The Danbury, Connecticut city council voted to allow non-citizen migrants, including DACA recipients and non-citizen legal residents, to serve as city police officers. The measure passed lopsidedly, with only two of twenty council members voting against it.
The vote came shortly after federal immigration officers conducted enforcement raids in the city, and council members openly framed the policy as a response to those raids.
Council member Joe Britton said applicants for the police force will still undergo the same background checks as any other candidate, and said non-citizens who join the force will be treated no differently once in uniform.
“In the Army, I learned quickly your background doesn’t matter when you put on the uniform. Same team. Same mission. I believe the same applies to our police,” Britton said.
Britton also defended the timing of the vote directly. “It’s legal. It’s allowed. It’s been recommended. … I do think it’s timely, and this vote sends a message to our immigrant community that you are welcome in Danbury,” he said.
Danbury Mayor Roberto Alves, who has said he was an illegal alien when he first arrived in the United States, backed the policy change. Alves had criticized ICE after agents spent several days conducting enforcement operations in the city, saying the raids emptied out local businesses.
“We don’t see folks going to the stores. We still see parents scared to send their kids to school. We still see parents scared to go to work,” Alves said.
The policy shift comes amid a steep drop in school enrollment in Danbury. Activists supporting illegal immigrants have raised concerns that registration in the city has fallen by roughly 700 students since last year. The Danbury News-Times reported in October that enrollment was down more than 500 students, with the decline concentrated among English-learners, multilingual students, and low-income students as the migrant population in the area has shrunk.
Border czar Tom Homan pushed back on the characterization of ICE’s operations in an interview with CNN, saying the agency is carrying out its legal mandate.
“We’re out there to look for illegal aliens with final orders of removal, those who overstay, those who are criminals, and we’re out there looking for them and arresting them,” Homan said. “ICE has no intention of terrorizing children. That is just a political statement, you know, to enrage the American people.”
