Immigrant rights activists in Connecticut want communities to know that a federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agent dressed as a local police officer in Hartford earlier this month. That was confirmed by Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin this week.
Jesus Morales-Sanchez, a volunteer with immigrant rights group Unidad Latino En Acción, says immigrant families should be informed about risks “even if that means that they should not trust the police for now, that they need to be skeptical about them. It’s unfortunate and it goes against the main objective of a sanctuary city, which is to be able to live in peace.”
Sanchez says Hartford and New Haven are considered sanctuary cities, but the recent ICE actions make people question how safe immigrants are under new federal policies. He says people need to know their rights when dealing with immigration agents.
Sanctuary cities do not use local police to enforce federal immigration law so that immigrants feel safe reporting crimes to police.
Unidad Latino En Acción will be hosting a training session this Saturday in Fair Haven.
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