In the past year, several communities in Connecticut have seen immigration enforcement turn violent.
In Norwalk, immigration agents broke a car window and used a taser while subduing and arresting two brothers from Mexico last year.
In January, New Haven police said federal agents pursued an immigrant inside a courthouse to make an arrest. Police said the incident followed a car crash outside the building.
In that same month in Hartford, federal agents used pepper spray and then drove through a crowd of protesters blocking their vehicle. One person was struck, according to city officials.
Those incidents are a microcosm of the crackdown unfolding nationally, which has been marked by sometimes chaotic arrests.
Connecticut Public recently explored how local officials are responding, from the state's Democratic governor to mayors and police chiefs grappling with disruptive enforcement activity.
Local leaders told us about the pressure they face 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 some police officers and city leaders have a "feeling of helplessness.”
New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker, a Democrat, shared a similar sentiment. Elicker said city officials are weighing how to protect residents from conduct that violates their rights.
But confronting federal agents could be dangerous for local police, he 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,” Elicker said.
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, a state law that limits how police can interact with immigration authorities.
“I mean, please, just let us do our job," Dziekan said.
Connecticut’s Trust Act, passed in 2013, 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.
Gov. Ned Lamont took another step Monday to control how immigration enforcement unfolds. In a ceremony outside a courthouse, Lamont signed legislation that limits immigration sweeps at schools, churches and other sensitive places.
The move came with the backing of the state's Democratic leaders, including Attorney General William Tong.
“This legislation reflects the unremarkable and uncontroversial proposition that no one is above the law," Tong said in a statement this month. "Not here in Connecticut and not anywhere else in this country."
