Sanctuary State Protects Dozens of Illegal Aliens with “Significant Criminality in the United States”

Dozens of illegal immigrants with felony convictions have been arrested in a blue state that over a decade ago proudly enacted a law banning local police from cooperating with federal authorities to remove criminal aliens. The recent apprehensions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) illustrate how sanctuary measures offering illegal aliens blanket protection endanger communities by allowing serious offenders to roam freely. In this case legislators in Connecticut not only passed a bill in 2013 forbidding local law enforcement agencies from cooperating with the feds they strengthened the existing law earlier this year in response to President Trump’s immigration crackdown. Under the amended version illegal aliens can sue towns or cities if local police help ICE and their legal fees could be covered by the very taxpayers they often victimize.

The original law is called Trust Act to highlight trust between immigrants and police who, under the legislation protect their privacy and refrain from reporting them to federal authorities. State officials assert that the law “maintains Connecticut’s sovereignty by preventing deputization of local and state law enforcement for immigration enforcement,” according to a document issued by the state’s attorney general a few days before Trump’s inauguration. In 2019 the Trust Act was expanded to close loopholes and further limit the expenditure of state resources on federal immigration enforcement. The update restricts federal authorities’ access to interview an individual in custody and prohibits bail commissioner or intake, assessment or referral specialists or employees of a school police or security department from sharing information with ICE. It also clarifies that local and state law enforcement are not required to arrest, transport, or detain people for ICE and prevents local and state jails from allowing ICE to roam their facilities.

“Many of Connecticut’s immigrant families are understandably concerned about how anticipated changes in federal immigration policy might affect them,” reads the document issued by the Connecticut Attorney General’s office earlier this year. “It is the policy of the State of Connecticut to value, honor, and respect our immigrants and refugees: they are our neighbors, family members, and friends. They are coworkers, bosses, parents, caretakers, and business owners. The entire State of Connecticut benefits when our immigrant community feels safe. After all, fostering trust between immigrant communities and law enforcement was a main reason why the Connecticut legislature enacted the Trust Act.” Dated January 15, 2025, the memorandum was issued to put the state’s immigrant community at ease by reaffirming the attorney general’s “deep commitment to respecting, honoring, and protecting its immigrants” during Trump’s presidency.

But many of the illegal immigrants the state has protected have violated the so-called trust. That is why the recently arrested criminal aliens were rounded up as part of a special ICE initiative called Operation Broken Trust targeting transnational organized crime, gangs and egregious offenders. In just four days federal agents apprehended 65 illegal aliens, nearly half of them convicted or charged in the United States with serious felonies, including kidnapping, assault, drug offenses, weapons violations, and sex crimes. Others were identified as members of transnational gangs or had criminal histories in their native countries. “Sanctuary legislation like Connecticut’s Trust Act only endangers the communities it claims to protect,” said Patricia H. Hyde, the Boston-based ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) director in charge of Operation Broken Trust. “Such laws only force law enforcement professionals to release criminal alien offenders back into the very communities they have already victimized.” Hyde confirmed that many of the individuals apprehended are rapists, drug traffickers, child sex predators and members of violent transnational criminal gangs. They all attempted to subvert justice by hiding out in Connecticut, she said.

Here are a few examples of the illegal immigrants arrested in the recent operation: Jaime Timoteo Gonzalez-Moran, a 37-year-old Guatemalan living in in Norwalk with three convictions for driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol as well as sexual assault. A 43-year-old Ecuadorean, Efren Mauricio Guallpa-Shurshanay, in Danbury convicted of sexual assault. Another Danbury resident, 35-year-old Ruben Antonio Fuentes of El Salvador, with convictions for drug and cocaine possession, harassing, carrying a prohibited weapon, cruelty toward a child and obscene communication. A 19-year-old Guatemalan in Stamford, Marlon Morales-Cante, with a criminal history that includes charges for assault, carrying a dangerous weapon, reckless endangerment, and conspiracy to commit assault.

The post Sanctuary State Protects Dozens of Illegal Aliens with “Significant Criminality in the United States” appeared first on Judicial Watch.