Gov. Ned Lamont proposed spending $5 million Wednesday from a special state reserve to support Connecticut residents recently impacted by Trump administration changes to immigration rules and particularly to Temporary Protected Status provisions.
“Many TPS holders have called Connecticut home for years, raising families, building businesses, contributing to our economy and enriching the fabric of our state,” Lamont said. “It is shameful that the Trump administration has decided to strip these individuals of their legal status and ability to work, knowing full well their countries of origin are still in the grips of violence and economic collapse.”
U.S. Supreme Court decisions in late June allowed the Trump administration to end protected status for thousands of Haitians and Syrians and permitted federal officials to turn away asylum-seeking immigrants arriving along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Lamont and the General Assembly have set aside $550 million in surplus funds since last November to mitigate federal policies that curtail human services and other federal programs here.
Only the governor can propose uses of the fund, though a panel of six legislative leaders can block his plans.
But Lamont’s fellow Democrats in the legislature control four of those six seats, and Democrats quickly applauded the governor’s plan Wednesday.
Sen. Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox said Haitian and Syrian immigrants are neighbors in her home city of Bridgeport, “sitting beside us in church pews, working in our neighborhoods and cheering at our kids’ graduations, woven into the fabric of who we are as a community. Losing Temporary Protected Status through no fault of their own should not mean losing the stability they have built here.”
Rep. Derell Wilson, D-Norwich, said the southeastern Connecticut city is home to immigrants “contributing to Connecticut’s economy through their work at the casinos, in healthcare and so much more. They have made Connecticut their home due to the natural disasters and unstable conditions that continue to plague their countries. I want to make it clear that these individuals have been here under a legally protected status.”
But the two highest-ranking Republican legislative leaders criticized the governor’s decision.
House Minority Leader Vincent J. Candelora of North Branford and his Senate counterpart, Stephen Harding of Brookfield, said the governor’s priorities are off.
“Gov. Lamont has done little to address our state’s affordability crisis,” they wrote in a joint statement. “Our state’s legal citizens have also ‘called Connecticut home for years, raising families, building businesses, contributing to our economy and enriching the fabric of our state.’”
The GOP leaders added that “instead of attempting to make political hay fighting the administration in Washington, D.C., and providing election-year giveaways, the governor should instead focus on making Connecticut more affordable for all of our state’s legal citizens.”
