Connecticut City Council Votes To Allow Non-Citizens To Serve As Police Officers

Interesting citizenship, connecticut, police officer admin September 6, 2026 0 Comments

Connecticut City Council Votes To Allow Non-Citizens To Serve As Police Officers

Danbury, Connecticut, will soon let some immigrants who are not citizens pin on a police badge.

The city council voted 18-2 to open law enforcement jobs to permanent legal residents and recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), according to the Hartford Courant. The change applies only to those two lawful categories rather than to all non-citizens, and it brings city hiring in line with the state’s Police Officer Standards and Training Council, which dropped its citizenship rule in 2020 and added DACA recipients in 2025.

The vote landed after a week of federal immigration sweeps across the region. Officials estimated that only six or seven of the roughly 100 people arrested carried criminal records, the Courant reported. School attendance dropped by about 700 students as families grew wary of leaving home. (RELATED: Tom Homan Takes Dem Senator’s Claim That ICE Terrorizes Kids Head-On)

Democratic council member Joe Britton tied the timing to the raids and told colleagues the measure carried a message. “It’s legal. It’s allowed. It’s been recommended. … I do think it’s timely, and this vote sends a message to our immigrant community that you are welcome in Danbury,” he said, according to the Courant.

Democratic Mayor Roberto Alves, who arrived in the country as a child without legal status, defended the ordinance as a fix to an eligibility gap. “These are people who can serve in the United States military, serve as firefighters and EMTs, become doctors, lawyers and other trusted professionals, yet under our old ordinance they could not even apply to become a Danbury police officer,” Alves said, according to RedState.

Police Chief Patrick Ridenhour said the department keeps its background checks, psychological evaluations and training requirements intact. Screening already weeds out seven of every eight applicants in the early stages, he told the New Times, which reported that Connecticut counts nearly 3,000 DACA recipients with an average age of 32.

Not everyone backed the change. Residents at the meeting questioned the vetting process, firearm rules and the temporary standing of DACA protection, Patch reported.

Border Czar Tom Homan said federal agents are targeting the right people. “We’re out there to look for illegal aliens with final orders of removal, those who overstay, those who are criminals, and we’re out there looking for them and arresting them,” Homan said on CNN’s State of the Union.