Protecting our Immigrant Communities

Connecticut is currently on course to let down its immigrant community by not responding with the seriousness this moment requires. Trump’s cuts to Medicaid put their access to affordable healthcare at serious risk. Immigrants are our neighbors, our coworkers, our family members–and Governor Lamont is not taking their healthcare and safety seriously. 

Our agenda is for everyone. We should be passing good laws and protections, because it's the right thing to do, not just the politically expedient thing to do. We are only as healthy as our neighbors. Our economy is only as strong as every member of it.

Josh’s Day One Agenda for Protecting our Communities: 

• Fully Enforce Our Laws and Protect Our Civil Liberties 

  • Instruct the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection that any ICE agents in CT who violate our mask laws or protected spaces laws should and will be arrested. We will fully enforce our laws and not allow our civil liberties to be trampled. 

• Preserve Healthcare Coverage for Everyone Who Trump Stole it From, Regardless of Their Status

  • Use the emergency relief funds to fully cover the cost to re-enroll anyone who will lose their Medicaid coverage due to HR1. 

• Publicly Track Federal Activity

  • Create a secure, accessible way to report Trust Act violations: Direct the Attorney General's Office to launch a phone and online reporting line for Trust Act violations. We know this works—the state already runs a hotline for reproductive health care information and resources.

Josh’s Agenda for the 2027 Legislative Session: 

• Expand the state’s sensitive locations law: We will finish the work Ned Lamont failed to complete by expanding the state’s protected spaces law to community health centers, family planning clinics, and outpatient medical settings. No one should fear for their lives while trying to receive the care they need. 

• Create a $10 million Constitutional Rights Defense Fund: Establish a state-funded legal defense fund to guarantee every immigrant facing detention or deportation in Connecticut has access to a lawyer. Right now, immigrants facing detention and deportation get a lawyer only if a volunteer or an overstretched nonprofit can take their case. As Governor, I would create a $10 million state fund so every immigrant facing removal has a lawyer in the room. Justice shouldn't come down to who can afford one.

• Create an oversight board for Trust Act enforcement: Establish a board to manage the reporting line and review complaints of Trust Act violations — two members appointed by the chair of the Judiciary Committee, two by the Attorney General. Modeled on the Juvenile Justice Policy and Oversight Committee, it would have authority to recommend policy to the legislature and the Governor.

• End Flock surveillance in Connecticut: Automated license plate readers have become a mass surveillance network that tracks every driver and shares data with federal agencies like ICE, with almost no public oversight. This slow creep of authoritarian surveillance outweighs any possible benefit these cameras may have. As Governor, I would ban any new Flock cameras and end the current use of them statewide. This includes both municipal contracts and corporate use. 

• Healthcare for Everyone: Full HUSKY expansion regardless of immigration status: extend HUSKY to all Connecticut residents who meet income eligibility, no matter their documentation status.  Long term, our real public healthcare option will cover everyone.

Our communities are being terrorized by masked federal agents, families are being torn apart every day, and people are afraid of leaving their homes. As leaders, we have a moral responsibility to take action because a healthy economy and a healthy state relies on stability, and stability cannot happen when so many of our neighbors, friends, classmates, and co-workers live in fear that they or their loved ones won’t make it home each day. That's why my platform is about taking tangible steps to improve the material conditions of every person in our state, and why I commit to using every tool at our disposal to ensure our laws are used to make our communities safer. When we fail to protect the constitutional rights of any of our state’s residents, we are also failing at protecting our democracy, and that’s how fascism wins.

Connecticut Can Be Better. It’s time to act because hate has no place in our state.