At least 50 people have been arrested by federal immigration officers in Danbury this week. Around Connecticut, ICE activity has been ramping up.
It’s unclear why now, or how long the operation will last.
Clementina Lunar is a volunteer with Danbury Unites for Immigrants, an organization that helps families find their loved ones after they’ve been detained.
“Today, I took calls from the helpline, I lost count how many people asked how to find their family members and how to get a lawyer,” Lunar said. “Volunteers like me have been watching over bus stops the whole afternoon. We've seen ICE vehicles circling school buses like vultures.”
On Wednesday night, officials and advocates clashed over what should — and can — be done in response.
The crowd of about 60 people at Kennedy park agreed that ICE was “terrorizing” their community. However, advocates repeatedly interrupted elected officials as they spoke, making it known they weren’t satisfied with outrage and wanted more action.
The only speakers that weren’t repeatedly interrupted were from advocacy groups.
Juan Fonseca Tapia is the co-founder of Danbury Unites for Immigrants. He said his own family has a mixed legal status, and he had been up since 4 a.m. driving around the city to look for ICE.
“The people that they took yesterday, the people that they took Monday, they hurt them. They were bleeding. I saw the chains that they put on them,” Fonseca Tapia said. “Not handcuffs, literal chains.”
ICE did not reply to a request for comment on this story.
Advocates and officials said ICE has been arresting parents after their kids get on the school bus, as well as at their homes and local businesses, like the grocery store CTown — which Mayor Roberto Alves said is the city supermarket with the most Latino shoppers.
“This isn't a coincidence,” Alves said. “This is intentional. Today, our office received reports that a Danbury resident who has lived here for 30 years, who has a work authorization and tax ID number, applied for permanent residency, was also picked up and detained.”
Governor Ned Lamont (D), Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz (D), Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), and U.S. Representative Jahana Hayes (D-CT-5) were all in the city on Wednesday to condemn the arrests.
Condemnation was not enough for several members of the crowd.
At one point, Governor Ned Lamont left the podium mid-sentence after trying to talk over protesters.
“We've got a Trust Act,” Lamont said. “It says no masks, stay away from courthouses, stay away from schools….”
“So enforce it,” one person yelled back among a sea of responses.
“All right, forget it,” Lamont said as he walked away from the podium to instead speak with an advocate.
He wasn’t the only one to engage with dissenters from the crowd.
“I promise you that I will work as hard as I can to keep your family safe,” Hayes said. “But once you gave me a seat at the table, it means you don't want me outside yelling in the window. You want me at those tables doing the job that you sent me to do.”
“So at a moment where the criticism of me is coming from both the left and the right, I know that I'm meeting in the middle where the people are,” she continued.
Lamont says he spoke to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin (R) about the raids. It didn’t sound like they reached any kind of compromise.
