think the same policies should be applied to the airports.”

In a separate phone interview Monday, Mayor Justin Elicker said that he had heard that ICE had arrested someone at Tweed on Friday, but he did not know who until this reporter called.

“It’s deeply disturbing,” he said. “What we’re seeing from ICE is that they’re arresting people who appear to have no criminal background, people that are part of the community.”

Elicker said that the city is still looking into the federal statute cited by Avports as requiring the company to provide ICE agents with authorized access to the airport.

“We’re making progress,” he said. “It’s not a rudimentary question. There’s a lot of complexity.” While the city technically owns the airport, the airport authority creates the policies that govern the airport’s operations — and the airport is also regulated under federal law. Elicker said that city officials have a meeting later on Monday with outside counsel to give their thoughts on the matter.

He also noted that Tweed’s airport authority has a board meeting scheduled for Wednesday. He said the city is “exploring a potential recommendation that the Tweed board update its demonstration policy to facilitate people being able to observe” and protest, without obstructing the airport’s operations.

The New Haven Independent is a not-for-profit public-interest daily news site founded in 2005.