Immigrant rights advocates rallied outside Tweed New Haven Airport Wednesday afternoon and filed a public records request demanding proof that federal immigration agents with access to the airport have been properly vetted, trained, and tracked. The New Haven Immigrants Coalition organized the p ress conference at the corner of Fort Hale Road and Burr Street, then brought its demands inside to the monthly meeting of the Tweed New Haven Airport Authority board. “Sacred principles cannot end where the airport property lines begin,” said Rev. Scott Marks of New Haven Rising. “No agency is above the rule of law, and no agent walks through these doors without accountability.” The coalition says Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has detained four people at Tweed in the past two months, including two students. At least two arrests there have been publicly confirmed, including that of Deng Deng, a 19-year-old Southern Connecticut State University basketball player arrested on Sept. 4. A federal judge later ordered Deng’s release. Kiana Cintron of the New Haven Immigrants Coalition, who co-hosted the event, said the detentions have shaken the community. “We’re talking about real people, real neighbors, real families, real students, real coworkers, our friends,” she said, “and they deserve to feel safe in the communities they call home.”  Cintron also read a statement from Kica Matos, president of the National Immigration Law Center. “The airport authority says it has no visibility into or influence over what ICE does here. We strongly disagree,” Matos wrote. “Tweed Airport is not a hunting ground.”  Through Yale Law School’s Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic, the coalition filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the airport authority Wednesday morning.  The request seeks records showing that ICE agents with airport access have undergone criminal background checks, meet federal identification standards, and have been trained on federal rules — as well as records of all ICE arrests at Tweed since 2025, maps of the areas ICE can access, and the names of agents with airport credentials. “If Tweed New Haven Airport Authority has nothing to hide, it should disclose the records NHIC has requested,” said Trinh Truong, a law student intern with the clinic. The coalition is also asking the authority to train staff on a new state law, Public Act 26-14, which took effect Oct. 1. Advocates and Mayor Justin Elicker argue that the law bars ICE from making civil immigration arrests at Tweed without a judicial warrant, since the airport sits on city-owned land. Under state law, the authority has four business days — until Tuesday — to provide the records or deny the request, according to the clinic. If it doesn’t, the coalition could appeal to the state Freedom of Information Commission. Wednesday’s rally followed a September letter from Elicker to the authority’s board chair, Robert Reed, asking the airport to stop giving ICE agents “preferential parking” and to “not exceed any federal requirements by extending additional assistance to ICE.” Reed responded on Sept. 18, promising a thorough analysis of federal regulations. At Wednesday’s board meeting, Reed said the authority’s next steps “are being actively pursued,” but declined to offer specifics. “I cannot get into detail because of legal reasons, but I can tell you that all parties are actively, aggressively, thoughtfully looking at the request from the mayor,” Reed said, as well as the policies that “come from the FAA and law enforcement officers’ partners.” Avports, the private company that runs Tweed day to day, has said that federal rules require airports to grant unescorted access to federal law enforcement officers, and that Tweed “has no visibility into or influence over enforcement activity.” Speaking during public comment at Wednesday’s board meeting, Truong argued that federal rules only require such access for officers who have passed criminal records checks, so the authority is not obligated to admit agents who haven’t.  She also said the community “has seen photos of ICE agents wearing Tweed-issued access badges and using special parking privileges.” Rose Murphy, a teacher at Hill Regional Career High School, told the board that about a year ago she brought a group of students to Tweed on a career field trip. They left talking about becoming pilots, she said. Last month, Murphy said, she was at the airport when an ICE agent “shoved past” her at the arrivals doors as a 19-year-old student was detained. She said the agent looked at her and said, “Ha ha, too late.” Murphy asked board members whether she could still, in good conscience, bring students to the airport on a field trip. “Could I do that in good faith?” she asked. “No.” Leslie Blatteau, president of the New Haven Federation of Teachers, said public schools are open to all children regardless of immigration status. “The same should go for Tweed,” she said. Anne Watkins of the New Haven Immigrants Coalition urged board members to use the authority they have. “Don’t underestimate your power,” she said. Paul North, a Yale professor of German and philosophy who formerly led Jonathan Edwards College, told the board that families are left traumatized when a student “who is here on good faith, who’s been doing everything they should do, who has no criminal record” is “ripped out of the airport.” Speaking as a scholar of German history and the Nazi era, North urged board members to act.  “It is bodies like these who can use every bit of their moral fiber and every bit of the law to put in obstacles in the way of what can only be described as ethnic cleansing,” he said. At Wednesday’s rally outside the airport before the authority’s board meeting. At Fort Hale Road and Burr Street. The post Advocates Seek Records On ICE Access At Tweed  appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less