Danbury, Connecticut's Democrat-controlled city council voted 18-2 last week to allow non-citizen legal immigrants and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients to serve as police officers, a move the Department of Homeland Security says amounts to "encouraging criminal illegal aliens." The vote arrived weeks after an August ICE operation across Connecticut that produced more than 65 arrests.
City council member Joe Britton, a Democrat, framed the measure as a direct response to that enforcement activity. He told Fox News Digital the timing was deliberate and that the vote "sends a message to our immigrant community at large that you are welcome in Danbury." DHS did not accept that framing. A department spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the council "should be thanking our law enforcement for removing these dangerous criminals from Connecticut" and that "an oath of office is a commitment to upholding the law, not encouraging criminal illegal aliens to break it."
The August arrests
DHS released details on several individuals taken into custody during the Connecticut operation. Eddy Ruano, a Guatemalan national, was convicted of molestation of a minor. Ericko Valenuela-Chua, also from Guatemala, carried convictions for sex assault-carnal abuse, sex assault, and assault. Elvin Caceres-Martinez, a Nicaraguan national, had convictions for assault, a weapon offense, aggravated assault with a gun, aggravated assault of a non-family member with strongarm, and carrying a prohibited weapon. Frank Guaman, an Ecuadorian national, was convicted of sex assault and false imprisonment.
Britton had called the raids "frightening" and characterized them as a "federal invasion of immigration officials in Danbury." He told Fox News Digital that "DHS is attacking an argument I never made" and that his objection is to enforcement tactics that make innocent families afraid to go to work, school, or church. "I have no objection to arresting violent criminals," he said.
Danbury Mayor Roberto Alves's office did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. The DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital that Britton's type of rhetoric is contributing to what the department described as a more than 1,300 percent increase in assaults against ICE agents.