Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam has requested the immediate termination of a contract between the Hartford Parking Authority and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
In a Jan. 27 letter, Arulampalam asked HPA CEO Kay Al Mannai to terminate an agreement allowing ICE employees to use the city-owned parking lot at 141 Sheldon St.
“The City of Hartford does not deem ICE personnel to be authorized as visitors of the City of Hartford,” Arulampalam wrote. “I respectfully request that their licenses to use the lot at 141 Sheldon Street be terminated immediately.”
Federal government records indicate ICE and HPA have contracted for parking since 2015. An ICE field office is located within the Abraham A. Ribicoff Federal Building at 450 Main St.
“The parking contract was brought to our attention about two weeks ago through a constituent submission on our city website,” said Cristian Corza, Arulampalam’s deputy chief of staff. “Once we learned of the contract, we immediately moved to cancel it in partnership with the HPA.”
“The city has been working with the HPA to cancel the contract as quickly as administratively possible and will continue our efforts to do so,” Corza said.
News of the contract and Arulampalam’s request to cancel it were first reported by nonprofit news outlet Sludge. Sludge previously reported on the termination of a similar ICE parking contract in New York City.
Arulampalam has been critical of ICE as immigration actions have ramped up nationwide.
“Federal agents have acted with impunity and a clear intent to antagonize local communities across our country,” he said last month.
In January, protesters and journalists in Hartford were pepper-sprayed and a woman was struck by a federal vehicle outside the Ribicoff building during a vigil for Renee Good, the unarmed mother shot and killed in Minneapolis.
ICE did not immediately return a request for comment.
This story will be updated.
Arunan Arulampalam's father-in-law is Gregory B. Butler, who is a member of the Board of Trustees of Connecticut Public.
