Lamont, lawmakers condemn ICE raids
Officials stand in solidarity with state’s immigrants
BRIDGEPORT — As the nation readies for immigration raid sin 10 cities this weekend, Connecticut politicians decried the sweeps and urged law enforcement and other agencies to limit cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
No raids are expected in Connecticut on Sunday. But U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Gov. Ned Lamont, Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz and Attorney General William Tong said the national raids — along with the Trump administration’s push for a citizenship question on the census, policies of family separation and migrant detainment and other policies — have instilled damaging fears in Connecticut’s immigrant communities.
“Mass deportations are the opposite of what America is all about,” said Lamont, speaking at a news conference at the Burroughs Community Center in Bridgeport on Friday.
Without naming President Donald Trump, Lamont condemned immigration rhetoric “in D.C.” likening it to “dog whistles.” He drew a parallel between Trump’s immigration rhetoric and his support for a “birther” conspiracy theory questioning the legitimacy of former President Barack Obama’s birth certificate.
Connecticut officials declared their solidarity with the state’s immigrants Friday. In 2016, approximately 120,000 unauthorized immigrants lived in Connecticut, a state with a population of 3.7 million people, the Pew Research Center estimated in a report this year.
The Lamont administration, Tong said, will issue guidance to state agencies and local police to follow the Trust Act, a state law updated in 2019, that outlines extremely narrow circumstances in which law enforcement can share information with ICE officials seeking to detain and deport immigrants.
At the end of May, state lawmakers approved changes to the 2013 Trust Act, including a provision that prohibits law enforcement from detaining someone based only on a civil immigration detainer, unless the person is guilty of a serious felony, is on the terrorist watch list or a judicial warrant has been issued. The new provisions do not take effect until October 1, but Rep. Steve Stafstrom, DBridgeport, a primary architect of the law, predicted the potential of municipal liability will cause local law enforcement to follow the measures now.
“Connecticut has always been a leader in standing up for immigrants. We were the first state in the nation to pass the Trust Act,” said Stafstrom. “If federal immigration authorities want to run around, they want to break up families, they want to put children in cages so be it, but you know what? Connecticut is not going to participated with that. It is not going to participate.”
ICE raids are expected on Sunday in New York, Chicago, Houston, and Los Angeles, according to media reports. The effort will target recently arrived migrant families who have received final removal orders from judges.
The operation is similar to ones conducted regularly since 2003, often producing hundreds of arrests. The raids Sunday are predicted to impact thousands of people in the country illegally.
Connecticut will also support efforts of nonprofits and union groups to provide legal aid to immigrants facing removal proceedings, Tong said.
At the federal level, Blumenthal introduced legislation Friday that would block immigration enforcement actions in courts, schools, police stations and worship locations with prior approval, codifying existing policy. The legislation is cosponsored by 14 other Democratic senators.
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Blumenthal compared the ICE sweeps to border agents removing migrant children from their parents after they cross the U.S. Southern Border illegally.
“It is a family separation policy across the nation, not just at the border,” Blumenthal said. “This administration has embarked on a policy of fear and cruelty to deter asylum seekers fleeing persecution from coming to this country, to deter, immigrants in this country from exercising their legal rights, to discourage families from giving their children the kinds of help and services they deserve.”
He will participate in a vigil outside ICE Regional Headquarters in Hartford Friday night, as well as vigils in Hamden and Westport, protesting the detention of migrants at the border. Twentyone such events are scheduled around the state Friday night, including in Bridgeport, Westport, Fairfield, Greenwich and Milford.
In 2018, immigration arrests and removal orders rose for the second year in a row across New England. Data released by ICE in December showed arrests up 2.6 percent and removal orders increased by 23.8 percent across the six New England states. The agency does not track state or city level data.
Over the past two de
“If federal immigration authorities want to run around, they want to break up families, they want to put children in cages so be it, but you know what? Connecticut is not going to participate with that. It is not going to participate.” Rep. Steve Stafstrom, DBridgeport
cades, more than 1,100 New Haven area residents were deported, according to data from researchers in 2017.
“There is no indication that New Haven will be targeted by potential ICE raids; regardless, New Haven policies remain unchanged regarding immigration,” said Mayor Toni Harp in a statement. “This city is not trained, equipped, nor interested in helping enforce inconsistent federal immigration standards.”
In Bridgeport, some ICE arrests outside the city’s Superior Court in 2018 troubled Bridgeport’s police chief, who said immigrants were already afraid to work with cops. The city passed a resolution in 2017 welcoming immigrants, but not declaring itself to be a “sanctuary city.”
“All of us as elected officials are concerned about how our immigrants might be treated and we are going to stand up for them on every front,” said Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim on Friday.
Officials and advocates worried about ICE raids driving immigrants into isolation. They shared stories of immigrant children avoiding school when news of family separations at the border broke. Edie Cassidy, who runs the Bridgeport youth soccer league, said participation has dropped 50 percent during the Trump administration.
“This ratchets up the level of fear among our clients to a very high degree,” said Claudia Connor, CEO of the Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants.
Connecticut politicians declared a small victory Friday after Trump conceded Thursday there will be no citizenship question on the 2020 census. It is widely predicted that question would decrease participation of Hispanic and Latino residents, causing the U.S. population to be undercounted.
The question was blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court. Connecticut and 17 other states sued to prevent the question from being added to census.
“We beat him,” said Tong, referring to the president. “If we stand together, as we are today, we will beat him again.”
But Trump on Thursday, also issued an executive order instructing the government to collect citizenship data from existing federal records and give it to the Census Bureau. The order is a reiteration of plans the Commerce Department announced last year, the New York Times reported.
Citizenship question or not, Bysiewicz, who has led statewide census participation outreach efforts, said in some ways, the damage has already been done.
“The stakes for the 2020 census are very high for Connecticut,” said Bysiewicz. “We are going to redouble our outreach efforts to ensure everyone in our state are counted, including those hard to count communities, which include Bridgeport.”