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News 12 Staff

CTPP28B_2025-02-08-16-52-50

All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came. We're going to have to seal up those borders. We have to take them out. We have to get them out of the country. We have to deport them. All right, welcome back. We're back with uh Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, and we're gonna talk a little bit about immigration. There have been reported sightings this week of, uh, ICE agents in our area. I think a lot of immigrants in our state feel afraid. Uh, what can Connecticut do to protect them? So this is really personal for a lot of us, um, as you know, well, it's the Lunar New Year and so I spent a lot of time with my family. At this time of year my parents are both immigrants and and when I was born they were not yet citizens and actually my dad had a complicated immigration story um and it was President Nixon, a Republican president who gave my uh my dad a chance to stay here and earn his citizenship um but my life could have been very different, but I was born uh by right of my birth an American because I was born on American soil. And my parents, because they were not yet citizens, I didn't derive my citizenship from them so I have birthright citizenship, which is why this fight is so important to me and why immigrants are so important to me but to to everybody across Connecticut and and. Um, Fairfield County, right, immigrants are, um, you know, they're, they're in every facet of life. They are, they're our family, our friends, our neighbors, they're in every business in every institution, and, and I've said a couple of times not to be too cute, but America runs on two things Duncan and immigrant workers. You know there's no economy without immigrant workers, not just in Connecticut, but across the country. And so that's why it is the policy of the state of Connecticut speaking as the attorney general. It is our policy to respect, honor and protect immigrants and immigrant families, and I'm going to do everything I can to do that. So what else would you say to immigrant workers here in Connecticut? I would say go to work. I would say send your kids to school. I would say stay safe and plan and think about, you know, everybody has to make their own determination for themselves about their own situation and. How much risk they're willing to take, right? And and and the the way to deal with risk is to prepare um know your rights. There are a variety of know your rights documents um if you're an immigrant or if you're an undocumented immigrant you have rights you have constitutional rights, um, and so you should consult know your rights documents here in Fairfield County, um, there's an organization that goes by the acronym CIRI. Uh, which has information, uh, also Iris and New Haven and the ACLU has information. Um, and if you run a nonprofit or if you're at a school or you run a business, you should also know your rights, um, if Immigration and Customs Enforcement shows up. Here's the thing to keep in mind and, and we're gonna do constitutional law in 30 seconds, right? This is still the sovereign state of Connecticut. We are joined together by our consent in a federation known as the United States of America. The state's delegated limited powers to the federal government. One of those limited powers is over immigration. OK, that makes rational sense in a in a in a rational world that um immigration, national security, the army, the military, that's something the federal government can handle on behalf of all of the states and so that's why ICE has broad power and authority, but that's their job. That's not our job. We want local law enforcement and first responders to focus on. On Norwalk where we are in Stanford and Greenwich and Westport and Fairfield and Bridgeport and and to police those communities and keep people safe, it's not their job it's not local police's job to do immigration law enforcement for the federal government that's the federal government's job. So are you seeing some of them doing it? Well, we're hearing reports that the federal government wants to commandeer. Um, state and local law enforcement resources, but they can't. That's not lawful, you know, frankly they should do their job. We should do our job, and, and, um, Connecticut is going to make sure that we observe the proper federal state relationship and balance in full compliance with the law. And what about our sanctuary policies? Will they still be intact? So let me just correct you there. Connecticut is not a sanctuary state, OK, and there's no city or town that I know of in Connecticut that is a sanctuary city or town, and I've I've made this very clear to people that word has no legal meaning. Um, and frankly it's not a helpful word because it's inflammatory sanctuary, and also because it implies things that aren't true. Number one, it implies that we're not complying with the law, that somehow this is a sanctuary that that is in defiance of of other law, not true. Connecticut is in. Full compliance with state and federal law. We're going to respect, honor and protect immigrants in full compliance with the law. Nobody, at least as far as I'm concerned in state government, is going to break the law. We're going to do it in compliance with the law. Sanctuary also suggests or implies that we can protect everybody and that's also not true, right? If, if you're subject to immigration law enforcement because you. Committed a serious crime or because you don't have proper status, you know, then then there are consequences to that and there's you know at a certain point there's not a lot that the state of Connecticut can do um if under the law, um you are, you know, subject to ICES enforcement and jurisdiction. Um, but we're gonna make sure that they do their job and they don't make us do their job for them and they don't try to commandeer state and local resources when they don't have the right to do that. In the 30 seconds we have left for this segment, what about in the schools? I know a lot of school districts have offered protection for kids in school. Well, schools and school districts are gonna follow the law and, and. Uh, as I said, there are know your rights documents for individuals. There's, there's a lot of guidance out there. I put some guidance out there, um, for, for schools and for state buildings. Um, here's the bottom line again, schools, uh, are, are should be safe places and their primary. Responsibility should be to keep kids safe and to make sure that um that they do what they're supposed to do which is to learn and they do so undisrupted and and that they don't they're not in fear that somebody's gonna come grab them in school um if ICE is looking for somebody take a break you gotta go.

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CTPP28C_2025-02-08-16-58-58

Welcome back to Power of Politics. I'm Mark Sudall. We're continuing our conversation with William Tong, the state attorney General. Let's talk about education. The president's pick for the department is Linda McMahon, Connecticut's own. Uh, there's been talk about the president wanting to dismantle, possibly dismantle the department. What are your thoughts? Yeah, let me just, we're just talking about schools for a second. Oh, sure, yeah, you can let me just, yeah, let me just clarify because I went on too long that I, I don't think I should be in schools. Right, and, and I think most people agree with that. Leave the kids alone, um, and, and, and if ICE does show up um at, at a school or on school premises, um, they need to have a warrant signed by a judge, and they really shouldn't be, you know, rooting around, you know, uh, middle schools and elementary schools and high schools are parked in the parking lot, you know, and, and this is what's most concerning about what the president has said about immigration, um, and immigration law enforcement. You know, we, we, we're not gonna stand in the way right of the federal government doing its proper and lawful job, but when you start, uh, going into sensitive places like, like schools, um, and churches and courthouses and you make people feel unsafe, you know that has a ripple effect, um. And and it disturbs, you know, the proper functioning of a school or a courthouse, right? Or frankly a house of worship. So you know I should do its job but leave people alone, particularly in sensitive places, you know, with respect to, um, uh, Linda McMahon, I, I assume she'll be confirmed, but I'm very disturbed to hear, of course, that she's being confirmed, she's being. Given a job to put herself out of work and that's what the president said that she should go in there and dismantle the Department of Education and I'll say two things about that, you know, I sure hope that you know you don't have uh uh uh a son or daughter or grandson or granddaughter who needs special education services or a young person like me in my house, um, who's gonna need student loans. And, and this is what the Department of Education does on top of the myriad other things that it does to support Connecticut families and so I would ask um future Secretary McMahon, I would ask Linda to think about children, students, families here in Connecticut and and dismantle what dismantle their education. Dismantle their schools, dismantle, um, their chance at, at, um, at, at, you know, great education like I've had here in Connecticut. I don't think that makes any sense. Thank you so much for your time. Yeah, thank you. That's our show. Thanks for watching.

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Tong spoke about President Trump's executive orders and other matters affecting the state. 

Power & Politics: 1:1 with Connecticut Attorney General William Tong

Tong spoke about President Trump's executive orders and other matters affecting the state.

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