ICE Arrests Nursing Student at Connecticut Courthouse as Campus Erupts in Protest

Cynthia Sanchez grew up in a mixed-status immigrant household where fear was a constant companion. Even as a U.S. citizen, she learned early to stay quiet, to keep her head down. Today, she doesn't leave her house without a passport -- not even for groceries.

But when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested a fellow student at Southern Connecticut State University last week, silence was no longer an option.

"She needs us and we showed up because we're part of the community," said Sanchez, a junior political science major and president of SCSU's College Democrats. "We stand up because it is right. We stand up because we are choosing compassion over fear."

On Monday afternoon, approximately 200 students, organizers, and community members gathered outside Buley Library on SCSU's main campus to demand the release of Keyla, a nursing student arrested by ICE agents outside the Middlesex Courthouse in Middletown. At her family's request, organizers are withholding identifying details about Keyla and her studies.

According to Tabitha Sookdeo, executive director of Connecticut Students for a Dream, Keyla is currently being held at the Strafford County Corrections center in New Hampshire. "She's scared," Sookdeo said. "Being in a detention facility is terrible."

The arrest comes as ICE ramps up enforcement across Connecticut, including in sanctuary cities like New Haven and Hamden. Since Trump took office in January 2025, ICE arrests in the state have more than doubled. Last year, agents raided a Hamden car wash in broad daylight, detaining eight people during their work shifts.

Sookdeo confirmed that Keyla has legal representation and that advocates are working "in a race against the clock" to collect letters of support from elected officials, including Governor Ned Lamont. Organizers have launched a GoFundMe to help cover legal fees.

Monday's rally drew speakers from the New Haven Immigrants Coalition, Unidad Latina en Accion, Danbury Unites for Immigrants, Connecticut Students for a Dream, UNITE HERE Local 217, and the American Association of University Professors. Tate Kerr, an SCSU junior studying psychology, emceed the event alongside activist Sam Morrison.

"No borders! No nations! Stop the deportations!" Morrison chanted, the crowd picking up the rhythm until it echoed across campus. Other chants included "When We Fight/We Win!" and "El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!"

For first-generation college students and children of immigrants at the rally, Keyla's arrest hit especially close to home. Sanchez, a Metropolitan Business Academy graduate, said she has been politically conscious "for as long as I can remember -- not by choice, so much as by necessity."

Last year, when ICE raided the Hamden car wash, Sanchez was too afraid to speak out. She was still reeling from the Supreme Court's decision to make racial profiling constitutional. But she can't stay silent anymore.

"No student should have to fear detention while they navigate their right to due process," Sanchez said, calling on attendees to push for stronger state legislation protecting immigrants and their families. "We need to walk the talk."

The rally underscored a growing tension in Connecticut as federal immigration enforcement collides with local sanctuary policies. Cities like New Haven and Hamden have declared themselves sanctuaries, but ICE operations continue unabated -- often targeting people at courthouses, workplaces, and even schools.

For students like Keyla, pursuing higher education now comes with the risk of arrest and detention. For students like Sanchez, it means carrying a passport everywhere and living with the knowledge that family members could be taken at any moment.

"We don't have very many details," Sookdeo said, emphasizing the urgency of raising funds for legal representation. But the message from Monday's rally was clear: the SCSU community will not stand by while one of their own is held in a detention facility hundreds of miles away.

As the crowd dispersed, organizers vowed to keep fighting until Keyla is released and can return to her nursing studies in New Haven -- without the constant, crushing fear of another arrest.