08/31/2026
ICE's actions in Connecticut are inhumane, immoral and illegal
By State Representative Nick Gauthier
Special to The Day
Kidnapping parents as they drop their children off to school is un-American, cruel and blatantly evil.
In recent days, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has stolen parents from their children’s morning bus stops here in Connecticut.
In contradiction to its own statements, ICE often takes people who are following established rules and reporting to the government as required. For instance, when ICE detains people at courthouses those agents are detaining people who are following the law by showing up for their court dates.
Yet, under the direction of President Donald Trump and his administration lackeys, everyday people whose legal status was valid one day are being changed by the administration the next.
As with most of this administration’s actions — which are enacted unilaterally and without legal justification or democratic involvement from the people or our elected lawmakers — the chaos they create is the point.
“With liberty and justice for all” are not empty words to mindlessly recite at the end of the Pledge of Allegiance. These words, when enshrined in practice, reflect the principles of the America that our constitutional framers envisioned, and the America that most of us still strive for and believe in.
Laws are only meaningful when applied to all equally without fear or favor. Rights only afforded to some will eventually protect none.
In America, our constitution establishes universal legal rights. Among these legally protected rights are the presumption of innocence, due process and the guarantee that those accused must have their day in court with competent legal representation. Yet instead of protecting human rights and operating within the bounds of the law, ICE endangers our communities and causes havoc by disappearing parents at school bus stops.
For the child whose parent is stolen away in the blink of an eye, who does that child return to in the evening? What purpose does it serve to subject our children to this abject cruelty?
Sadly, it appears that cruelty itself is the point. Beyond the aim of trying to satisfy a shrinking but increasingly radicalized political base, the only interests being served are the interests of those who profit personally from this scheme. From private, for-profit detention facilities, and wasting our taxpayer dollars on paying thugs who have already maimed and murdered countless Americans in the streets, ICE’s actions at the behest of the federal administration do not help to improve any of our lives. It only serves to destroy others, inflict pain and incite fear.
ICE stealing your neighbor away is not going to lower your gas prices. Your health care will not improve because a parent was taken away from their child without being afforded basic legal rights. In fact, these actions only further erode basic trust and decency within our communities and our legal system. With an agency like ICE in operation which completely disregards constitutional rights and responsibilities, your ability to live freely without having to look over your shoulder is in jeopardy. Your “guaranteed” freedoms are no longer guaranteed under a governmental regime that has determined that punishing its enemies and vulnerable populations is more important than upholding the rule of law.
Every day we allow ICE to exist and permit their inhumanity to persist we stray further from the promise of our own ideals.
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
— The New Colossus, Emma Lazarus
State Representative Nick Gauthier serves the 38th state House district, representing Waterford and part of Montville.
Kidnapping parents as they drop their children off to school is un-American, cruel and blatantly evil.
