Collaborative Center for Justice

🚨TELL CT ELECTED OFFICIALS TO PROTECT IMMIGRANTS DURING THE UPCOMING SPECIAL SESSION! 🚨

As legislators plan for an upcoming special legislative session in the next few weeks, we need Governor Lamont, House Leadership, and Senate Leadership to hear from us - Our immigrant communities need to feel safe in the place they call home!
MAKE A CALL NOW!

☎️ Governor Lamont: 202-640-5612

☎️ Speaker Ritter: 888-343-2060

☎️ Senator Looney: 888-726-3132

In the last two months, we have seen ICE ramp up operations in Connecticut! 

Armed and masked ICE agents are terrorizing our communities — abducting parents in front of their children, targeting workers, and tearing students from their futures. These actions violate the dignity, safety, and basic rights of our neighbors. This is a campaign of fear, and it has no place in our state.

Immediate and urgent action is needed to prevent our state and local resources from being used to advance the federal government's cruel mass deportation agenda. We urge our Connecticut elected officials to stand with us and take immediate action and take up the issue of immigrant protections during the upcoming special session:

✅ Protect the Personal Information of our immigrant community from being used for immigration enforcement

✅ Protect Immigrants at Courthouses

✅ Preserve HUSKY Medicaid for undocumented children and pregnant individuals

✅ Make our Communities Safer by Prohibiting the Use of State and Local Resources to Assist Immigration Enforcement

We’re excited to share that the Trust Act (HB 7212) received a favorable vote in the Judiciary Committee, with many of the key amendments we supported included to help strengthen the bill. To learn more:

CT bill would further protect immigrants. GOP lawmaker calls it ‘un-American’ Rep. Doug Dubitsky, R-Chaplin and Patrick Callahan, R-New Fairfield, both argued that the bill would endanger Connecticut residents.

The Trust Act is one of the strongest protections Connecticut has for immigrant families against mass deportations. In 2025, we must strengthen the Trust Act to enhance accountability measures so local resources are not used to separate families.
Go here to urge your state legislatures to strengthen the Trust Act -- https://linktr.ee/TRUSTACT

Since 2013 Connecticut’s Trust Act has aimed to limit how state and local law enforcement can interact with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). For example, the Trust Act prohibits local and state law enforcement from arresting someone solely on the basis of a detainer — a request from ICE that local police detain a person for up to 48 hours so federal agents can pick them up.

Did you know landlords can force most month-to-month renters out of their homes on short notice or refuse to renew a lease for no reason? Passing HB 6889 would protect thousands of additional Connecticut tenants.

Last week was a big success, but the fight continues! The Just Cause bill was voted out of the Housing Committee of the state legislature, so to the House of Representatives it goes! The final Housing Committee vote was 11-8, notably with Democratic lawmakers Rep. Minnie Gonzalez and Rep. Larry Butler joining Republican committee members in voting against the proposal.

Please urge your state representative to co-sponsor HB 6889. Getting past the Housing Committee is a step toward victory that deserves celebration--but let us press on and show that the tenant movement is here to stay!

To learn more about how the Just Cause bill will be advancing: https://www.newhavenindependent.org/article/lapse_of_time_eviction_bill

NPR recently hosted Connecticut Tenants Union leaders to discuss the role of tenant unions in protecting renters' rights, as well as the importance of expanding “just cause” protection from no-fault evictions. Listen to the episode here: https://www.ctpublic.org/show/where-we-live/2024-12-10/tenant-unions-can-give-renters-more-leverage-but-they-can-face-pushback