Danbury Connecticut Council Votes to Arm Noncitizens With Police Badges After ICE Raids

ICE agents dragged 60 criminal illegal aliens out of Danbury Connecticut homes last month.

Danbury's city council responded by voting to let noncitizens carry police badges and guns.

Homeland Security had a message for Danbury's council that Democrats did not see coming.

Danbury Democrats Vote 18 to 2 to Let Noncitizens Carry Police Badges

The Danbury City Council voted 18 to 2 on September 1 to open police officer jobs to non-citizen legal residents and DACA recipients.

Seventeen Democrats and one Republican voted yes.

Two Republicans voted no.

Democrat council member Joe Britton pushed the measure through days after ICE agents swept the city and arrested more than 60 illegal aliens, some facing sexual assault and child molestation charges.

Britton called the raids "a federal invasion of immigration officials."

He told colleagues the vote "sends a message to our immigrant community at large that you are welcome in Danbury."

Then he went further, telling holdout council members "there is no reason to vote against this, and if you do vote against this, I truly question your moral compass."

Danbury Mayor Roberto Alves, a Democrat who immigrated to America as an undocumented child and became a citizen in 2017, backed the change and insisted hiring standards "are not being lowered."

Alves claims more than 30 other Connecticut towns already let noncitizens wear the badge.

DHS Fires Back at Danbury Over Its Noncitizen Police Vote

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson did not soften the blow.

"An oath of office is a commitment to upholding the law, not encouraging criminal illegal aliens to break it," the spokesperson said.

The department reminded Danbury exactly why ICE agents were in the city in the first place.

Border czar Tom Homan said ICE targets people with "final orders of removal," visa overstayers, and criminals.

He dismissed claims that agents are terrorizing kids as nothing but political theater meant to enrage Americans.

DHS made clear its agents "arrest criminal illegal aliens, including gang members, rapists, and murderers."

Eddy Ruano, convicted of molesting a minor, was one of the men ICE hauled out of Danbury.

Ericko Valenzuela-Chua, convicted of sexual assault, was another.

That is the population Danbury just voted to shield behind a badge instead of hand over.

Danbury Joins a Growing List of Cities Rewriting Who Gets to Carry a Badge

Danbury is not writing a new script. It is copying one.

California stripped its citizenship requirement for police officers in 2022, and Illinois followed with House Bill 3751 in 2023.

Illinois state Senator Neil Anderson watched Democrats pass that bill anyway and called it exactly what it was: "I find this disturbing. I find it distasteful. The fact that we are passing a law that is predicated on federal law changing just shows where our priorities are."

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin looked at the same idea in 2024 and vetoed it, warning it would let people "not eligible to become citizens" carry a badge and a gun on American streets.

Danbury's Democrats had that veto sitting in front of them and did it anyway, a week after ICE hauled child predators out of their own city.

A badge carries the power to search your house, cuff your kids' babysitter, and pull a trigger, and Danbury just decided citizenship is no longer a requirement for wielding it.

The next time a Danbury officer with no green card and no allegiance to this country pulls over your daughter at 2 a.m., ask Joe Britton how that message landed.

Sources:

• Cullen Linebarger, "Trump Admin. Responds After City Council in Connecticut Overwhelmingly Votes to Allow Illegal Aliens to Serve as Police Officers," The Gateway Pundit, September 2026.
• Warner Todd Huston, "Democrat-Run CT City OKs Non-Citizen Migrants Serving as Police After ICE Raids," Breitbart, September 3, 2026.
• Fox News, "Non-Citizen Police Officers Approved After Dem Says ICE 'Invasion' 'Sends a Message'," Fox News, September 2026.
• The Daily Caller, "Connecticut City Council Votes to Allow Non-Citizens to Serve as Police Officers," The Daily Caller, September 6, 2026.
• The New American, "Noncitizens in Uniform: States Appoint Foreigners to Law-Enforcement Posts," The New American, 2026.