Lamont: ICE Officers ‘Pouring Gasoline’ On Tensions

by Donald Eng

NEW HAVEN, CT — Far from increasing already inflamed tensions, Gov. Ned Lamont said Friday the truth was just the opposite.

Lamont, speaking at a grant announcement for rehabilitation of the state armory on Goffe Street in New Haven, responded to criticism from state Rep. Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford. Candelora, the House minority leader, had on Thursday stated that Lamont’s comments on the killing of Minnesota woman Renee Good by federal immigration officers were inflammatory and would increase the risk of future confrontations.

Candelora in a written statement had called the death tragic, and said Americans “have to figure out how to prevent something like this from happening again.”

He went on to say that illegal immigration was a serious public safety and fiscal issue and added that “it certainly doesn’t help when elected leaders say federal law enforcement officers have ‘terrorized’ communities, as the governor did today. That kind of rhetoric only inflames tensions and emboldens people to disregard lawful orders from law enforcement, and that puts lives at risk.”

Earlier on Thursday Lamont, in a media briefing and later in a written statement, had referred to the “inhumanity” of the shooting by an ICE agent and said “communities have become terrorized by armed and masked immigration agents and have seen situations in which the rights of Americans and the basic values of our constitution have been disregarded.”

On Friday, Lamont placed blame for escalating tensions squarely on ICE.

“I think ICE agents coming in with masks are pouring gasoline on the flames and making the situation a lot more toxic,” he said. “We’re trying to lower the temperature, but as (Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz) said, people have the right to peacefully protest.”

Lamont also urged people not to be distracted by the situation in Hartford Thursday evening, when a protest and vigil for Good was interrupted after a protester was knocked down and others pepper sprayed when a vehicle drove out of the federal building’s parking garage and into a crowd.

Lamont was not alone in criticizing the federal immigration officers. Earlier on Thursday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal had said the killing was indefensible and said ICE-related violence must be ““investigated, restrained and reformed.”

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd, in a social media post Thursday said “masked, armed ICE agents do not belong in our communities” and added ICE must leave U.S. cities and that “the person who committed this crime must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

Lamont on Friday cited the complexities of incidents involving federal agents that take place within the jurisdictions of municipal and state law enforcement.

State Senate leaders Martin Looney, D-New Haven, and Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, also issued a joint statement which repeatedly used the word murder to describe Good’s death.

“Wednesday’s murder – and we do call it a murder – committed by an ICE agent is just the most recent consequence of a reckless and cruel Republican administration that seems intent on destroying the very human rights upon which our Constitution is founded,” they wrote. “The citizens of America must speak out and demand that Donald Trump’s lawlessness must end, and that those federal agents responsible for murder and mayhem be held accountable.”

They concluded by stating that the 2026 legislative session begins soon, and that they “will look at ways to hold rogue federal authorities accountable at the state level.”

That could prove difficult, though, as federal agencies have been attempting to shut local law enforcement out of the Minnesota investigation. Lamont said he was determined that Connecticut would investigate the Hartford incident.

“This is the state of Connecticut,” he said. “I think they ought to look into this and see what happened in the case of Hartford and in the case of Minneapolis. Look, the federal – state jurisdiction over ICE agents, people will figure that out. But I think it’s really important and we get to the bottom of it.”