Beginning around August 24, 2026, ICE conducted a multi-day enforcement operation across Danbury, Bridgeport, Stamford, Hartford, Hamden, New Haven and Redding, Connecticut, with estimates of 70 to 118 people detained and more than 40 families separated. Agents, some masked, arrested people at workplaces, grocery stores, parks, daycare centers and school bus stops, with witnesses reporting people chained, tackled, tased, pepper-sprayed and, in one case, hospitalized after being kicked. Danbury Mayor Roberto Alves described a detained man who had lived in the U.S. for 30 years with work authorization while pursuing a green card, and Kim Rivas said her fiance, who had no criminal record, was also detained. Immigration attorney Glenn Formica said some detainees were held at 'dark sites' inaccessible to lawyers before being transferred out of state, including to Colorado. DHS said detainees included people convicted of assault, sexual assault, false imprisonment and child molestation, and defended individual uses of force. Sen. Richard Blumenthal held a public forum, observed Hartford Immigration Court proceedings, and asked DHS's Inspector General to investigate; Sen. Chris Murphy proposed legislation barring enforcement near schools and child care facilities, and Gov. Ned Lamont said 'this has to stop.' School attendance dropped by about 700 students, Danbury Unites for Immigrants organized rallies, and the Justice Department sued over a new Connecticut law restricting ICE mask-wearing and arrests near schools and churches.