Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam has requested the immediate termination of a contract between the Hartford Parking Authority and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
In a Jan. 27 letter, Arulampalam asked HPA CEO Kay Al Mannai to terminate an agreement allowing ICE employees to use the city-owned parking lot at 141 Sheldon St.
“The City of Hartford does not deem ICE personnel to be authorized as visitors of the City of Hartford,” Arulampalam wrote. “I respectfully request that their licenses to use the lot at 141 Sheldon Street be terminated immediately.”
Federal government records indicate ICE and HPA have contracted for parking since 2015. An ICE field office is located within the Abraham A. Ribicoff Federal Building at 450 Main St.
“The parking contract was brought to our attention about two weeks ago through a constituent submission on our city website,” said Cristian Corza, Arulampalam’s deputy chief of staff. “Once we learned of the contract, we immediately moved to cancel it in partnership with the HPA.”
“The city has been working with the HPA to cancel the contract as quickly as administratively possible and will continue our efforts to do so,” Corza said.
In a statement, Al Mannai, the HPA CEO, said the authority was "working hand-in-hand" with Arulampalam's office regarding the contract termination.
"While DHS parking arrangements at 141 Sheldon Street predate current leadership, we remain fully committed to responsibly stewarding City-owned parking assets in alignment with City priorities," Al Mannai said.
In a statement, ICE’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, said the contract cancellation would not impede its operations.
“Mayor Arulampalam should be grateful to our brave law enforcement officers for cleaning up the streets of Hartford since he won’t,” a spokesperson said. “Luckily, no terminated parking contract will stop ICE from deporting criminal illegal aliens to make Hartford safe again.”
DHS attached five mugshots of men it called “public safety threats arrested by ICE in Hartford, CT that Mayor Arulampalam is trying to protect.”
Advocates welcome the news
Constanza Segovia of Hartford Deportation Defense said she was glad to learn of the termination request.
“We think any action to stop cooperation with [ICE] is critical at this point,” Segovia said. “We don't have to just wait for Hartford to be Minneapolis. We can take active action to protect our people. There's just no need to be in that kind of relationship with this agency.”
“The city should go a step further and look into anything else that it can possibly do to create policies of non-collaboration and opposition to the terrorization of our community,” Segovia said.
Veronica Ubaldo, an organizer with immigrant rights group Make the Road Connecticut, agrees.
“This decision really reflects the values of our community,” Ubaldo said. “It’s been fighting to uphold that Hartford must remain a true sanctuary city, where all residents feel safe, where public resources are not used to harm our communities.”
“But it definitely needs to be part of a broader commitment,” Ubaldo said. “Sanctuary requires transparency, accountability, and practiced policies to ensure that city agencies and agreements don’t undermine the dignity and safety of immigrant communities.”
“This is our city, this is our home, and we need to feel safe,” she said.
Scrutiny of ICE
News of the contract and Arulampalam’s request to cancel it were first reported by nonprofit news outlet Sludge. Sludge previously reported on the termination of a similar ICE parking contract in New York City.
Arulampalam has been critical of ICE as immigration actions have ramped up nationwide.
“Federal agents have acted with impunity and a clear intent to antagonize local communities across our country,” he said last month.
In January, protesters and journalists in Hartford were pepper-sprayed and a woman was struck by a federal vehicle outside the Ribicoff building during a vigil for Renee Good, the unarmed mother shot and killed in Minneapolis.
This story has been updated to include a statement from Hartford Parking Authority CEO Kay Al Mannai.
Arunan Arulampalam's father-in-law is Gregory B. Butler, who is a member of the Board of Trustees of Connecticut Public.
