Connecticut will use millions in state funds to support thousands of immigrants who had been legally living and working under Temporary Protected Status in the state until recently.
Gov. Ned Lamont announced Wednesday that he is directing $5 million from the Federal Cuts Response Fund to the state Department of Social Services to distribute to refugee agencies to support TPS holders who are now ineligible to work or receive unemployment assistance. The governor's office did not elaborate on the type and nature of the services to be provided.
The state action came after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way in a June 25 ruling to end the TPS legal protections for Haitian and Syrian migrants who have fled violence and natural disasters. The Trump administration has moved to terminate TPS for about 1 million people from more than a dozen countries.
on Monday, based on the Supreme Court ruling.
Under federal law, individuals granted TPS are eligible for work permits, cannot be detained on the basis of their immigration status, and are not subject to removal while they retain TPS. The termination ends employment authorization and opens TPS holders to the potential for arrest and deportation.
An estimated 9,460 people with TPS live in Connecticut, according to a congressional report. The state is second in New England only to Massachusetts with 44,825.
"Many TPS holders have called Connecticut home for years, raising families, building businesses, contributing to our economy, and enriching the fabric of our state," Lamont said in a statement.
"It is shameful that the Trump administration has decided to strip these individuals of their legal status and ability to work, knowing full well their countries of origin are still in the grips of violence and economic collapse. The added threat that ICE may target them for deportation shows the Trump immigration policy for what it truly is: cruelty and disruption rather than keeping communities safe," he said.
The governor's funding announcement came a day after his reelection campaign launched a new TV ad highlighting how Lamont has stood up to President Donald Trump, including on immigration policy. The 30-second spot references the so-called ICE oversight bill that Lamont signed in May that prohibits federal immigration arrests at schools and other protected places without signed judicial warrants.
Hamden state Rep. Josh Elliott, who is challenging Lamont in an Aug. 11 primary for the Democratic nomination, criticized the governor's immigration record in a statement Wednesday. Lamont has resisted greater protections for immigrants under the state Trust Act that Democratic legislators, immigrants and immigrant rights advocates proposed, Elliott said. The Trust Act has limited state and local cooperation in federal immigration enforcement since 2013.
"It's rich to see the governor touting the legislature's Trust Act after he fought key protections every step of the way," Elliott said. "It took months of pressure from stakeholders and advocates to get him to protect our immigrant neighbors. He can try to revise history, but voters will see through it."
Greenwich state Sen. Ryan Fazio, the Republican nominee for governor, blasted Lamont over taxes and spending in a campaign statement responding to Wednesday's funding announcement. Fazio also criticized the Democratic governor for choosing to spend millions of taxpayer dollars without legislative approval.
"Governor Lamont says Connecticut won't turn its back on these communities, but for eight years he has turned his back on the citizens he was elected to serve," Fazio said.
The legislature and Lamont last November established the Federal Cuts Response Fund using $500 million in state surplus funds to redress federal budget cuts and other policy changes reducing federal funding to Connecticut. Legislators appropriated an additional $50 million during the 2026 legislative session.
Lamont sent a letter Wednesday to the legislature's four Democratic majority leaders and the two Republican minority leaders notifying them of his planned $5 million allocation. The bipartisan leaders have 24 hours to reject the spending directive. It takes four votes to disapprove a transfer or expenditure from the contingency fund; no previous allocations have been rejected.
State Rep. Vincent J. Candelora, R-North Branford, and state Sen. Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield, the House and Senate GOP leaders, sent a letter to Democratic majority leaders Wednesday urging that the bipartisan leaders meet to vote on the proposed $5 million allocation. No such meetings were called for the previous four rounds of funding.
"Since receiving authorization to set aside funds in a 'Federal Cuts Response Fund,' Governor Lamont has, for the fifth time now, chosen to spend those funds to support an ongoing fight against what he sees as an unjust war on illegal immigrants in our state," Candelora and Harding said. "Worse, this latest expenditure isn't even in response to a federal funding cut, but is spending $5 million in state taxpayer dollars to mitigate a legal change in an immigration status which has always, by definition, been temporary."
The governor's office said approval of the latest $5 million allocation would leave a balance of approximately $262.5 million remaining in Federal Cuts Response Fund. The funding remains available for appropriation through June 30, 2027.
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This article originally published at Lamont directs $5 million from CT reserve fund to help TPS holders who lost the right to work.