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On Wednesday, ICE agents arrested a man inside the Meriden courthouse after Judicial Marshal Services received a Warrant of Removal/Deportation based on a final order from an immigration judge.
Miguel Castro and his rapid-response coalition — what the Centinal more accurately calls the rabid responders — rushed the building, filmed, shouted, and then demanded the public treat a federal enforcement action as a crime scene.
Castro’s videos tell his own special version of the story in which he alleges ICE “stormed the courthouse because they knew Latinos were inside.” He claimed ICE was “hunting our neighbors” without a warrant and “racially profiling” Latinos.
He called ICE the “gestapo,” “kidnappers,” and a “rogue agency” that “stormed the courthouse with no documentation.” He accused a person who merely shook an ICE officer’s hand of “bigotry”: “if you’re shaking his hands, you are a racist… it is bigotry… it is kidnapping members of our community.”
With whistles blowing in the background, he shouted “you’re not welcome here,” “we will dismantle ICE,” “you will no longer be employed,” and “you will be held accountable… for the people you violated.” He told ICE to “get out of Meriden.”
Castro has previously claimed that enforcing U.S. immigration law is nothing short of “white supremacy,” “Christian nationalism,” “Jim Crow 2.0 segregation tactics,” and “systemic ethnic cleansing.”
Today Castro shared footage illegally recorded inside the courthouse. He also appeared upset that judicial marshals "cooperated with undercover ICE agents, allowing them into the building to execute an arrest allegedly based on racial profiling." As such, Castro is claiming the marshals "directly violated" the Trust Act. He added a meme to the comments under his post, implying MAGA is the new KKK.
Stephen Ment, executive director of external affairs for the Connecticut Judicial Branch, confirmed ICE arrested an individual after marshals received a removal warrant stating the man was subject to deportation based on a final immigration-judge order. Ment said the branch is reviewing the warrant and the video “to ensure that Connecticut state law was followed.”
That is not “no documentation” as Castro claimed.
A final deportation order is a final deportation order.
Nonetheless, the rabid responders were especially miffed about ICE agents wearing masks and think that Connecticut can stop federal immigration agents at the courthouse door if they want. The activists do not appear to understand the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Federal officers enforcing federal immigration law are not required to submit to state laws that turn courthouses into sanctuaries. In fact, the Department of Justice has already sued Connecticut, Gov. Ned Lamont, and Attorney General William Tong over the state’s attempt to dictate how ICE officers dress and where they may arrest people with lawful removal orders.
One activist fell after a judicial marshal pushed the crowd back from the officers. Another said she was pepper-sprayed. Lamont’s communications office called the videos “concerning” and said state police are investigating, adding that courthouses “need to be places of calm and safety” and that the administration worked with the Chief Justice and legislature on rules for immigration enforcement near courts.
House Speaker Matt Ritter said lawmakers “knew there were going to be challenges,” planned to call the attorney general’s office, and described “a very chaotic situation which is exactly what we were trying to avoid by passing these very laws.”
It is telling that Ritter’s first instinct is to question whether ICE violated Connecticut’s sanctuary laws. Lamont’s office treated the videos as the problem. The Judicial Branch is reviewing whether state law was followed. Missing from that list, however, is whether Castro’s coalition is responsible for creating the chaos by crowding federal officers executing a removal warrant, and whether the governor will hold his own judicial officer accountable for pushing a protester who had inserted herself into an active arrest.
If the judicial marshal needed to use force to clear people from blocking officers who had presented a warrant, that is not a scandal. That is his job. And if Lamont really wants calm inside and outside of courthouses, he might start by telling these activists that screaming “gestapo” at federal agents and promising to dismantle ICE is not conducive to minimizing the chaos.
Note the Centinal contacted DHS, ICE and Attorney General Tong's office for comments, and will update this article accordingly.
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