In the face of a federal lawsuit, Connecticut Democrats are doubling down on their efforts to limit immigration enforcement in the state.
On Sunday, April 12, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Gov. Ned Lamont, Attorney General William Tong, the City of New Haven and New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker, arguing that both the Trust Act and New Haven’s sanctuary policies, which regulate how local and state law enforcement can collaborate with immigration enforcement officers, violate the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. Two days later, in a party-line vote, the Connecticut Senate passed a bill that imposed even more regulations on immigration enforcement—including regulating federal agents themselves. Now the bill is scheduled to be discussed in the House of Representatives.
While DOJ officials allege that Connecticut is violating the U.S. Constitution with measures protecting certain illegal immigrants from deportation, Democrat leaders have the opposite view. At a press conference on Tuesday, Democratic leaders claimed that it was President Donald Trump and members of his administration who were violating Constitutional law, and argued that the proposed bill actually upholds the Constitution.
“You have two choices. Are you looking at what’s happening in Washington and saying, ‘Yes,’ to those excesses of murdering American citizens, taking people in this country, and sending them off to prisons outside this country? Are you talking about the rights of our residents here in this country by tracking their every move?” Sen. Bob Duff (D-Norwalk) said at the press conference. “Or are you going to stand up to the Constitution of the United States of America, and you’re going to stand up for the Constitution of the State of Connecticut?”
The bill, SB 397, or “An Act Concerning Democracy and Government Accountability,” contains a clause preventing peace officers, which include Immigration and Enforcement Officers (ICE), from operating in “protected areas” without a judicial warrant. Sensitive locations include schools, hospitals, playgrounds, medical facilities, state facilities, places of worship, and at ongoing demonstrations. These protected areas include surrounding grounds and can include nearby parking lots or garages.
There have been multiple arrests near courthouses in Connecticut since President Donald Trump took office. In June, Francis T. Malony High School graduate Kevin Rosero Moreno and his father were taken into ICE custody just days before his graduation ceremony while attending an immigration hearing in Hartford. And in January, a man who fled a car accident ran into the New Haven Courthouse on Elm Street and was apprehended by ICE in the building.
“This bill… is a bill that is designed to protect the residents in this state, whether they have legal status or they do not,” said Sen. Gary Winfield (D-New Haven) at Tuesday’s press conference. “A lot of this conversation is about criminals, that’s not what the issue is really about. The issue is really the people going about their lives day-to-day who you may see, who you don’t know what status they have… And they are doing largely what all of us do, living their lives and for some reason the federal government has chosen to operate in a way that has disrupted their lives and ours.”
There are laws in Connecticut, like the Trust Act and sanctuary policies in cities like New Haven, that can assist criminals in evading ICE detention. The proposed bill would impose further restrictions on ICE agents operating in the state.
For example, brothers Angel Macao and Luis Macao-Guaman are two illegal immigrants who are currently in custody in two Connecticut detention facilities for the Class C Felony of Risk of Injury to a Minor—Sexual. They were originally charged with a Class B Felony for allegedly sexually abusing a minor relative, but pleaded guilty and were convicted of lesser charges.
Had they been found guilty of their original charges, state law enforcement officers could work with federal immigration officers to deport them, because Connecticut’s Trust Act allows state officers to collaborate with immigration enforcement if a person is convicted of a Class A or B felony. Since they were only convicted of a Class C felony, they will remain in their respective detention facilities.
On average, it costs the Connecticut tax-payer $62,000 a year to house an inmate. They were each given 10-year sentences with five years’ suspended, meaning taxpayers may have to pay upwards of $600,000 to subsidize their prison stay.
Neither the Trust Act nor SB 397 prevents judges from obtaining a judicial warrant for the Macao brothers, or any other immigrant who has not been convicted of a Class A or B felony. However, it is illegal for judges or law enforcement to alert ICE when illegal immigrants are charged with or convicted of lesser crimes.
On Thursday, the bill was sent to the state’s House of Representatives and was added to the House calendar.
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