Connecticut activists demand racist city official be punished

Connecticut NAACP leaders, members of the immigrant community and local residents are expressing outrage at the

Rev. Pitts demands Basso’s resignation, Oct. 9.

recent revelation that Danbury Common Council member Pauline Basso sent racist emails to a list of contacts. The numerous emails sent from April to August 2007 included racist attacks on African people, Latino immigrants and Muslims.

Rev. Ivan Pitts, president Danbury’s NAACP chapter, told an Oct. 9 press conference attended by over 100 community members that the emails are “offensive, hateful, racist, dehumanizing and promote unfounded fear.” Pitts called for Basso’s immediate resignation and for the council to reprimand her.

Another unidentified Common Council member, as well as Joel Urice, a member of the planning commission, also received the emails and passed them on to others.

Danbury, which is home to large populations of Brazilian and Ecuadorian immigrants, has regularly been the target of racist raids by federal immigration officers.

The revelation of Basso’s racist emails comes as the Common Council is also considering to further crack down on immigrants by deputizing Danbury police officers to act as immigration agents though the implementation of Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Basso and 13 other members of the 22-member council endorsed the plan in a letter to Mayor Mark Boughton.

Boughton has repeatedly attacked the immigrant community, while also founding an anti-immigrant group of mayors. Boughton and other racist politicians in Danbury have created an environment where groups with close ties to the Minutemen, including Connecticut Citizens for Immigration Control, feel emboldened to try to intimidate immigrants. 

As the council considered implementation of 287(g) on Oct. 2, dozens of immigrants and supporters, including ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) organizers, rallied outside City Hall. Protesters held signs that demanded “Stop the raids” and “Full rights for all immigrants.”

Boughton first proposed the implementation of 287(g) in 2005 and but it was shelved following numerous protests including a march of over 3,000 people.

Activists throughout Connecticut are demanding that Basso resign or be removed from her seat and are continuing the struggle against repression of the immigrant community.