How the Trust Act protects undocumented immigrants in CT from deportation

Amid President-elect Donald Trump’s ongoing discussions about mass deportation plans, Connecticut officials are looking to reassure residents that legislative safeguards are in place to protect the state’s undocumented people.

One such law is the Trust Act. The law came about after some Connecticut neighborhoods faced raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that had a significant impact on those communities.

Connecticut’s history with ICE raids

In September 2006, Danbury police officers, assisted by ICE agents, arrested 11 Latino residents during an undercover operation. The day laborers got into a vehicle with a man they believed had hired them for demolition work. The man was an undercover Danbury cop who led them to the alleged construction site where local police made the arrests.

Nine of the workers filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city of Danbury and ICE, saying their constitutional rights were violated. The lawsuit ended in a $650,000 settlement—$400,000 from the city and $250,000 from the federal government—with the day laborers, who became known as the “Danbury 11.”

Less than a year after the Danbury raid, ICE agents arrested 29 people in New Haven in June 2007 — many without warrants. The arrests were made in a predominantly Latino neighborhood in Fair Haven. Eleven men who were arrested later filed a lawsuit against ICE officials, alleging that the arrests were made based on their physical appearance.

The civil rights file resulted in a landmark setting in which the federal government paid $350,000. The federal government also offered a choice between immigration relief or an end to deportation proceedings as part of the deal.

These high-profile raids and similar raids led to the creation of the Trust Act in Connecticut.

What is the Trust Act?

The Trust Act was originally passed in 2013. It placed limits on what information state and local law enforcement can share with ICE, limiting how Connecticut police can cooperate with federal immigration officers.

Like a system of checks and balances, the Trust Act provided “oversight over certain bureaucracies or law enforcement agencies (in Connecticut) to limit the sharing of information with ICE,” said Kris Klein Hernández, assistant professor of history at Connecticut College.

The goal was to treat undocumented people more humanely and ensure that ICE could not enter Connecticut and obtain information to identify and deport undocumented people, according to Hernández.

In 2019, Connecticut lawmakers realized there were loopholes in the law that allowed ICE to still obtain certain information from local law enforcement.

Rep. of state Steve Stafstrom, a Bridgeport Democrat, presented a bill with Democratic state Sen. Gary Winfield with changes that addressed those gaps.

The revisions required state and local law enforcement to share information with federal immigration agents only if an undocumented person is a convicted felon or a potential terrorist.

The intent was to keep law enforcement in Connecticut focused on local crimes so resources aren’t diverted to federal immigration agents unnecessarily and undocumented people feel safe when communicating with police, Stafstrom said. .

Trust Act amid Trump’s return to office

As Trump prepares to take office in January, various advocates have raised concerns about deportations to immigrant communities. More than 110,000 undocumented immigrants live in Connecticut.

Stafstrom said he hasn’t heard of concerns specific to the Trust Deed or the law that require further changes.

Trump will have more trouble carrying out mass deportations in Connecticut than in states like Texas because of laws like the Trust Act, Hernández said.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong is confident in the Trust Act’s effectiveness. He spoke recently press conference featuring Connecticut officials sharing support for the immigrant community.

“The federal government can’t come into Connecticut and take over state resources, state law enforcement, to do their job for them, and they can’t tell us to do their job for them. That’s what the (Trust Act) says,” Tong said.