Connecticut Doubles Down on its Sanctuary Law, Penalizes Companies that Do Business with ICE
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April 14, 2025
Ira Mehlman
Media Director
FAIR Take | April 2025
Connecticut officially became a sanctuary state with the enactment of the Trust Act in 2013. That law prohibited local law enforcement from honoring Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers in most circumstances, excepting instances where an alien has been convicted of a felony or has an outstanding arrest warrant.
That original legislation did not seem to go far enough in protecting illegal aliens in Connecticut, however. So, to rectify what one lawmaker described as “various loopholes and problems in the law that needed to be addressed,” the Connecticut Legislature amended the Trust Act in 2019. The updated Trust Act prohibited law enforcement from detaining someone solely on the basis of an ICE detainer, instead requiring a judicial warrant, unless the alien is guilty of our most serious felonies or is on the terrorist watch list.
The law also limited information sharing with ICE and also expanded the type of law enforcement officers subject to the limitations. Moreover, the 2019 law requires Connecticut law enforcement departments to notify an individual “when ICE has requested their detention,” presumably so that the individual can go into hiding.
https://www.fairus.org/news/state-and-local/connecticut-sanctuary-law-companies-ice
