DANBURY, Conn.—As families prepared for back-to-school days in Danbury last week, the Department of Homeland Security brought down a reign of terror on the community with massive ICE raids. Parents were taken in front of their children, at school buses and child care centers. The entire community was horrified, calling for an end to the terror, an investigation, transparency, a fund for legal assistance, and help to those being hurt, including traumatized children.
Immediately, Danbury United for Immigrants coalesced through their rapid response network, helping the families thrown into crisis, reaching out to allies and city, state, and federal elected officials, holding a press conference, and organizing a Day Without Immigrants on Wednesday, September 2 to demand “ICE out of Danbury and out of Connecticut.”
Door-knocking and phone calls were organized to urge residents to stay home from work, school, or shopping, and to rally at the Danbury Public Library at 5 p.m. Sixty local businesses declared a “Day Without an Immigrant” and closed their doors in solidarity.
Nearly 2,000 turned out, the largest rally Danbury has ever seen. As the diverse crowd marched down Main Street, all the shops were shuttered with signs supporting the action.
The Governor, U.S. Senators, the Congressional rep, and state and city elected officials all came. The power of solidarity turned individual anger and heartbreak into collective action and a sense of community.
The first demand by Danbury United for Immigrants was an immediate Congressional investigation. In response, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal convened an official forum the day after the rally so the country could hear testimony from those who had been directly harmed.
“As Ranking Member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, I have launched a formal inquiry into ICE’s unlawful tactics and training” Blumenthal announced, calling for the public to add their names.
“We must send a unified, undeniable message: Connecticut will not tolerate federal agents terrorizing our streets. Will you add your name today to demand an immediate end to ICE’s illegal, abusive tactics and demand full accountability for our communities?”
“Let’s be completely clear: ICE is terrorizing our communities with illegal, abusive, and abhorrent tactics,” said Blumenthal, who once served as Connecticut’s Attorney General. ‘Snatching people off our streets as they walk their kids to school or wait for a ride to work isn’t justice – it is a plain-and-simple abuse of federal power. It strips away human dignity, tears apart families, and instills raw fear into the places we call home.”
Other demands include calling for a $50 million state fund to support affected families’ legal and survival needs now, and ensuring the Attorney General does everything possible to hold ICE accountable.
One of the nation’s most diverse cities, 35% of Danbury’s population was born in other countries.
At least 65 families in Danbury were torn apart by ICE’s abduction from August 24 to 28, while at least a dozen ICE vehicles patrolled the city. There were a total of 100 abductions, including surrounding towns.
Husky 4 Immigrants helped organize the Day Without Immigrants, saying, “When immigrants are targeted and racially profiled, the whole community is harmed.”
Describing the situation, they said, “Agents have beat up and tased people, broken windows, and arrested parents in front of their own children. We need to make clear that we are not okay with the authoritarian takeover of any Connecticut city. Danbury is a city where all of our neighbors are welcome, whose strength comes from our diversity. We’re coming together to keep Danbury a welcoming city for all! “
“Neighbors were abducted in front of a day care, in a grocery store parking lot, driving to work, in front of their houses, and when dropping off their kids at a school bus stop,” recounted Husky 4 Immigrants.
“On the first day of school, as kids and parents were heading out to the bus stop or walking to school, they saw ICE vehicles lying in wait, they saw cars left on the side of the road with lights still blinking as their drivers were violently ripped from their communities.”
“Over the last year, there have been mostly targeted arrests,” said Tabitha Sookdeo, executive director of Connecticut Students for a Dream. “Yesterday was out of trend with anything observed.”
Connecticut Students for a Dream, founded under the leadership of Danbury students Camila and Carolina Bortelleto in 2010, worked with a large coalition that won the strongest Trust Act in the nation. First passed into law in 2019, the Act limits local police cooperation with ICE. In 2025, the Trust Act Now coalition won an expansion of the Act in response to the Trump administration’s rogue policies.
The Department of Justice now has a lawsuit pending against a bill passed this year by the State Legislature banning ICE agents from wearing masks, requiring visible identification on law enforcement, and establishing protected areas. However, at the Day Without Immigrants rally, Mayor Roberto Alves indicated the bill “has no teeth” for implementation.
Leading a chant, “ICE Out,” Alves told the crowd that he came to Danbury from Brazil with his family at age five and had a hard time growing up undocumented until age 20. “We feared deportation, we feared brutality, we feared the unknown. But we didn’t fear that our father would be taken, that our mother wouldn’t be home.”
Alves, elected in 2023 after defeating a notoriously anti-immigrant incumbent, said that, as mayor, he is not being informed. “I don’t know why ICE came, and I don’t know when they will leave. I don’t know who ICE arrested because ICE doesn’t tell us what they are doing. But here’s what I know. I know we’re stronger together.”
He called on those assembled to volunteer, to contribute funds to support the work of Danbury United for Immigrants, and to support the businesses that sacrificed. “Then,” he said, “get out the vote. We know this only stops at the ballot box.”
A Danbury history teacher led the crowd in chanting, “Bring them home.” He said he had asked his classes if they knew what was going on. “At least five kids in each class talked about seeing people getting arrested. A teacher of eight-year-olds said the kids are crying. It’s diabolical,” he added. “The way we’re gonna win is keep showing up, keep telling others to show up, keep telling ICE to get out of our space.”
Connecticut Education Association president Kate Diaz responded angrily to the action by ICE on behalf of her members who teach in Danbury public schools. “The start of the school year, a time of excitement and possibility for Connecticut students as they return to their teachers, friends, and familiar routines, is instead turning into the worst nightmare in many of our communities,” she said in her media release.
“Already the consequences are reaching far beyond the individuals detained,” she said. “Entire communities are living under a cloud of terror, with families keeping their children home for fear of what may happen on the way to school or back. Children are losing access not only to education but also, critically, to friendships, trusted adults, meals, healthcare, and other supports they receive at their neighborhood schools,” she said.
“This is not what back-to-school should look like in Connecticut—or anywhere. Our schools should be places of safety, stability, and belonging. But children cannot be expected to learn when they are anxious that a parent may disappear while they are in class—or when their families are too afraid to send them to school at all.”
Diaz said the National Education Association has filed an emergency motion to stop ICE from indiscriminately operating in and around schools.
SEIU Local1973 Congress of Community Colleges circulated a message to their members: “Why as a union do we advocate for the undocumented community?” The union represents teachers at the community colleges, including the one in Danbury.
“When ICE comes to a community, the impact follows students into our classrooms,” they said, telling the story of Edel Hernandez Cervantes, a Danbury resident and CT State Community College student studying to become a physical therapist.
“Edel was getting ready for school when his father called. His uncle had been detained during an ICE operation and, after an encounter in which an agent used a taser, was taken to the hospital. Instead of being able to focus on classes and his future, Edel spent the day trying to find his uncle, get information from the hospital, and locate medical records that might help his family. By 11 p.m., he had barely eaten.
“Edel was born in the United States. His story is an important reminder that immigration enforcement does not affect only the person who is detained. It reaches their children, nieces and nephews, spouses, coworkers—and our students.”
The union explained that “Community college students already balance classes with jobs, caregiving, transportation, finances, and countless other responsibilities. Now some are also wondering whether a parent will be there when they get home, whether a family member is safe, whether they should go to work, or what will happen to their family tomorrow.
“Faculty and staff cannot separate students from the lives they bring through our doors. Our students deserve to be able to come to campus focused on learning, building careers and creating better futures, not carrying the fear that their families could be torn apart while they are sitting in class. This is happening in the communities we serve. And that makes it a community college issue, too,” said the union.
Many members of New England Healthcare Workers 1199 working in Danbury are immigrants and refugees. President Rob Baril rallied the crowd at the Day Without Immigrants gathering. “By the thousands today we are saying no to violence, hate, and ICE. Housing, health care and education should be for all people regardless of status.”
Baril called on everyone to reach out through the rapid response networks, emphasizing the need for legal resources, medical care, those who can bear witness, “organize, organize, organize.”
Solidarity rallies were held in New Haven and Willimantic for those who could not travel to Danbury.
The website for Danbury Unites for Immigrants, where donations can be made and assistance, can be found here.
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