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Immigrant Rights Advocates Protest Boughton, Cooperation With ICE

Danbury, Conn. Mayor Mark Boughton
Jessica Hill
/
AP
Danbury Mayor and Republican Party-endorsed candidate for governor Mark Boughton.

Immigrant rights activists and members of the ACLU of Connecticut protested Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton’s immigration policies at City Hall this week.

Boughton wants to be the Republican candidate for governor this fall. He also has a history of training Danbury police to operate as Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

Boughton says he would comply with the few exceptions under the Connecticut TRUST Act that allow local police to cooperate with federal immigration at their own discretion.

He has faced criticism after two immigrants were arrested by ICE agents outside of the Danbury courthouse this month. One was hit by a car trying to flee.

Boughton has said you can’t pick and choose which laws to follow. That goes for immigration law, too.

Nearly 30 percent of residents in Danbury are Latino.

Cassandra Basler, a former senior editor at WSHU, came to the station by way of Columbia Journalism School in New York City. When she's not reporting on wealth and poverty, she's writing about food and family.