Feds Seize Immigrant On Green; Girlfriend Shaken

By Laura Glesby, New Haven Independent

NEW HAVEN, CT — A Fair Haven woman watched from a distance on the New Haven Green as a group of federal immigration agents arrested her boyfriend of 10 years on Tuesday.

She was too afraid to come closer, as she too is undocumented.

She watched late Tuesday morning as three agents surrounded her boyfriend on the southeast corner of the New Haven Green, across the street from CVS. They handcuffed him and took him inside an unmarked black van, where a fourth agent waited with the door open.

One of the agents wore a jacket identifying him as “Police HSI,” short for Homeland Security Investigations. Another covered the bottom half of his face with a black mask.

The woman, who spoke with the Independent on Tuesday afternoon, had reported an incident of domestic violence from her boyfriend to the police over a year ago.

He was charged at the time with breach of peace in the second degree, assault in the third degree, and interfering with an emergency call. She said that he completed a domestic violence rehabilitation program.

Following his successful completion of the program, he appeared in court on Tuesday morning for a dismissal of the case.

The couple had planned to meet at Dunkin’ Donuts after the court case was over, according to the woman, who wished to remain anonymous due to her immigration status. She was on her way to the coffee shop when she saw the agents surrounding her boyfriend.

“I was in shock. I didn’t expect that to happen,” the girlfriend said in Spanish. “I feel really sad. There’s a part of me they took.”

She said that had she known this would happen, she would not have asked for help during the violent incident last year. “If I could do it all over again,” she said, “I would never have reported it.”

Multiple witnesses documented Tuesday’s arrest on video. At least one person contacted the New Haven Immigrants hotline at (854) 666-4472, which posted one of the videos to Facebook.

One witness, who wished to remain anonymous due to fears of retaliation, recalled watching the handcuffed man “planting himself there, not trying to be pulled away.” He said “they cornered him off from where everyone was… They had kind of surrounded him, so it was hard to see what was going on, what they were doing.”

The woman said that while the immigration officials confiscated her boyfriend’s phone, he was able to call her from a facility in Hartford. He had spoken with an attorney, but the girlfriend said that the lawyer had little hope for his case.

If he does get deported, she said, she plans to stay in touch with him long-distance.

While he was born in Guatemala, the girlfriend said that he spent most of his life in Mexico, where she was born. They met each other there about a decade ago (he’s about 30 years old). They each came to the United States around 2022, she said.

She’s now afraid to answer the door when someone knocks.

One of her neighbors said he’s scared to go to work now. “I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy,” he said in Spanish. Another neighbor said she plans to move from the area soon due to fears of ICE.

In the aftermath of the man’s detention Tuesday morning, the girlfriend connected with the immigrant rights organization Unidad Latina en Acción.

The organization’s leader, John Lugo, said that the courthouse is no longer a safe place for undocumented immigrants to visit alone. “If you go by yourself, you’re risking being arrested by ICE,” he said.

He urged individuals with scheduled court hearings to reach out to ULA’s hotline at (475) 323-9413 and request the presence of a team of “court accompaniment” volunteers at the hearing.

National immigrant rights activist Kica Matos, who up until recently served as one of the proprietors of the New Haven Green, where the detention took place, wrote in a statement that “it is unconscionable that ICE continues to target individuals in our communities, especially in places that should be safe — like courthouses, schools, and even public gathering spaces. The arrest on the New Haven Green — a place meant for peaceful assembly, community engagement and reflection — is a chilling reminder that no place is off limits to these aggressive tactics.”

Fair Haven Alder Sarah Miller wrote in a statement, “Words can barely contain the spectrum of outrage and horror evoked by the abduction of one of our neighbors by our own government, right in the heart of our city. Our community will collaborate as we always do to support his family and advocate for the due process that we are all entitled to under the constitution.”

Meanwhile, Lugo argued that the intensifying fear of deportations under President Donald Trump’s efforts to ramp up immigration enforcement is counter-productive to helping domestic violence victims.

“The people, they are under so much pressure and worries,” Lugo said. “So a lot of people in the community, they are not in their best state of mind. They are suffering a lot of mental issues and traumas.” That can lead to more “drinking, fighting,” he said. “We live in very difficult times.”

He added, “A lot of people right now, if they are suffering a domestic situation, a lot of people they are not going to make those reports because they are afraid they are going to be taken by ICE.”

Norma Rodriguez-Reyes contributed reporting and interpretation. Paul Bass contributed reporting.

The New Haven Independent is a not-for-profit public-interest daily news site founded in 2005.