STAMFORD — Numerous Stamford residents and local leaders gathered in front of Superior Court in Stamford on Thursday to denounce the actions of many Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents in Connecticut.
A crowd of people, including state politicians and the city’s Board of Representatives, surrounded speakers as they explained what they had seen firsthand and through media reports.
The gathering was hosted by Stamford Norwalk United with Immigrants, a group formed in June that supports immigrants and seeks to “defend our civil liberties,” according to the group’s website.
Democratic state Reps. Matthew Blumenthal, Hubert Delany and Jonathan Jacobson were among those at the gathering.
The courthouse was also where CT Public Radio reported two people were arrested by ICE agents on Monday, witnesses told them.
Marcella Branca, a volunteer with SNUI, said the city was no longer safe for immigrants. She said she filmed the incident Monday, which she called a kidnapping.
“I could see terror, the confusion and sadly the resignation on the face of the man who was handcuffed right in front of me,” Branca said.
The SNUI said in a news release that the actions of the ICE agents in Connecticut conflicted with the state’s Trust Act, though that regulation, passed in 2013 and updated in 2019, generally restricts when and how local law enforcement can cooperate with ICE.
The group alleges that ICE agents entered courthouses to detain people appearing for appointments, failed to present warrants before detaining someone and continued to detain people when charges were dropped or a person has “lawful presence,” according to the news release.
A spokesperson for ICE did not respond to requests for comments via email regarding the allegations made in the news release.
Juan Fonseca Tapia, who lives in Danbury and is an immigrant from Mexico, said he has also been an organizer in the state “for many years.”
He said he has seen ICE at Danbury’s courthouse and heard of what he said were kidnappings across the city and surrounding area. He said he had been worried he would not make it to the Stamford gathering because of ICE's presence in Danbury as well.
According to a statement from Danbury Unites for Immigrants, over two dozen armed ICE agents "swarmed the Danbury courthouse in military fatigues and gear, threatening to pepper spray and taser peaceful community members and activists" on Thursday.
"As agents abducted two individuals from the courthouse steps, community members demanded the agents identify themselves and present a warrant, which they refused to do," said a statement from the group, which said it documents ICE activities and alerts the community.
The incidents followed a week of "heavy and unprecedented ICE activity in Danbury," the statement said, with six workers stopped and taken into custody on Tuesday, and "at least four individuals" taken from the courthouse steps on Wednesday and Thursday.
“I have a lot of pain,” Tapia said of the recent actions by ICE. “I'm feeling a lot of rage. I'm feeling a lot of disappointment and deep sadness.”
Tapia said he went to bed crying one night because he saw a Facebook post from a mother who asked whether “ICE is still out there” because she needed to go to the laundromat.
“Our people are not even able to leave their homes right now, wondering whether or not they're gonna make it home,” Tapia said.
Phil Berns, a member of the Board of Representatives in Stamford, is also an attorney who practices immigration law and has done so for 25 years. He said he helps people get work permits, secure legal residency and citizenship.
However, out of every 25 people who call him, Berns said he “at best” was only able to help “maybe one or two,” because the laws are “really, really stacked against people.” His phones and the ones of other immigration lawyers are “ringing off the hooks from people in an absolute panic,” he said.
“Now we have this maniac in the White House who has demonized and accused 14 million people of being criminals,” Berns said.
Berns said he wanted to make sure there were efforts in the community to inform people, especially those threatened by ICE, of their rights and what they should do if confronted by federal officers.
Steve Fletcher, a lifelong Stamford resident, stayed to the end of the gathering, sitting and watching as others mingled or trickled out.
He said he was afraid of what was going on in the United States, and said he and his wife had been to many protests.
“It's scary,” Fletcher said. “I think people are just too complacent as to what's going on right now and then, sooner or later, it's going to catch up to us.”