An abandoned red Dodge Ram, broken glass and spattered blood were the remnants left on a busy street in downtown Norwalk last August after federal immigration agents arrested two brothers from Mexico.
During the arrest, agents broke a window on the truck and removed the driver from the vehicle. Eyewitness video shows police used a taser on the driver’s brother after he jumped out of the vehicle to run away, leaving him injured.
Norwalk police body camera footage obtained by Connecticut Public captures the confusing scene that Norwalk police officers encountered that morning.
The video clearly shows the officers were unaware of the arrest made by federal agents when they arrived at the scene.
“I don’t know what the hell's going on,” one officer said to the other. “This is going to make us look really bad. The chief has to put something out. These investigations have nothing to do with our local police officers.”
His colleague struggled to describe the situation.
“I didn’t know if I was supposed to put ICE over the radio, or federal agents over the radio," she said. "I didn't know what I was supposed to do.”
Video recordings show they quickly learned from witnesses that the operation took a violent turn.
Arrests like these have played out around the country amid the federal government's push to remove hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants, with aggressive enforcement, abandoned property, foot chases and families living in fear.
That's putting pressure on local law enforcement officials and Connecticut lawmakers to figure out how to respond when ICE forcefully detains people in their communities.
Harry Rilling, a Democrat who previously served as Norwalk's mayor, and the city’s police chief for 17 years, said disruptive federal immigration enforcement activity has left some Norwalk police officers and city leaders with a "feeling of helplessness."
“They're seeing this happening in our own community … and I think many of them are as concerned as I am," Rilling said.
In a written statement released to Connecticut Public, an unnamed senior official at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) defended the Norwalk arrests. The DHS official said agents used the minimum force necessary.
The official also noted one of the men tried to flee and evade arrest. The DHS statement mentioned that the other man was removed from the United States numerous times in the past, and was previously convicted in Connecticut of resisting arrest, fraud and illegal operation of a motor vehicle.
Immigration officers are "working overtime to deliver on the American people's mandate to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens and make America safe again," the unnamed DHS official said.
Local leaders respond
Connecticut’s Trust Act, passed in 2013, offers guidance for local police.
The law restricts the information police can share with federal immigration agents. State lawmakers strengthened the Trust Act last year following President Donald Trump’s return to office.
Ronnell Higgins, the state's public safety commissioner, said the law provides clear guidelines, but also complicates the work of law enforcement. Agencies usually coordinate with each other to avoid conflict, Higgins said.
“We all want dangerous people off the streets, and I can remember a time when we worked together to do that," Higgins said. "This time is different."
In the current environment, local police are doing their best to manage, Higgins added.
Others see the situation differently.
Richard Dziekan is a constable in Bethany. Dziekan once served as a Republican mayor in Derby. He is also a former Hamden police officer.
Dziekan doesn’t think ICE is hurting the communities in which it operates. Rather, he said, the state is hampering local law enforcement.
“It’s just asinine,” Dziekan said, referring to the Trust Act. “I mean, please, just let us do our job.
"If you're coming out of federal court and you were charged with some serious crimes … they should talk to ICE, talk to the feds, and say, 'Listen, hey, John Smith, here he is coming out,'” Dziekan said. "Here we go. He's being released. He did his time. Boom, deport him back to whatever country it is.”
The Trust Act generally prohibits police from holding someone under a civil detainer alone. However, police can still cooperate with ICE if the person was convicted of a class A or B felony, or one of several other specific crimes, or is identified as a possible match on a terrorism watch list.
Dziekan said in his view, constraining police in that way creates the impression that undocumented people get a pass when they break laws.
Dziekan added that ICE is simply doing what federal law enforcement did during the 1990s when he was a traffic cop. Back then, local police worked closely with ICE’s predecessor, the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service.
“We gave them their information. That was it," he said. "It wasn't a big deal.”
Norwalk Police Chief James Walsh said he focused on improving communication with federal authorities after the downtown arrest last August.
“It was more or less just opening up lines of communication so we could do our best to prevent some form of blue on blue issue where officers come across something that we don't know what's going on,” Walsh said.
Body camera video shows federal officers temporarily moved into the Norwalk Police Department parking lot after taking the two brothers into custody last summer, catching local police by surprise. The video shows Walsh asking the officers to vacate the area, noting citizens were filming their interaction.
Walsh said ICE activity has slowed down in Norwalk since the incident. Nevertheless, he acknowledged some residents might be fearful of visiting the police station or interacting with local officers.
“I would not say that it has handicapped us or slowed us down, but at the same time we do recognize that there is anxiety and fear within the community,” Walsh said.
Other volatile encounters
Other communities across the state have also seen immigration enforcement develop into volatile encounters.
New Haven police said federal agents pursued an immigrant inside a courthouse in January to make an arrest. Police said the incident followed a car crash outside the building.
The arrest potentially violated a new state law and rules established by the court system last year that prevent arrests in or around courthouses without a judicial warrant.
New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker, a Democrat, said city leaders are discussing how they would deal with ICE conduct that infringes on the rights of citizens or immigrants.
Those conversations became more urgent earlier this year amid a controversial immigration enforcement surge in Minneapolis, which sparked weeks of protest, and included the killings of two citizens by federal officers.
In Connecticut, the Police Accountability Bill, established in 2020, requires police to intervene if they see excessive use of force. But confronting federal officers could be dangerous for local police, Elicker said.
“It could put our officers in great risk if they're trying to intervene with an ICE officer that is using undue force on a community member,” he said.
Congressional and municipal leaders take action
In Hartford, police are pursuing possible criminal charges against federal agents who used pepper spray on protesters and then drove through the crowd blocking their vehicle in January. One person was struck, according to city officials.
The incident unfolded alongside a protest against the killing of Renee Good, a mother of three who was fatally shot by an immigration agent in Minneapolis.
Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam, a Democrat, said he's focused on protecting the community.
“We’re going to uphold the rule of law here,” Arulampalam said. “Our goal in the city of Hartford is to be thoughtful, to really, truly protect our residents.”
At the state level, Connecticut lawmakers are advancing bills that would ban federal immigration agents from churches, hospitals and schools. The legislation would also provide state residents an avenue to sue agents who violate their civil rights.
Members of Connecticut’s congressional delegation are also raising alarm.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said he believes ICE is operating like a police state and that reform is necessary.
Blumenthal said ICE officers should have badges, wear body cameras and remove their masks.
“States are going to move ahead if the federal government does nothing or fails to get out of the way,” Blumenthal said.
