Activity from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has spiked in the last two days, particularly in Danbury and Stamford, according to public officials and activists. Monday morning, agents were seen at Kennedy Park in Danbury arresting men who were day laborers, according to activists, and they returned Tuesday to make more arrests.
The agency has released no public information tied to the apparent arrests, although videos have been popping up on social media that include people being handcuffed in the street, on sidewalks and in parking lots before being taken away in vehicles. It is unclear where they were taken or what followed.
"For operational security and the safety of our officers, ICE will not disclose or discuss law enforcement operations," an ICE spokesperson said by email in response to a request for comment from CT Insider.
"Under President (Donald) Trump and Secretary (Markwayne) Mullin, if you break the law, you will face the consequences. Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S.," said the email sent from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The circumstances have put the community on edge, officials say. Officials in Danbury have not had contact with ICE and could not confirm any arrests, Taylor O'Brien, chief of staff for Danbury Mayor Roberto Alves, said. Officials in Stamford did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment Tuesday. Alves, in a video posted on Facebook, encouraged immigrants to know their rights in these situations.
"First day of school and a lot going on and a community that is scared. A community that is scared to go to work, a community that's scared to send their kids to school, a community whose kids are scared to go home and have a parent missing because of the ICE operations yesterday and today throughout our state, but more heavily here in Danbury," said Alves, who is also the Democratic Party state chairman.
The lack of public information has led to community activists trying to collect any information they can in an effort to quantify the arrests and lend support to those arrested and their families. There have been over 20 arrests in Danbury in the past two days, according to Carolina Bortolleto, who is with the advocacy groups Greater Danbury Area Unites for Immigrants and CT Students for a Dream. In Stamford, organizer Marcella Branca with Stamford Norwalk United with Immigrants said there have been at least six arrests, although ICE has not confirmed any of them.
There is little publicly available information on ICE arrests, which have spiked this summer, according to the Associated Press The Trump administration has reportedly sought to reach a total of at least 2,000 arrests a day nationally, the New York Times reported. Both outlets said the arrests are an indication of the administration's mass-deportation agenda being followed through on.
The agency will sometimes release details of individual arrests, but it only does so voluntarily. ICE doesn't generally release arrest reports or other similar records. And the people it arrests generally have their cases heard in immigration court, where case files are not open to the public.
Olga Guerra hadn't spoken to her husband, Fidel Romero, since she says federal immigration agents arrested him and a coworker on their way to work in Stamford early Monday morning, leaving his empty truck sitting outside a convenience store.
Romero was among the two dozen, or so, people believed to be arrested by ICE in the roundups the past two days. He has three children with Guerra.
"I tried my best right now to tell my kids to be strong as well, and dad is going to be fine," Guerra told CT Insider on Tuesday afternoon during a phone interview, her voice cracking with emotion. "I don't know. I feel like there's no right words right now."
The operation continued Tuesday, which was the first day of classes for public schools in Stamford and Danbury. Branca said she saw men wearing ICE vests in two vehicles facing a school bus stop Tuesday morning in Stamford while children waited to be picked up.
"It was honestly very unsettling, to see the two cars facing the kids going to their first day of school," Branca said. "It's not a nice thing to see."
The Stamford Public School District is aware ICE has had an increased presence in the city, spokesperson Kathleen Steinberg said.
"We want to reiterate that Stamford Public Schools welcomes all children, regardless of race, religion, gender, disability, socioeconomic background or immigration status," Steinberg said in a statement. "We are grateful to our community partners and the SPS Welcome Center staff who are working hard to provide support to students and their families who have been impacted by the recent ICE activity."
The Danbury Public Schools did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Immigrant rights groups and local residents have posted several videos online that show ICE agents taking people into custody Monday and Tuesday, often in the middle of the street.
A video posted to Facebook on Tuesday showed five ICE agents attempting to wrestle a man's arms behind his back as he was lying on the street in front of a preschool center in Danbury, his arms folded underneath him.
"You're going to get sprayed," a masked agent said on the video as he pointed a canister of what appeared to be pepper spray at the man's face.
"Put your arms out," another agent said.
Two other videos sent to CT Insider showed what appeared to be at least five unmarked law enforcement vehicles parked in the street near a preschool center, with federal agents getting in and out of the vehicles.
In separate videos posted to Instagram by Greater Danbury Area Unites for Immigrants on Monday, what appeared to be a lone ICE agent wrestled with a man in the middle of the street next to an auto shop as he told the man to stop resisting. A second agent then ran over to assist.
Later in the same video, the first ICE agent can be seen holding a Taser over the man as he lies prone on the street with his arms handcuffed behind his back. It's not clear from the video whether the officer deployed the Taser.
ICE agents appear to have detained several people in front of the auto shop, the video shows.
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This article originally published at Videos show apparent ICE arrests in Danbury and Stamford.