by Matthew Walsh

As immigration enforcement continues to draw attention in Connecticut, organizers across the state say the effects extend beyond individual arrests. Families are weighing whether it feels safe to go to court, send children to school, seek medical care or use public services.

Stefan Keller, a Hartford-based immigration rights organizer who uses they/them pronouns, has been involved in immigration justice work for about 12 years. Keller helped found Hartford Deportation Defense, which they described as a Hartford-based, immigrant-led immigrant rights group involved in organizing and mutual aid work. They are also involved with Hands Off Connecticut, a statewide network space connecting rapid response and defense groups around the state.

This interview was conducted as a companion piece to a larger article on immigration enforcement in Connecticut. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Getting Involved in Immigration Justice Work

Can you tell me a little about yourself and your role within this work?

Yeah, I’m Stefan. I live in Hartford. I’ve been involved in immigration justice work for about 12 years now. I started getting involved with an undocumented youth organization that fights for the rights of undocumented deaf people, especially around access to college and other issues affecting young people.

Back in 2014, I was working at a high school, and an undocumented student actually brought me to my first organizing meeting. So that was kind of my entry point into immigrant rights work.

I was very fortunate to be part of the process that founded Hartford Deportation Defense, a Hartford-based, immigrant-led immigrant rights group that does various kinds of organizing and mutual aid work in every community in Hartford.

Then when Trump got elected the second time, a lot of different kinds of rapid response and defense groups around the state came together to form this network space to try to activate people called Hands Off Connecticut, which is serving as kind of a way for different rapid response groups to share best practices and take collective action together when that’s necessary.

You mentioned that a student brought you to your first organizing meeting. Was there a particular experience that motivated you to begin organizing around immigration enforcement issues?

Sure, yeah. Like I said, I was working at a high school in Bridgeport. It was Bassick High School, where there were lots of undocumented young people. And so it was an issue I actually didn’t know much about before then.

I grew up outside New Haven in a very white, homogenous community, and I didn’t know a lot about immigration up to that point. I majored in social work. I was always someone like that. I think even before that, I was interested in getting involved in some kind of organizing or activism work.

Going to that meeting really was like, wow, this is really an issue that folks are experiencing.

The next year, I moved to Hartford, a city with, it’s hard to get exact numbers, but estimates are that thousands of undocumented folks live in Hartford, at least. So obviously, it’s an issue that a lot of people in the city are dealing with.

I really love living in Hartford. I think that we are only able to build the community that we want, where people take care of each other and protect each other, if we deal with these issues. The fact that undocumented folks are being kidnapped off the streets makes all of us less safe because ICE is just doing wild shit to everybody.

Obviously, there are groups most impacted by that system, but all of us are left facing masked agents roaming around.

Rapid Response Networks

Do you know how many Connecticut communities now have rapid response networks, and how exactly they work?

I don’t know the exact number. But most of the more significant urban areas in Connecticut have rapid response networks. Hartford has one, New Haven, Bridgeport, the Norwalk-Stamford area, Danbury, Middletown, New London, Windham. So most of the larger cities have those kinds of networks. And then some of the smaller suburbs are connected to their closest city network.

All of them function autonomously, so they may not look exactly the same, but the general rapid-response idea is that there are people ready to respond to ICE activity in their community, which could be through a hotline. Some folks have hotlines that folks can call in ICE activity. Many communities are just connected to each other and share information in various ways.

When a network is alerted to the presence of ICE, there are folks who can respond, document what’s happening, try to get in contact with families that have been kidnapped by ICE, and do post-detention support if someone is detained.

The whole idea is that while this is not a strategy that fully prevents deportation, the hope is that if we are able to respond with enough presence and warn people and be connected to the community, then we can hopefully, overall, prevent deportation through people being more knowledgeable and more connected to one another.

And that makes it harder for ICE to deport people. And we’re always watching them.

What does post-detention support for families look like?

That can vary a little bit depending on what those local needs are. But a lot of post-detention support involves legal support if it’s available. There are some folks around the state working on post-detention legal support who can’t serve everybody. There are too many people detained, unfortunately, for the resources that exist. But there’s an attempt at that.

Then there’s also, obviously, if someone is detained who might be the breadwinner of the family, there might be help to provide resources to the family.

And then just community emotional support. Obviously, someone being kidnapped by ICE is super traumatizing. So support is provided on that front as well.

And practical things too, like if a person has kids, helping folks prepare for who would take care of them if they’re detained and having things in order, should someone, unfortunately, be separated from their family.

Fear Beyond Legal Status

Do you believe immigration enforcement is affecting people who are in this country legally, as well as people who are undocumented?

Yeah, for sure. Part of the answer is that the administration is doing a lot to make more people deportable. They’re taking away people’s visas. They’re trying to end the DACA program. There are lots of ways they’re trying to make more people deportable.

But obviously, ICE is an agency that just targets people based on how they look. There’s lots of evidence that even their own policies say that they arrest people just based on reasonable suspicion of being undocumented. How do you reasonably suspect someone of being undocumented? Probably by the color of their skin. Probably by the language they speak. Probably by the accent that you hear.

So, a lot of folks are fearful. Because many, many people of various statuses who are immigrants to the U.S. or have immigrant parents are Black and brown. So many people could be impacted by that very wide net that ICE is casting in terms of figuring out who is undocumented in their minds.

Have you seen any impact from what has been colloquially called “Kavanaugh stops”?

I have not. In Connecticut, I think that, unfortunately, we are not as ahead of ICE arrests as we wish we were. A lot of times, you hear about things happening either in the moment or afterward.

A lot of the activity in Hartford, from what we know, are somewhat targeted arrests where ICE is after a particular person. So they actually have someone that they’re looking for. Like, ICE is outside the court. That doesn’t mean that it never happens.

Especially in Danbury, there’s a group there that does deportation defense work and community defense work that has seen ICE doing collateral pickups, as sometimes they’re referred to. But it’s unclear to us if it’s based on a particular policy.

Schools, Hospitals and Public Services

Have you seen changes in how people interact with schools, health care providers, courts or public services as a result of increased immigration enforcement?

Yeah, definitely. We know of folks in our network who — I mean, there was an article that came out, I forget what news outlet reported it, about the ELL population in school. Public schools in Connecticut had been increasing every year, but that decreased this year, which is evidence that likely folks are taking their kids out of school.

We know folks are more fearful to go to the doctor, which may mean putting off needed care, especially preventative care and even emergency care.

I think that rumors, or truths, happen in the community where people may hear about someone getting picked up from a hospital in a different part of the country. That may or may not be happening in Connecticut, but then that impacts the ways in which folks access services.

Are there any stories that have stayed with you personally?

That’s an interesting question. I mean, I don’t know. There are so many.

There was the dad who was picked up at a bus stop in Bridgeport in front of a bus full of kids, which obviously has impacted all of those folks.

Or, like, I was outside the Superior Court in Hartford, where ICE was also there. And I personally didn’t see it because I wasn’t on the right side of the court where it happened. But some of our folks witnessed ICE actually grabbing someone off the street, with their masks on, all of their vehicles. And that obviously impacts all the people who have seen that.

There was a story from Danbury of ICE basically handing an infant over to a stranger after they detained, probably, what was their parents.

So, yeah, there are a lot. There are almost too many to count in terms of particular stories.

Masked Agents and State Law

You mentioned ICE agents wearing masks. Connecticut has taken steps to prohibit that, but organizers have said agents are ignoring it. Has that been your experience?

Oh, for sure. ICE agents definitely do not care about CT law. There’s a story in the CT Mirror where this is quoted, where an ICE agent was like, “I dare you to arrest me.” They’re aware of what the laws are.

So, yeah, they are definitely purposefully disregarding the laws we have. Without a doubt.

Considering that, what changes would you like to see from Connecticut state government? Are there specific legislative proposals or reforms you would support?

I think it’s hard to say because at the end of the day, there is only so much the state government, as a system, can do. I do think that there are avenues.

The masking and not showing identification are misdemeanors, technically. So either the state or local government could charge these ICE agents with misdemeanors. Obviously, it’s not huge, but that is part of how we may get them to behave differently.

Some of this has already happened, and I think part of it is sometimes getting the word out. For example, supporting folks in going to court virtually. There is a way for folks to request to go to the superior court or criminal court virtually. What does it look like to actually proactively reach out to people to be like, hey, you can attend court virtually. Here’s how you do that process.

So sometimes it’s about changing policies, but other times I think there’s tension. We know that the federal administration is retaliatory and goes after municipalities and states that are trying to pass stronger policies. So, I think about the policies that need to be shifted, but also what could be done more quietly that’s just as impactful and doesn’t necessarily target certain places.

Again, folks already can attend court virtually. How can that be better spread around in terms of the knowledge of that and that process?

“ICE Out of CT”

What were the primary goals of the recent protest outside the Abraham A. Ribicoff Federal Building in Hartford?

We had an ICE Out of CT action on Wednesday in front of the federal building. It was really focused on the message that we just want ICE out of CT. They don’t need to be here. They don’t need to be doing anything here. We just want them out.

We highlighted, through the action, the ways ICE is violating state law and being flagrant about it, and also highlighted that over 1,100 people have been kidnapped in CT since the beginning of 2025.

We had a section where we read the names of folks who have died or been killed in detention or by ICE active in the community. That number was up to, I think I saw recently, 19 people just this year.

I think ICE will try to claim, like, oh, it’s medical or people get care. But it is true that these people would not be dead if they were not in ICE custody. So the fault of that lies with ICE. That’s where the fault lies.

We really wanted to make the action a space where people could feel the emotions of how this is impacting everyone and build solidarity. So we had a lot of singing.

We also had a postcard to our federal delegation because some of them have taken votes that have expanded ICE’s ability to detain people, keep them in detention. There is the Laken Riley Act, which allows folks to be detained indefinitely just for being charged with certain crimes, without ever being convicted.

And we know how the criminal system works. Someone could use your status against you and then claim that you’ve done something you haven’t. And there you go, now you have a charge against you.

Some of our federal delegation have voted for some of these policies even though they are Democrats. So, you have to wonder. They must have believed in the policy for some reason, because their districts are so safe. They are not voting for these things because they think they have to do so electorally. This is not a swing state. In a primary, they’re going to be challenged from the left, not the right.

So, why is Rosa DeLauro voting for some of these things? Or why is Jim Himes, or why is Joe Courtney?

Connecticut’s Federal Delegation

Are there members of Connecticut’s congressional delegation you would single out as not being supporters of the immigrant community?

No, I think that it is, I don’t want to say nuanced, but I think that they believe they are supporters of their community. I think they make statements that say that. I think they generally vote correctly on these policies.

However, like I said, Rosa DeLauro, Joe Courtney, Jahana Hayes and Jim Himes have all voted at least once on policies. There’s an anti-immigrant organization called FAIR that put out a scorecard of congressional voting, and they list out all the bills that they support. So it’s a pretty good bet that if they’re supporting a bill, our people should not be voting for it.

Those four congresspeople all voted at least once in favor of a bill that FAIR has supported.

And then Blumenthal, Murphy and Himes all have taken money at some point from either Palantir directly or folks connected to Palantir, which is interesting.

Obviously, Palantir is horrible. It has technology that is surveilling people. They’re helping the federal government in so many ways, both obviously on immigration but also on foreign wars.