Several years ago, Connecticut launched a new database to provide the public with some insight into how local police departments interact with federal immigration authorities.
A state law requires police to document certain interactions with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. But after reviewing the records, we discovered police have different interpretations about what to record. Some departments were entirely missing from the list.
That spurred The Accountability Project to investigate further: What types of requests were police departments receiving from ICE? And what information were immigration agents gathering?
To explore those questions, we sent Freedom of Information requests to numerous local police departments. The records we got back showed that ICE was frequently in contact with some agencies, collecting information on dozens of people in the state who were accused of crimes.
The emails we obtained also raised questions about the limitations of Connecticut's Trust Act, which aims to preserve trust in local law enforcement by restricting police from coordinating with ICE.
Police in four communities said they had no responsive records. Stamford police said they located records, but would not disclose them because prosecution is pending, and other arrest records are sealed.
Nine police departments provided records showing contact with federal immigration officials. Those records show local police departments received dozens of requests for information about people targeted for immigration enforcement, amid a push by the federal government to dramatically increase the scale of its removal operations.
Those who were targeted were charged with a range of offenses, from serious crimes — including negligent homicide — to shoplifting and other low-level violations. In a handful of cases, charges had already been dropped when ICE contacted the departments seeking information.
A U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in an email that its partnerships with law enforcement are "critical to having the resources we need to arrest criminal illegal aliens across the country."
The spokesperson said the agency has ramped up its efforts with local law enforcement to assist its federal immigration officers.
"When politicians bar local law enforcement from working with DHS, our law enforcement officers have to have a more visible presence so that we can find and apprehend the criminals let out of jails and back into communities," the spokesperson said.
We then reached out to a range of sources to respond to the information we uncovered, including police departments themselves, criminal justice experts and immigrant advocates.
"They're clearly coming up with innovative ways of being able to go after immigrants," said Gus Marks-Hamilton, advocacy and organizing manager at the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut.
Marks-Hamilton said he was concerned, but not surprised by the federal government's tactics.
"Clearly, the Trump administration has unleashed ICE in ways that we've never seen before — in ways that are incredibly concerning [and] obviously very scary to immigrants and immigrant communities in Connecticut," he said.
Records also show that in some cases, police departments supplied the information to ICE representatives speedily — occasionally within minutes. Responding to questions, several departments said they were required to release the material, which is subject to public disclosure under state law.
Supporters argue that type of close coordination is necessary to uphold the nation's immigration laws.
Ben Proto, chairman of the Connecticut Republican Party, said the records also demonstrate how the Trust Act has complicated the work of local police by requiring them to assess their legal position when they receive requests from federal counterparts.
"They've been trained on how to interact with other law enforcement, and now they're being told to ignore all that training and do something completely different," Proto said.
