HARTFORD, Conn. — Standing on the steps of the Connecticut Supreme Court, top state leaders sent a clear message Monday to President Donald Trump’s administration that they will not back down in the face of federal power.

Dozens of leaders and advocates gathered around Gov. Ned Lamont for a ceremonial bill signing of Senate Bill 397, which allows citizens to sue federal immigration agents if they believe that their civil rights have been violated. In addition, the bill prevents all law enforcement officers, including from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, known as ICE, from wearing masks, except in limited situations.

Democrats who wrote the controversial bill have blasted ICE and Trump as citizens have been detained in Connecticut and across the nation. Republicans respond that states have no authority over federal immigration policy or the actions of federal agents that include ICE, the FBI and others. As such, Republicans predict that Connecticut’s law will eventually be overturned in federal court.

Asked if he and others were trying to show a tone of defiance, Lamont said, “I hope so. … I’m really glad that Connecticut is taking the lead here. I think we’re doing the right thing, and I hope the rest of the country takes notice. We do it in strong association with our police. We have some of the safest streets in the United States of America. We do it right. We also do right by the people in this state, regardless of where they happen to be born.”

But Republicans have spoken strongly against the new law in debates on the House and Senate floors.

House Republican leader Vincent Candelora of North Branford dismissed the bill signing as an election-year stunt.

“Today’s rally made clear where the governor and General Assembly Democrats’ priorities lie — political theater in an election year,” Candelora said Monday. “They rushed in front of cameras to promote a flawed bill that invites litigation, exposes federal and even local law enforcement to legal liability, and even bars veterans from applying military training toward a law enforcement career. Meanwhile, Connecticut residents are still waiting for direct relief from the affordability crisis these same Democrats created. Their priorities are badly out of whack.”

Trump has strongly supported ICE throughout the controversies and has suggested that the agency’s name should be changed to NICE — for the National Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

House Speaker Matt Ritter of Hartford said the long tradition of law enforcement’s respect for avoiding arrests in churches had been carried down consistently for decades by Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.

“We said you can’t go into places of worship, you can’t interrupt critical medical care, and all students should be allowed to walk to school freely, be educated and feel safe in their classrooms,” Ritter said. “Only one administration, only one president decided to tear down those norms, tear down what had been precedents set by Republican and Democratic presidents. It’s hard to imagine how on Earth we can go from 40 years of stability and predictability in these cases in state enforcement and federal enforcement and rip it all down. It’s cruel, it’s unnecessary, and it’s wrong — and we respond here in Connecticut like we always do.”

California, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Illinois have all passed similar measures, and legislation is also pending in other states. While the issue is relatively new in some states, the senators noted that California’s law is more than 30 years old.

Multiple bills

Besides the ICE bill, the state is pushing back against the Trump administration on various issues.

Both the House and Senate passed a controversial bill to ensure the status quo in a state that already has one of the highest vaccination rates in the nation. Democrats who favored the bill said they were trying to reinforce the state’s policies at a time when the federal government has raised skepticism about vaccines under Trump and the nation’s chief health official, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. But Republicans said they were highly concerned about religious liberty and parents’ rights to make decisions for their children.

“The vaccine bill is a little like this,” Lamont said when asked by The Courant. “We’re just trying to keep people safe. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

In addition, House Bill 5001 contains provisions to prevent ICE or any other federal agents from being with 250 feet of polling places on election day or interfering with voters and elections. There are exceptions for normal law enforcement, such as breaking up a fight and keeping the peace at a polling place.

“This bill addresses what we’ve heard from the Trump administration — that Donald Trump wants to take over our elections and nationalize our elections,” said Rep. Matthew Blumenthal, a Stamford Democrat who led the debate on the elections bill on the House floor. “His close allies have urged him to deploy ICE at the polls, intimidating voters. When his administration has been asked on the record, just to say that they won’t do that, they’ve refused to commit to it. So this is a very logical and urgent protection for all of our voters and elections officials.”

Blumenthal added, “We’re not going to allow federal agents or ICE to be intimidating people close to polling places. Given what has happened in Minnesota and the violence and chaos we’ve seen them conduct in Minneapolis, people in Connecticut have a very well-founded fear of these activities, and so we don’t want them anywhere near the polls.”

Trump and his administration have touted arrests by ICE on the Department of Homeland Security’s website.

“Every day, the NICE men and women of ICE are putting their lives on the line to make America safe again,” said Lauren Bis, the acting assistant secretary. “Just yesterday, they arrested murderers, pedophiles, arsonists, and sex criminals. Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S.”

State of the State Address

Lamont sharply raised the profile of the issue during his State of the State Address in February when he talked about ICE agents.

“That young mother shot twice in the head in Minneapolis,” Lamont told the standing-room-only crowd at the historic Hall of the House at the state Capitol. “The White House called her a domestic terrorist; she reminded me of my daughter.”

Lamont added, “Connecticut is protecting our schools and courthouses, where people go not to break the law but because they are following the law. ICE, everywhere you go uninvited, violence follows. Go home. We are keeping Connecticut safe without you.”

Those lines brought a standing ovation from Democrats as they said later that the comments about Immigration and Customs Enforcement were the highlight of Lamont’s speech. But some Republicans shook their heads in disagreement.

On Monday, Lamont said that the times have changed for students attending school in Connecticut.

“Going back to Ronald Reagan, they called these kids the dreamers,” Lamont recalled. “Now, some are calling them criminal aliens.”

State Attorney General William Tong, who has filed numerous lawsuits against the Trump administration, said that all sides need to work together.

“I wish we had a federal partner that didn’t hurt people,” Tong said. “I will defy anybody who wants to hurt people here in Connecticut. I swore an oath to that.”

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