ICE is under new rules in Connecticut courts. Here's what agents cannot do

HARTFORD, Conn. — Federal immigration agents cannot wear masks and cannot make arrests without a warrant inside Connecticut courthouses under new rules enacted Tuesday.

Gov. Ned Lamont, the state Supreme Court chief justice and a top legislator made the announcement as they said that all three branches of state government are united in dealing with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who have made arrests in Connecticut. ICE has been controversial nationwide as President Donald Trump’s administration sharply increases enforcement, with masked agents often making dramatic arrests without identifying themselves.

“I want to do everything I can to make sure that people are safe, and feel safe, going into our state courthouses,” Lamont told reporters at the state Capitol in Hartford. “There have not been a lot of instances, but there have been some instances of ICE going into our courthouses, wearing masks, taking people out. … It’s very important that immigrants, and even undocumented immigrants, feel safe going into our courthouses. In many cases, they’re going into our courthouse as a witness to a crime.”

The policy was enacted Tuesday by Chief Justice Raheem Mullins, and the legislature is preparing to codify the new rules as part of state law in the coming months. Citing his role as chief justice, Mullins largely declined to answer most questions from reporters by saying it is “a very fine line” as he wanted to avoid “delving too far into the political realm.”

Starting Tuesday, ICE will need a judicial warrant to make an arrest, as opposed to a “civil detainer,” Lamont said.

A key point, officials said, is that law enforcement officers cannot wear masks in the courthouse, but they can do so if there are medical reasons and they receive permission in advance from the judicial branch. The general public will continue to be allowed to wear masks, officials said.

“Something I think people really understand is no masks in the courthouse — it’s intimidating,” Lamont said. “We want to be able to identify people who are there so that people are safe and we know who is in the courthouse.”

Like lawmakers at the national level, Republicans and Democrats are largely split in Connecticut over ICE policy. Republican legislators were not invited to the meetings where the ICE policy was discussed.

Senate Republican leader Stephen Harding of Brookfield said that the new policy highlights problems in the state.

“Many Connecticut Democrats repeatedly insist Connecticut is not a ‘sanctuary state’ even as ICE recently announced that Connecticut is a ‘sanctuary no more,’ ” Harding said. “We are the very definition of a sanctuary state, with Democrats protecting criminal aliens at the expense of Connecticut citizens.”

He added, “People overwhelmingly support removing criminal illegal aliens from our streets, but to Connecticut Democrats, that’s an apparently bad thing. They had little if anything to say, for example, about ICE’s highly successful ‘Operation Broken Trust’ or the twice-deported Guatemalan man who was recently arrested for aggravated sex assault of a jogger in a New Haven dog park.”

State Rep. Craig Fishbein, the ranking House Republican on the legislature’s judiciary committee, also was not pleased, saying the policy would be ineffective.

“None of the rule changes created and announced today will protect the victims of crime who have been harmed by the actions of criminal illegal aliens, and following that rambling press conference, I expect many people now have more questions than answers,” Fishbein said Tuesday. “Contrary to today’s announcement, making it more difficult for law enforcement officers to apprehend wanted individuals actually endangers public safety, including for the very men and women who work in these courthouses that these changes are supposed to protect. Preventing law enforcement officers from fulfilling their duties is the antithesis of standing for the rule of law and the Constitution we as elected state officials take an oath to uphold.”

Fishbein added, “Incredibly, this new mask policy also specifically singles out law enforcement from the general public which further exacerbates the ‘us vs. them’ attitudes that have caused so much division and distress across our country. Further, Chief Justice Mullins’ refusal to answer questions from the credentialed media regarding these changes is highly inappropriate and embarrassing for our courts and the state and does not advance openness and transparency.”

The Senate’s two top leaders – President Pro Tempore Martin Looney of New Haven and majority leader Bob Duff of Norwalk – said, “Connecticut Democrats will do everything in their power to stop the lawless, anti-American actions by ICE under President Trump.”

State Sen. Gary Winfield, a New Haven Democrat who co-chairs the legislature’s judiciary committee, said recently that numerous people who have not committed any violent crimes have been swept up in ICE raids.

“For every violent, undocumented criminal arrested by ICE, there are 15 car wash employees, landscapers, dishwashers, construction workers, and high school students disappeared by masked government agents who send them to Guantanamo Bay or some other far-flung ICE facility,” Winfield wrote recently in an op-ed in the Hearst newspapers. “Should violent, undocumented immigrants be arrested and deported? Yes. But this has been Connecticut’s state policy since 2013, when we passed the TRUST Act – with unanimous Republican support – to counter a spike in ICE deportations under the Obama Administration (yes, you read that correctly). Republicans were more than happy then to ‘protect their neighbors’ from unilateral federal actions inside our sovereign state of Connecticut if the bogeyman was a Democrat.”

State Rep. Steven Stafstrom, a Bridgeport attorney who co-chairs the legislature’s judiciary committee, attended meetings with top officials as they decided the best steps to take regarding ICE in Connecticut.

“Justice should not depend on one’s immigration status,” Stafstrom said. “Some states, like Oregon, have banned this by court rule like we’re doing here today. Other states, like New York, California, and Colorado, have done so by legislation. Certainly, I’m going to push my colleagues to codify and strengthen the policy being enacted by the chief justice.”

Stafstrom added that top lawmakers will decide whether the General Assembly would codify the rules during a special session in mid-October or wait until the next regular session starts in February. Lawmakers will decide whether there will be any penalties for ICE agents who violate the rules, such as classifying the actions as trespassing or breach of peace. The enforcement, he said, could be limited.

“Certainly, we’re not going to put our marshals into a situation of an armed standoff with an ICE agent,” Stafstrom said. “We are not going to be able to stop 12 armed ICE agents from storming the front door of a courthouse. If that’s the level that the federal government wants to stoop to, then that’s the level they are going to stoop to, and we’re not going to be able to necessarily prevent that.”

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