Plan would limit state’s cooperation with ICE

A divided Connecticut General Assembly took a major step Thursday toward restricting law enforcement and court officials from holding undocumented immigrants for federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement on a civil detainer.

The House of Representatives voted 79-61 for final passage of revisions to the Trust Act of 2013, taking a stand for the second time in six years on the side of protecting the due-process rights of the undocumented.

“The rationale for this law is simple,” said Rep. Steven Stafstrom, D-Bridgeport, co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee. “Everyone in this country is entitled to due process of law.”

At issue are the circumstances under which state law enforcement should honor a civil detainer, an order from immigration officials that has not been reviewed by a U.S. District Court judge or magistrate or a Connecticut Superior Court judge.

The Trust Act of 2013 required a judicial order to detain someone for ICE, with seven exceptions, such as an immigrant being deemed a threat to public safety, named on a terrorist watch list, convicted of a felony or facing pending criminal charges or a final deportation order.

The issue was a bipartisan one in 2013, when the policies of Democrat Barack Obama were in dispute. Not so in 2019, with Republican Donald Trump in the White House, immigration a wedge issue, and ICE under fire by the political left.

No Republican voted for the measure Thursday, as was the case when it passed the Senate on May 15.

Nothing was simple about the road to passage. To head off a GOP filibuster, Democrats agreed to revisions in the Senate bill, permitting law enforcement more discretion than in the original version. The revisions were made in a separate bill, an unusual step that saved the Senate from another debate on a measure that took eight hours to pass.

Instead of eliminating all seven exceptions, two now remain: Without a judicial order, state law enforcement and court officials still can detain any undocumented immigrant who is on a federal terrorist watch list or has been convicted of a major felony.

“This bill is still a major step forward from where we were in 2013,” said Carlos Moreno, the state director of the Working Families Organization, which lobbied for the bill. “It goes far in protecting undocumented immigrants.”