As the U.S. Department of Homeland Security steps up immigration enforcement nationwide, city leaders in Connecticut have been working closely with local law enforcement agencies to plan for the possibility of large deployments in their communities.
Mayors in Danbury, New Haven and Hartford said they’re holding discussions with their police chiefs and thinking through how best to manage confrontations between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and local residents. That includes working with community groups to ensure residents understand their rights, investigating incidents where those rights may have been violated and generally working to keep everyone safe — in their neighborhoods and at protest events.
ICE more than doubled its arrests in Connecticut in the first six months of 2025 compared with the same time period in 2024, according to agency data. And last August, federal agents arrested 65 people in a four-day operation they termed “Operation Broken Trust.” According to ICE, 29 of the 65 people arrested during the operation had been either charged with or convicted of “serious crimes.”
Local law enforcement is often unaware of ICE operations until they happen. Under a Connecticut state law known as the Trust Act, local law enforcement cannot cooperate with ICE detainers unless the person being detained has been convicted of a serious crime, is on a terrorist watch list or if there is a judicial warrant for their arrest. In November, the state legislature passed additional restrictions on ICE, including codifying a policy that prohibits agents from arresting people inside courthouses and forbidding state agencies from widely sharing residents’ personal information.
Danbury Mayor Roberto Alves said he frequently speaks with the city’s chief of police about what’s happening around the country.
“We’re not made aware when [ICE agents] come — small, medium, large deployments or not,” Alves said. “But we will handle our business accordingly … we’ll be ready to keep our people safe within the confines of the law.”
In the case of a protest, Alves said, local police officers try to strike a balance between being present for safety reasons — like the possibility of a protest and counter-protest meeting head to head — but also ensuring that people can exercise their right to protest freely. Alves said any incident between ICE and community members would have to be addressed on a case-by-case basis.
Alves said he wanted to be careful not to take any action that could draw attention and bring more ICE agents into the city unnecessarily. “My goal, my moral compass, has always been: How do I protect our folks, our hardworking folks who are here just to better their lives and make sure that we’re not exposing them to more ICE agents?” Alves said.
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In Danbury, the city has worked to help connect community groups to each other and to residents to offer support. “The best thing any community can do right now is work with groups to expand and fortify the ‘Know Your Rights’ campaign so people know what their rights are, what they can do and what they shouldn’t do,” Alves said.
Carolina Bortolleto, an organizer with the group Danbury Unites for Immigrants, said school districts should establish protocols for how to respond if ICE agents are in the area or a child’s parents are detained during the school day. She said local organizations like hers offer family preparedness classes, providing instruction in appointing temporary guardians and gathering documents they’ll need to have on hand.
Bortolleto said it felt important to her that local officials speak out more clearly against ICE deployments and state clearly that the agents’ presence isn’t making the community safer.
“ I think that kind of posture is needed from local elected officials, because it sets the tone for what we as a state will not tolerate,” said Bortolleto.
New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker hasn’t shied away from doing that.
A large ICE presence “is very much a potential reality,” Elicker said, “and we’ve been working hard to prepare for significantly increased ICE rates — which would make our community less safe and are not welcome in our city.”
After signing an executive order in 2020 that prevents city employees from inquiring about a person’s immigration status or sharing that information with federal agencies, Elicker said the city has been enforcing that order and training employees. New Haven is a party to several lawsuits against the Trump administration, including one contesting the administration’s order to hold back funding from cities that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
Elicker pointed to press conferences the city has held with advocates to voice support for people detained by ICE, like 18-year-old Esdras R., who was arrested by ICE in July while working at a car wash. Esdras was released from custody in September.
“Working to publicly shine a light on the individuals that were arrested helps [us], in some cases, be successful at garnering their release,” Elicker said, adding that he attended the immigration court hearing at which the judge agreed to release Esdras. New Haven has also worked with advocacy groups to help provide pro bono legal representation for immigrants.
Still, the city is limited in what actions it can take against ICE agents, Elicker said. If an ICE agent were to assault someone in New Haven, Elicker said, the federal government would likely lead any review of the use of force; local police wouldn’t be able to arrest the agent, he said.
In Hartford, Mayor Arunan Arulampalam has been working through the aftermath of an incident earlier this month in which a federal vehicle knocked down a protester during a vigil for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on Jan. 7. The Hartford Police Department has opened an investigation into the incident.
Arulampalam told the Connecticut Mirror that he’d spoken to the Department of Homeland Security, which is conducting an internal investigation. He said he was told the agency wouldn’t respond to any requests for information Hartford police sent as part of their investigation.
But Arulampalam said if Hartford’s investigation finds that federal agents committed a crime, the city would “seek to prosecute that criminal wrongdoing.” He said he believes Hartford police should treat federal agents the same way they would respond to any other person they witness engaging in violence.
For now, the mayor said, city officials will do everything possible to ensure that people gathering legally for a protest can do so safely. But he urged protestors not to engage in violence or lawlessness.
Last Tuesday, roughly 100 protesters gathered on the front lawn of the state Capitol to protest ICE.
Mary-Ann Langton and Patty Ellis, the organizers of the protest, said they believed there are actions cities in Connecticut can take to better prepare for ICE deployments. Langton emphasized more training for people, and Ellis said she’d like to see formal protocols established for how to interact with ICE agents.
Ellis also said she believes local law enforcement officials in Connecticut shouldn’t hesitate to arrest ICE officers, if the situation requires it.
“We’re not seeing much of or any of that yet,” she said.
Mindy Shilansky from West Hartford said she hopes Gov. Ned Lamont and leaders of Connecticut’s large cities would be “equally unwelcoming” to federal immigration agents as leaders of other communities around the country have been.
Carol Coley of Columbia said a local response team in her community sends out messages whenever ICE agents are seen in nearby Willimantic. People who get those messages then converge on the area, and their presence alone has been enough to spur the agents to leave, she said.
“The goal is just take pictures, don’t get in their way … just take pictures and witness it,” Coley said.
Some protesters expressed anxiety about the possibility of a large ICE deployment in Connecticut.
“I’m just scared. I don’t want that to happen here,” said Ashley Valerioti of Hamden. But she said it might ease her concerns if she knew “that our politicians have our back and that they will fight for us — both locally and nationally.”
Emilia Otte is a reporter for the Connecticut Mirror. Copyright 2026 @ CT Mirror (ctmirror.org).