From the advocacy group ImpactCT:
Recently, we wrote about recent ICE activity in Connecticut beginning and we noted that those closest to immigration advocacy and organizing are best equipped to inform how the state can and should respond.
Last week, we had the opportunity to connect with immigration advocacy leaders Tabitha Sookdeo, Executive Director of CT Students for a Dream (C4D), Catalina Samper-Horak, Executive Director of The American Immigrant Legal Clinic, and Carolina Bortolleto, co-founder and former leader of C4D. Published reports have captured dozens of detentions, but their accounts describe a crisis that is larger, quieter, and more enduring than the public record suggests.
Our candid conversation illustrated how recent ICE operations have left two stories largely untold: the true scale and treatment of people detained, and what remains after ICE leaves—children without parents, families without income, businesses without workers or customers, and volunteers trying to provide a legal and social-service system amidst a crisis. It also helped clarify what Connecticut’s leaders can realistically do within the constraints of federal power.
Read on below and if you are so inclined, please consider learning more about TAILC and C4D.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What is happening on the ground in Connecticut that media coverage and official data are not adequately capturing?
Tabitha Sookdeo: There is a real gap in the state’s understanding of what is happening statewide in a comprehensive way. When organizations, even at the national level, try to gather detention data, it is almost impossible to get these days. There are people who have been submitting FOIA requests who have not been able to get data since last fall about the number of people detained.
In parts of northwestern Connecticut, we may not be able to capture fully what is happening because it is a more rural area and there may not be as many organized groups or people.
Catalina Samper-Horak: Even the numbers we feel comfortable sharing, including what appeared in news articles last week, were totally undercounted. When we hear from people who were detained and then released for medical or other reasons, they tell us there were at least 100 people a day being processed in Hartford during the week of the 24th through the 28th.
Our estimate is upward of 400 people detained in Connecticut, with Danbury, Stamford, and Bridgeport at the core of it. That is not being captured.
Carolina Bortolleto: There are a lot more people being abducted than we have a record of. Our Danbury Unites for Immigrants helpline is still getting calls from people whose family members were detained during that first week.
There is a sense that all the ICE abductions were very public, at a traffic stop, a bus stop, or a grocery-store parking lot. Some were, but some were probably very quiet. Agents may have walked up to someone as they were leaving the house, put them in a car, and driven away without even a neighbor seeing it. I think the scope is much larger than we realize.
Why is so much of this activity remaining invisible, and how has the risk of sharing families’ stories changed?
Catalina Samper-Horak: Under this administration, sharing stories has become much riskier and more complicated for families than it was in the past. During the first Trump administration, there were compelling stories we could put in front of the press to build awareness and help people understand the human side of what was happening in their communities.
In many cases now, attorneys are advising us to be very quiet and not put other family members at risk. We are hearing very few stories compared with what is really happening on the ground.
How can advocates and the public keep attention on what is happening without putting families in greater danger?
Carolina Bortolleto: A responsible way to talk about what has been happening is to talk about what is left behind after the abductions. What is the impact on the community?
What is left behind is a family that lost a loved one. It is children who lost a parent, a wife or husband who lost a partner, someone who lost an income earner, a classroom without a classmate, or a business without an employee. There is so much that can be discussed that is relatable to people without exposing an individual family.
When someone is detained, what happens to the family and community after the immediate attention fades?
Carolina Bortolleto: Most of the people who were abducted in Danbury are parents. Many have young U.S. citizen children who are now left without one of their parents.
That puts the parent who remains in a very difficult position. Maybe they were a one-income household, and now that income is gone. Or maybe they depended on two incomes and now have only one. The person left behind may need to find a way to earn money while also caring for the children.
Our Danbury Unites for Immigrants volunteers provide grocery gift cards and some financial assistance, and we connect families with community resources. People cannot make rent. They cannot buy groceries, diapers, or formula. Those are very real needs after someone is detained.
Catalina Samper-Horak: Immigrant-owned businesses are decimated. People are not going to work. People are not going to restaurants and other businesses because immigrants make up a large portion of their customers.
This is affecting employers, employees, and businesses. The economy is one part of this that is not being emphasized enough.
What are detained people experiencing once they are taken, and how does the process affect their ability to obtain legal help?
Catalina Samper-Horak: The government has its own rules about due process and how people are supposed to be detained, including access to an attorney. They are breaking their own rules. Usually, if someone is detained in Stamford, they are taken to Hartford for processing and then moved to an immigration detention facility. Connecticut does not have an immigration detention facility, and people used to be taken somewhere in the Northeast.
What is happening now is different. People are being moved quickly through staging and processing facilities and kept away from attorneys. We had people on the ground in Hartford every day during the week of the 24th, waiting and watching. They saw people handcuffed and chained to one another, in groups of approximately 20, before being placed in vans and taken to Massachusetts.
Detainees told us there was not enough room for everyone to sleep on the floor at the processing facility. Some had to stand for extended periods and take turns. From there, people were sent to Colorado, Louisiana, Mississippi, and California.
We learned that the paperwork for each case had to be sent by FedEx to the court in Colorado. It costs approximately $100 just to mail the filings for each person. It gives you a sense of how the system is built around barriers.
A 20-year-old man from Stamford was detained at a gas station. Masked agents came from behind and grabbed him. He was scared and had no idea who was grabbing him. They hurt him and pepper-sprayed his eyes. He had to be taken directly to a hospital in Bridgeport.
When the hospital released him in a wheelchair to ICE officers, they gave him pain medication. One of the ICE officers took the medication and threw it in the garbage in front of him. That is the kind of lack of humanity we are dealing with.
Who helps families navigate the system after someone is detained, and can the current response keep pace if detentions continue?
Carolina Bortolleto: One thing that is difficult to convey is the number of hours volunteers spend helping the families of detained people. Their entire lives become about supporting these families. They are being incredibly generous with their time, but that is not going to last forever, and the abductions are only going to increase. Where are we going to get the people power to help all these families as things escalate?
Connecticut has passed laws intended to protect immigrants and sensitive locations. Why have those laws not prevented what communities are experiencing?
Tabitha Sookdeo: We went through, line by line, the Connecticut laws on the books that provide immigrant protections. The reality is that the vast majority are quite difficult to enforce.
That is not necessarily because of a lack of interest or motivation from elected officials or government staff, although that is certainly a factor and we believe they can do more in other ways. These laws are being challenged in court, including the mask ban and protections involving courthouse arrests.
We have to be honest with ourselves about what is actually enforceable. The reality is that there is not a great deal the state government can do to stop the federal government directly. The federal government has a lot of power. We will still push and fight, but the majority of solutions will come from organized people and organized communities taking care of one another. Elected officials must be part of that calculus as well. The response we often get from anti-immigrant rights critics is that federal law supersedes state laws through the Supremacy Clause; however, states have rights. Under the Anti-Commandeering Doctrine of the Tenth Amendment, Connecticut has a significant right not to use its resources for federal enforcement purposes. That is within our rights as a state
It may be up to the individual to find a private attorney and sue the federal government for damages. That is financial relief after the fact. It is not immigration relief, and it does not prevent the person from being detained.
Within those federal constraints, what meaningful steps remain available to state and local officials?
Tabitha Sookdeo: Data protection and data privacy laws are significant. We need to examine the ways state-level data are shared with the federal government. We know there are loopholes and gaps, and information is being shared. The TRUST Act does not apply to certain categories of data.
There are also reports that the State Police are required to file to the Office of Policy and Management whenever there is collaboration with DHS. We do not have clarity on whether those protocols are being followed or what those reports contain. That information would give us a better understanding of what is happening across the state so we can organize more effectively.
Connecticut can crack down on how local police departments work with federal authorities. Municipal and state officials can also push the federal delegation to do more.
At the municipal level, school districts can create safe zones, and towns can adopt ordinances governing their own properties and institutions. There are creative things that can be done.
What do immigrant communities need to hear from elected officials at this moment?
Carolina Bortolleto: One of the most immediately implementable things elected officials can do is be more public in denouncing what is happening, without caveats.
They should be able to say, “I do not think people should be abducted from my community.” People want to hear that their elected officials are just as outraged as they are that their neighbors are disappearing.
Some of the public narrative plays into the framing that ICE has a job to do and is doing its job.
What is the most immediate material support Connecticut could provide? Could Connecticut use its existing Federal Cuts Response Fund, or would a new fund be more appropriate?
Carolina Bortolleto: We want Connecticut to create a $10 million emergency legal-defense fund so immigrants can obtain legal representation and access social services. We also want the Office of the Attorney General to track instances of discrimination, excessive force, and violence so people can be held accountable.
Tabitha Sookdeo: A completely new fund that honors a clear legislative intent could go a very long way. Specifically, we ask that our Government take the following steps:
- Ensure all current state laws protecting immigrants’ rights are enforced appropriately, including the Trust Act and Public Act 26-14.
- Create an emergency task force that convenes state agencies, municipal leaders, state officials, advocates, and service agencies to streamline response operations.
- Allocate emergency funds to support task force operations and assist impacted families in coordination with area nonprofits and provide mutual aid, for the purpose of providing support and stability to our neighbors experiencing trauma after these violent arrests that have interrupted their lives. Categories for support should include:
- Mental health supports
- Legal services: including legal fees, filing fees, bond for detained
- Wrap-around social services
- Rental assistance
- Food assistance
The advocates were clear about the limits Connecticut faces. State law cannot fully restrain a federal government determined to test or disregard those protections. Yet those limits do not leave leaders without choices.
The state can protect residents’ data, scrutinize local cooperation with ICE, document alleged abuses, support affected children and families, and ensure that people detained here have access to an attorney. Communities have already built much of that response through volunteer labor. The question now is whether Connecticut’s institutions and elected leaders are prepared to stand behind them.
Connecticut’s response will be measured by what remains after the news cycle moves on: whether families can afford groceries, whether children have support, whether detainees can reach attorneys, and whether community organizations have the resources to continue.
