Advocates planned to hold a rally outside the Hamden Police Department on Tuesday evening over allegations that police could have done more to stop a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid at a car wash last week that led to eight people being taken into custody.
Ahead of the rally, police issued a statement saying dispatchers received a call from a federal special agent with Homeland Security Investigations just before 8:15 a.m. last Wednesday who alerted them to an investigation that would be carried out on Dixwell Avenue in Hamden between 9:15 a.m. and 10 a.m. The agents reportedly said the operation would take about 15 minutes and that they would contact police once it was over.
“However, the Special Agent would not provide an exact address nor a cross street location and clarified that HSI did not require assistance from the Hamden Police Department,” said Lt. Robert Manfield of the Hamden Police Department. “Notably, the special agent did not mention ‘ICE’ at all or refer to it during the call.”
John Lugo of Unidad Latina en Accion — an immigrant rights group that organized the rally — said police should have known when they were contacted by HSI that there was a potential for an ICE raid. He said he believes this information should have been shared with the community before it happened.
Hamden officials push back against recent ICE raids. ‘We strongly denounce this horrific action.’
According to Lugo, activists planned to gather outside the police department before a number of them planned to speak during the public comment portion of the Legislative Council meeting. He accused police of violating the state’s Trust Act and the city’s “Welcoming City” ordinance that was passed in April to protect immigrants.
In his statement, Manfield disputed some of the criticisms of the police department.
“The Hamden Police Department completely complied with the state of Connecticut’s Trust Act,” he said. “No Hamden police officers were present or involved in the event. The Hamden Police Department was not provided any details and/or specifics of the ICE operation until after the event had taken place.”
Lugo said activists are demanding answers from city officials following the raid last Wednesday at Optimo Carwash, which reportedly involved multiple parents of school-aged children being detained.
Criticisms of police have drawn ire from some state lawmakers.
State Reps. Michael DiGiovancarlo and Greg Howard, both leaders on the legislature’s Public Safety and Security Committee, issued a joint statement over the weekend saying the criticisms are “off-base.” Both lawmakers, who are active-duty police officers, said that “inter-agency notification is a standard professional courtesy that federal and state law enforcement agencies routinely extend to local departments when operating within their jurisdiction.”
“A failure of this type of communication between agencies could result in chaos and confusion, putting officers and the public at risk if local police do not have advance notice of other agencies operating in their jurisdiction,” the legislators’ statement said.
The lawmakers also said alerting the public to “pending law enforcement operations would constitute a serious violation of professional standards.”
“In any other case, if an employee within a law enforcement agency provided information, they had by virtue of their employment to the public to impede or intercede with an investigation, they would be fired and potentially arrested,” said DiGiovancarlo, the committee’s House Vice Chairman.
Howard, House Ranking Member of the committee, said it could violate state law if local police were to notify the public of impending actions of federal authorities.
Both lawmakers said police officers should not be forced to choose between “potential criminal liability and administrative consequences.”
“This is exactly what political leaders in Hamden are doing,” DiGiovancarlo and Howard said.
Mayor Lauren Garrett did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. She joined others at a press conference last week condemning the raid, describing the actions of the Trump administration and ICE as “deplorable” and “disgusting.”
