by Donald Eng CTNewsJunkie
HARTFORD, CT — With the killing of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota, state Sen. Matt Lesser, D-Middletown, is receiving calls from residents concerned about the potential for such tragedies to happen in Connecticut, he said.
With that in mind Lesser and fellow Democratic state senators Martin Looney and Gary Winfield of New Haven and Bob Duff of Norwalk announced their intention to pass a state civil rights law in the upcoming legislative session. The proposal would allow residents to sue ICE agents or other federal officials if their constitutional rights were violated.
“(Homeland Security Secretary Kristi) Noem and (White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen) Miller have lied to ICE agents, promising them total immunity,” Lesser said. “That is not true. You can be prosecuted if you commit a crime.”
Looney, the Senate president, said the caucus had been working on the issue for some time. He said it was clear that there needed to be some way to redress the violation of rights and liberties by federal agents.
“It could obviously be challenged, but that’s something we’d be happy to defend,” he said.
Duff said the country was a very dangerous place and state leaders needed to do everything possible to protect residents.
“What happened in Minnesota is disgusting. It’s despicable and frankly, it’s un-American,” he said. ‘It’s something we never thought we’d witness here in the United States of America.”
What he has heard from constituents is that they are afraid, Duff said.
“We will lead the way, nationally,” he said.
Winfield, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, agreed, saying he would do “whatever it takes” in his position to get the legislation passed.
Across the aisle, Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield, said he welcomed the debate on the issue.
“Anyone who breaks state or federal laws should be held accountable for their actions,” he said. “In the meantime, the amped up rhetoric and the violence must end. Anyone who doesn’t like how the law is enforced is free to advocate for different laws, and to protest peacefully.”
Chelsea-Inifinity Gonzalez, director of public policy and advocacy for Connecticut ACLU, said the deaths of Pretti and Good were not isolated tragedies, but rather the failure of a system that had always been flawed.
“We’ve watched federal agents kill people on video in our communities and then walk on without consequence,” she said. “We’ve watched victims be vilified.”
According to Lesser, Connecticut would join a small but growing list of states to pass such legislation, joining California, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Illinois. New York and Colorado are also planning similar legislation, he said.
Those states to have passed such legislation have had success defending the laws when they have been challenged, he added.
Duff said the group had been consulting legal experts with hundreds of hours of research on the issue, and he said he was “super confident” and that the legislators were working with legal staff “to make sure whatever we do is as buttoned-up as possible.”