President Donald Trump speaks to military families at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Feb. 13, 2026.
HARTFORD, Conn. - The Trump administration has added tiny Connecticut to the list of states it has sued over “sanctuary” policies prohibiting local law enforcement officers from cooperating with federal authorities seeking to detail illegal immigrants.
The Justice Department recently sued Connecticut and the City of New Haven, claiming state law and city policies illegally interfere with federal law enforcement. The Connecticut Trust Act, passed in 2013, generally bars state and city police from communicating with federal immigration officers or detaining illegal aliens at their request.
“Connecticut has no lawful interest in assisting removable aliens to evade federal law enforcement,” the Justice Department said in the lawsuit filed last week in federal court in Connecticut. The Trump administration also has sued Minnesota, Colorado, Illinois, New York and cities including Los Angeles, New York and Rochester.
The government also sued New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker, saying he issued an executive order in 2020 prohibiting city police from disclosing “confidential information,” including immigration status, to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Elicker and Connecticut Attorney General William Tong responded by saying they were protecting the public by ensuring all residents feel safe going to the police, sending their children to school and seeking medical care.
“If any individual commits a violent crime in New Haven, we’re committed to arresting them and bringing them to justice, regardless of their immigration status,” Elicker said in a news release. “We are confident we are on the right side of the law – and, equally important, we are confident we are on the right side of history.”
“Connecticut is not a `sanctuary’ state, whatever that means,” said AG Tong. “This term is meaningless and has no basis in Connecticut law.”
The Trust Act was amended to allow local police to detain prisoners convicted of certain serious crimes including manslaughter, sexual assault and possession of child sexual abuse material. But it still generally prohibits state and local officers from giving federal agents access to aliens in jail, the Trump administration said.
“Such blatant disregard for federal laws that have been on the books for decades is not merely a political disagreement or passive abstention; it is deliberate, disruptive action that jeopardizes the public safety of all Americans,” the Justice Dept. lawsuit states, seeking injunctions against state and New Haven policies.
Connecticut AG Tong said in March: “ICE detainer requests are just that: requests. They do not carry the weight of a warrant, and they impose no legal obligation for local law enforcement to detain, arrest, or jail someone.”
