a public defender

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The illegal immigrant hot-topic in Danbury seems to have died down over the last few months, but there is one newspaper in Danbury that isn’t stopping. A small Portuguese language newspaper in Danbury regularly uncovers stories in Danbury’s huge Brazilian community. According to the report,

It’s not the only newspaper serving the Brazilian community in Danbury but it’s the only one willing to expose Brazilians taking advantage Brazilians.

Tribuna has tackled subjects ranging from the sale of illegal drivers licenses, Green cards, and social security numbers to illegal housing.

The editor of Tribuna, Cecilia Bacelar explains:

"There are a lot of people selling dreams, fake dreams and those people who don’t understand about the law, don’t know about fake documents are buying those dreams," [she says]. "I’m making them aware there are people out there who are not there to help them."

Guess who is a frequent contributor. That’s right - the Mayor. The same Mayor that sought the help of State Police in weeding out illegal immigrants.

"Throughout history when you look at any new people who have arrived in this country there have been those people amongst the recent immigrants who seek to exploit there own and I think the one thing Celia does is blow the whistle on them and because of that it has put her in some difficult situations within the community," says Mayor Mark Boughton, (R) Danbury.

Obviously, all this report comes at a price - threatening letters and even attempts to injure the editors.

"We had an instance where we were delivering newspapers and they put a Molotov cocktail in the back of our van and luckily a passer by saw it was trying to catch on fire," says Emanuela.

And last March, there was a mysterious hit and run. Bacelar was struck and injured by a car with no head lights and no license plate. Police are still investigating.

The bottom line says Celia Bacelar and her daughter. There are no short cuts to become an American. There’s no shortcut to getting a driver’s license or legal Green card but as we discovered these things are on the market in Danbury. There are people making big money selling them and the immigrants buying them don’t always know they are buying documents not worth the paper they’re printed on.

While most of the the illegal immigrant debate has focused on the fact that these people are here, illegaly, it’s nice to see someone delving a little deeper and exploring the why and helping to spread understanding.