East Haven and Hartford are the only two Connecticut cities named in the first list issued by the federal government of jurisdictions that limit cooperation with immigration enforcement. But the governor’s office has called into question the credibility of the whole exercise.
As part of his push to step up detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants, President Donald Trump mandated in an executive order that the Department of Homeland Security publish more information about local municipalities’ interactions with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
ICE now issues a list each week of cities that decline to turn over undocumented immigrants to federal authorities.
Also included are cities that have publicly announced policies of non-cooperation.
Governor Dannel Malloy’s head of criminal justice policy, Mike Lawlor, said the inclusion of the two Connecticut cities is misleading at best.
"The prohibition of the East Haven police department from sharing information with ICE is actually one imposed by a federal court, so they should go talk to a federal judge about what they think about that," he told WNPR. "In the case of Hartford, what they cited as the apparent violation of federal law, was a policy in Hartford that says they will only detain people based on warrants signed by a judge, which is what the United States constitution says."
Lawlor said President Trump is sending mixed signals on the issue of immigration enforcement, and the situation is frustrating and confusing both for local authorities and for immigrants.
