Immigration advocates at a demonstration in Meriden called for new state laws and existing ones be enforced regarding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
About a hundred people gathered Thursday afternoon to support immigrants in Meriden, along with the man who was arrested at the courthouse last Wednesday.
Stream Connecticut News for free, 24/7, wherever you are.
“It's our responsibility that any time we see someone who is being oppressed, suffering unrighteously, that we stand up and that we don't turn a blind eye," Yvette Cortez, a Meriden City Council member, said.
Advocates recorded cell phone video of the moment Leonel Aimara-Diaz of Ecuador was taken into custody.
A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson said Aimara-Diaz didn’t show up for an immigration hearing and was ordered to be removed by an immigration judge. They added that he faces two DUI charges and two traffic violations.
A statement from the DHS spokesperson also said in part: "Several Judicial Court Marshals impeded the arrest, going as far as telling Almara-Diaz to hide upstairs. One Judicial Court Marshal blocked the elevator and exits and threatened one of the officers by saying: 'I’ll catch you outside and rip your face off.' Once outside, anti-ICE agitators blocked the officer’s exit, refusing to move when asked."
A spokesperson for the state judicial branch previously said, based on their investigation so far, marshals did not get in the way of ICE.
Local
Advocates are also questioning the actions of court marshals but for different reasons.
They said ICE agents were allowed into the courthouse, which is a violation of the Trust Act, the state law that prohibits local law enforcement from working with ICE.
Gov. Ned Lamont confirmed that ICE agents did not have a judicial warrant to enter the courthouse, which is required. Instead, agents had a civil warrant.
The City of Meriden said last week that they and local police did not know about the arrest until after it happened.
State police are investigating whether any state law was broken.
“They weren't supposed to be there without a judicial warrant, and if they had stopped them, maybe this wouldn't have happened," Ed McKeon with Middlesex Immigrant Rights Alliance said.
DHS did not respond to NBC Connecticut's question about the civil warrant or provide a comment responding to the demonstration, but a spokesperson did say in the statement:
"The ability of law enforcement to make arrests of criminal illegal aliens in courthouses is common sense. It conserves valuable law enforcement resources because they already know where a target will be. It is also safer for our officers and the community. These illegal aliens have gone through security and been screened to not have any weapons."
Advocates said their activism doesn’t end after the demonstration. They plan to canvass the community to provide resources to vulnerable families.