I thought the Constitution protected the rights of U.S. citizens, legal immigrants – temporary and permanent. Not illegal immigrants.

Lawyers for 10 Latino men arrested in Danbury in the past year filed a civil rights lawsuit accusing city and federal officials of a plot to harass immigrants through illegal arrests and intimidation.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in New Haven, alleges authorities violated the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights to due process, equal protection, free speech, free association and freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures.

In my neck of the woods, I’d say, “Hispanic” of course. The whole East Coast “Latino” semantics jive makes my Hispanic neighbors giggle because – under the accepted urbane collegiate definition – I qualify as “Latino” since half my genes come from the Mediterranean.

Nine of the men were day laborers arrested in a sting operation on Sept. 19, 2006. They were waiting at a park and got into a vehicle driven by a man who they thought had hired them to demolish a fence, but who was actually an undercover Danbury police officer, according to the lawsuit.

When the men arrived at the purported work site, they were arrested and shipped to detention centers around the country. All nine are free on bond and their immigration cases are pending.

Essentially, the role of the Danbury PD was with – and on behalf of – ICE conducting federal arrests for illegal immigration. The 10th man arrested has already been deported.