Civil rights advocates and Sen. Gary Winfield, D-New Haven, called Tuesday for reforms to Connecticut’s TRUST Act in response to the Trump administration’s disregard for the rule of law and the due process rights of immigrants.
Winfield, Senate chair of the state legislature’s Judiciary Committee, appeared with representatives of the Connecticut ACLU and Connecticut Students for a Dream during a morning press conference in the Legislative Office Building. They pointed to a litany of actions by President Donald Trump’s administration: the termination of student visas, the transfer of Venezuelan immigrants to a Salvadoran prison for terrorists, ongoing disregard for court orders.
“No one knows where the line is anymore,” Winfield said. “The rule of law as opposed to the rule of one is important. What we do in this building is not only important to those we think of who exist in the immigrant community, but it’s important to all of us because when the line moves, and it has been moving, one day you have a visa, the next day you don’t and you don’t even know it and then you’re gone.”
That uncertainty reinforced the need to update the TRUST Act, advocates said. The law, first passed in 2013, was intended to ensure that state law enforcement agencies devote their time and resources to enforcing Connecticut laws rather than doing the work of federal immigration authorities. The policy restricts state and local officers from arresting individuals for immigration agents, except in circumstances when that individual had been convicted of serious crimes.
The legislature is weighing changes to the law, which would expand the law enforcement officers covered under the policy to judicial marshals, prevent the arrest of someone traveling to or from a court date, and bar state agencies from making certain disclosures to enforce federal immigration law.
Chelsea-Infinity Gonzalez, public policy director for the Connecticut ACLU, said it was necessary to strengthen the TRUST Act in response to Trump’s actions.
“The Trump administration is claiming unprecedented power to deport and disappear people, our people, regardless of the harm, the errors, and the cruelty,” Gonzalez said.
The administration’s actions have impacted families in Connecticut and taken a toll on the mental health of young people, according to Tabitha Sookdeo, executive director of Connecticut Students for a Dream.
“I have daily conversations with young people who are in distress. Last night, I got an email from someone who said that they’d rather take their life than to return back to their home country because that’s how bad it was.,” Sookdeo said. “Immigrant youth across the state do not know if they will see their parents again after returning home from school. They face constant threats due to shifting immigration policies, fear of family separation, and the risk of deportation.”
