The Danbury, Connecticut City Council voted 18-2 last week to open police officer jobs to legal non-citizen immigrants and DACA recipients, a move that has drawn a sharp rebuke from the Department of Homeland Security just weeks after federal agents pulled convicted sex offenders and violent criminals off the city’s streets.
Democratic council member Joe Britton called the timing “timely” given recent ICE activity in the area, saying the vote “sends a message to our immigrant community at large that you are welcome in Danbury.”
A DHS spokesperson did not take that message well.
“The City Council should be thanking our law enforcement for removing these dangerous criminals from Connecticut — NOT vilifying law enforcement,” the spokesperson said.
DHS went further, arguing the council had it backwards. “An oath of office is a commitment to upholding the law, not encouraging criminal illegal aliens to break it,” the spokesperson said, adding that “while these people smear ICE, law enforcement is arresting criminals and saving countless American lives.”
Who ICE Actually Arrested
The backdrop to the vote is an August ICE operation in Connecticut that resulted in more than 65 arrests, according to an ICE news release. Those arrests set off outrage among local officials, including Britton, who described the raids as “frightening” and a “federal invasion of immigration officials in Danbury.”
But DHS says the people taken into custody were not bystanders. The agency told Fox News Digital that those arrested had criminal convictions for assault, sexual assault, false imprisonment and molestation of a minor. Among them:
- Eddy Ruano, a Guatemalan national, convicted of molestation of a minor.
- Ericko Valenuela-Chua, a Guatemalan national, convicted of sex assault-carnal abuse, sex assault and assault.
- Elvin Caceres-Martinez, a Nicaraguan national, convicted of assault, weapon offense, aggravated assault with a gun, aggravated assault of a non-family member with strongarm, and carrying a prohibited weapon.
- Frank Guaman, an Ecuadorian national, convicted of sex assault and false imprisonment.
“The vilification of ICE must stop,” the DHS spokesperson said. “America’s brave ICE agents put their lives on the line every day to enforce U.S. law and arrest criminal illegal aliens — including gang members, rapists, and murderers.”
DHS also connected local rhetoric to officer safety, saying Britton’s criticism of ICE operations in the area “is contributing to a more than 1,300% increase in assaults against them as they put their lives on the line.”
Britton Pushes Back
Britton rejected the characterization of his position, telling Fox News Digital that “DHS is attacking an argument I never made” and that “I have no objection to arresting violent criminals.”
“What I object to is using a handful of serious criminal cases to justify fear-driven enforcement tactics that make entire immigrant communities feel targeted,” Britton said.
He argued that trust, not fear, keeps the city safe. “Danbury is safer when residents trust local government and law enforcement, not when innocent families are afraid that simply going to work, school, or church could put them in the middle of an immigration raid and subject themselves to detention or arrest,” he said. “Supporting law enforcement does not require remaining silent when federal enforcement creates unnecessary fear in our community.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the office of Danbury Mayor Roberto Alves for comment.
