ICE Takes Action Against CT To Find 3 Released From Prison

CONNECTICUT — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it served three immigration subpoenas Thursday to state Court Support Services Division officials for information on three "illegal aliens who were criminally arrested in Connecticut."

Connecticut passed the Trust Act last June, which became effective state law in January of this year. It sets conditions for state and local law enforcement authorities for voluntarily cooperating with ICE officials seeking to detain and deport undocumented immigrants.

But ICE said the state's "non-cooperation policies officials have refused to honor immigration detainers or even provide ICE with information about the release dates of criminal alien public safety threats."

ICE said the state "Department of Corrections has continued to ignore ICE’s requests for information and cooperation."

“It’s unfortunate that elected officials in Connecticut seem unable to grasp the public safety threat posed by the criminal illegal aliens these officials are attempting to shield,” acting Boston Field Office Director Todd M. Lyons said in a media release.

In an email to Patch in response to a request for comment and more information, state Court Support Services Division spokesperson Rhonda Hebert said, "the matter you called about has been forwarded to the Judicial Branch’s Legal Services unit for review." She also provided a link to the state's Trust Act of June 2019 for reference.

The law prohibits law enforcement from detaining someone solely on the basis of a civil immigration detainer unless the person is guilty of the most serious felonies, is on the terrorist watch list, or a judicial warrant has been issued and limits law enforcement sharing with ICE.

The Connecticut chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union says that "ICE detainer requests are just that: requests. They do not carry the weight of a warrant, and they provide no legal obligation or even justification for local law enforcement to detain, arrest, or jail someone."

In its press release, ICE said it "uses statutorily-authorized immigration subpoenas to obtain information as part of investigations regarding potential removable aliens." The agency said it "has not historically needed to use its lawful authority to issue these subpoenas to obtain information from other law enforcement agencies as most law enforcement agencies throughout the country willingly provide ICE with information regarding aliens arrested for crimes in the interest of public safety."

The national ACLU says an ICE detainer is a tool used to find and take into custody people who have been involved with local and state law enforcement and/or been in held in jails and prisons "and put them into the federal deportation system." The immigration hold, as it's called, asks a law enforcement and jails to hold a person "for an additional 48 hours after his or her release date in order to provide ICE agents extra time to decide whether to take the individual into federal custody for removal purposes."

The ACLU says that "ICE’s use of detainers to imprison people without due process and, in many cases, without any charges pending or probable causeof any violation has raised serious constitutional concerns. Local law enforcement agencies run the risk of litigation and damages liability when they honor ICE detainer requests."

But Lyons said,“These are the same criminals who’ve already been arrested for crimes by state and/or local law enforcement, often perpetrated against the very immigrant communities these officials claim to be protecting. Despite these short-sighted, reckless ‘sanctuary-for-criminal-aliens’ policies, ICE will continue to use all available legal tools to safeguard the public.

The people ICE said it wants information on are:

• A 31-year-old illegally present citizen of Honduras convicted of second degree manslaughter following a hit and run incident that caused the death of a Connecticut driver in New Haven in 2016. The Honduran national, who had served three years of a reduced sentence for his conviction of second degree manslaughter following the hit and run incident, was released in January 2020, by the State of Connecticut Department of Corrections. Despite a final order of removal issued against him by an immigration judge and despite ICE’s having lodged a detainer against him, he was released by the state last month;
• A 20-year-old unlawfully present Guatemalan national with a final order of removal, arrested in Stamford, Connecticut, and convicted of third degree burglary and second-degree robbery charges in October 2019, who was released by the State of Connecticut Department of Corrections in January 2020, as a result of Connecticut’s sanctuary policies, despite ICE having lodged a detainer against him;
• A 21-year-old illegally present citizen of the Dominican Republic, who was convicted of two counts of narcotics possession with intent to sell but was released by the State of Connecticut Department of Corrections, despite ICE having lodged a detainer for him.

As Patch reported in 2017, Edin Calderon, AKA "Wolverine," because of his missing teeth, pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter in a fatal 2016 hit-and-run. He was easy to locate, police said at the time because of his teeth and street name. Michael Kucher, 54, was hit and died as a result of his injuries. The prosecutor said Calderon didn't express remorse for his actions, it was reported. He was sentenced to an eight-year term, court records show, with four years to serve followed by probation. He was released in January, three months shy of the four year term.

In its press release, ICE said it's trying to "locate all three removable aliens who remain at large, and present a threat to the public, as a direct result of the State of Connecticut’s deliberate policy of providing sanctuary for criminal illegal aliens."