New ICE restrictions start this week. Can Connecticut enforce them?
A new law banning law enforcement from covering their faces, and restricting where immigration arrests can happen, went into effect on Thursday. But protesters said that federal immigration agents are already violating it.
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Federal immigration agents face sweeping new restrictions in Connecticut starting this week – including a ban on wearing face masks.
But can Connecticut actually enforce them?
SWEEPING NEW RESTRICTIONS
Under a new state law that began on Thursday, civil immigration arrests are banned at more than a dozen “protected spaces,” including colleges, childcare centers, playgrounds, houses of worship and medical facilities. Federal agents must have a criminal warrant signed by a judge to make an arrest.
All law enforcement officers must also show their faces and identify themselves, except in limited undercover situations.
Civil rights groups say federal agents are already breaking the law.
Last week, masked ICE agents arrested an Ecuadorian man inside Meriden Superior Court. According to the Department of Homeland Security, Welington Leonel Almara-Diaz skipped an immigration hearing in 2023 and faces two drunk driving charges.
“The ability of law enforcement to make arrests of criminal illegal aliens in courthouses is common sense,” DHS said in a statement. “It conserves valuable law enforcement resources because they already know where a target will be. It is also safer for our officers and the community.”
But it’s unclear if agents had a criminal warrant, which state law requires for any immigration arrest on courthouse grounds.
“They weren’t supposed to be there without a judicial warrant, and if they had stopped them, maybe this wouldn't have happened,” Ed McKeon, with the Middlesex Immigrants Rights Alliance, told NBC Connecticut.
Homeland Security claimed that state marshals tried to stop agents.
“Several Judicial Court Marshals impeded the arrest, going as far as telling Almara-Diaz to hide upstairs,” the DHS spokesperson said. “One Judicial Court Marshal blocked the elevator and exits and threatened one of the officers by saying, ‘I’ll catch you outside and rip your face off.’”
The Connecticut Judicial Branch said it is reviewing the incident, but so far, has seen no evidence of interference.
LEGAL BATTLE
A federal judge in Hartford is now deciding whether to block Connecticut’s new law. During a contentious hearing last month, the Department of Justice said federal agents will not follow the rules.
“The U.S. will not direct its agents to abide by Connecticut’s mask and identification law,” Justice Department attorney Alessandra Faso told Judge Vernon Oliver. “That is for the federal government to determine, not Connecticut.”
Both sides believe the Constitution is on their side.
Faso argued that Connecticut’s restrictions violate the Supremacy Clause, which states that federal law generally supersedes state regulations. District judges in New York and three other states have issued preliminary injunctions against similar laws, finding that DOJ is likely to succeed at trial.
“Connecticut has no ability to regulate how the federal government does things,” Faso argued. “Full stop.”
But attorneys for the state argued that the 10th Amendment gives Connecticut the “sovereign right” to regulate public safety within its borders.
“Officers are doing whatever they want,” Deputy Attorney General Timothy Holzman told the judge. “When ICE conceals who they are … it puts people at risk, it puts the officer at risk.”
HOW FAR SHOULD CONNECTICUT GO?
Although the new law allows for criminal penalties, Gov. Ned Lamont told News 12 that agents would only face civil lawsuits.
“We can’t get in the business of arresting, you know, federal officers,” the governor said on Aug. 31. “I don’t think that really is going to work.”
At a vigil outside the Meriden courthouse on Thursday evening, protesters demanded tougher action.
“It's our responsibility that any time we see someone who is being oppressed, suffering unrighteously, that we stand up and that we don’t turn a blind eye,” said Meriden city council member Yvette Cortez.
