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By Billal Rahman
Immigration Reporter
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Federal immigration agents have been arresting parents at school bus stops in a Connecticut town with a sizable immigrant community, according to Democratic Senator Chris Murphy and city officials.
Jason Nova, deputy chief of staff in Danbury Mayor Roberto Alves' office, told Newsweek that eyewitnesses reported seeing ICE agents arrest parents at or near school bus stops and said the agents "waited for the children to board the school bus and then detained the individuals dropping them off."
"This morning in Danbury, ICE was arresting parents at school bus stops," Murphy wrote in a post on X on Wednesday. "But it’s more sinister. ICE waited until the kids were on the bus so when they are dropped off at the end of the day, they are alone, scared to death they can’t find their parents. I’m heading to Danbury."
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Murphy did not immediately provide evidence supporting the claim that agents deliberately waited until children had boarded buses before making arrests.
A spokesperson at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told Newsweek: “Any claim that ICE targeted parents at a school bus stop is FALSE."
“Unsurprisingly, Senator Murphy’s narrative is a work of fiction aimed at scoring cheap political points at the expense of our officers," the spokesperson added.
DHS said that ICE arrested 28-year-old Ecuadoran national Leonel Geovanny Morocho-Arteaga during a targeted operation on August 26. The agency said Morocho-Arteaga entered the United States illegally and was arrested by Customs and Border Protection in July 2021 before being released.
DHS pushed back on claims that the arrest occurred near a school bus stop, saying the vehicle stop "did not take place in the vicinity of a bus stop" and that Morocho-Arteaga was alone at the time. The agency also said agents found "a large kitchen knife in the center console" during the arrest. DHS said "the child is under the guardianship of her mother" and that Morocho-Arteaga remains in ICE custody pending removal proceedings.
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The allegations came as immigrant advocacy group Greater Danbury Area Unites for Immigrants posted a video on Facebook that appears to be recorded from inside a school bus in Danbury during an immigration enforcement operation.
The video, filmed from inside a moving school bus, appears to show several unmarked law enforcement-style vehicles traveling through residential streets and intersections. Voices on the bus can be heard urging people to record what is happening and identifying the vehicles as ICE vehicles.
Nova said the city also received unofficial reports that "50 or more individuals have been detained by ICE in Danbury this week," while Danbury Public Schools worked to ensure children affected by the arrests were in the care of family members or other caregivers. He said the city received no advance notice of the operations and had not been given an explanation by federal authorities for the heightened enforcement activity in Danbury.
Greater Danbury Area Unites for Immigrants said ICE arrested 48 people in Danbury over three days this week, including 22 on the second day of the local school year.
"We have eye witness accounts of ICE circling around bus stops as kids were getting off the bus home from school. Kids were afraid to get off the bus and to walk home. Families are scared to walk their children to school and are keeping their home," the group wrote.
Danbury, a city in Western Connecticut, is home to a sizable immigrant community. Roughly 35 percent of its residents were born outside the United States, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates for 2020-2024.
Mayor Alves joined Governor Ned Lamont, Senator Murphy, and other state and local officials at a news conference Wednesday, where he said "nearly 50 detentions have been reported across Danbury" as federal immigration enforcement operations ramped up during the start of the school year.
In a Facebook post, Alves said the operations had left families "terrorized and living in fear" and called for "dignity, transparency, accountability, and due process," while demanding information about who had been detained, the basis for the arrests, and reports of excessive force.
Video reviewed by Newsweek appeared to show an ICE agent pointing a Taser at the head of a man lying on the ground with his hands restrained behind his back.
Representative John Larson, a Connecticut Democrat, criticized the operation in a post on X, writing that, "As kids go back to school, Trump's secret police snatched parents from bus stops in Danbury."
ICE has previously been accused of making arrests at or near school-bus stops. In January 2026, several parents in Ypsilanti, Michigan, were detained near school-bus stops, according to the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center and local officials, although ICE disputed that the bus stops themselves were targeted.
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In May, ICE arrested a Bridgeport, Connecticut, father while he was with his 16-year-old son at a school-bus stop, according to the Connecticut Post. And in April, immigration officers arrested a Texas mother and her two children while they were waiting for a school bus in Alamo Heights, according to the San Antonio Report.
The second Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign relies on high-intensity, militarized operations across major urban and suburban areas nationwide. Federal surges of thousands of tactical-clad ICE and CBP officers—operating largely without local police cooperation—have targeted metropolitan centers such as Los Angeles; Chicago; Charlotte, North Carolina; the state of Maine; and the Twin Cities.
Although operations have taken place across the country, local officials, immigrant advocacy groups, and affected residents have strongly pushed back against the federal actions. Critics highlight that these sweeps rely on aggressive, high-visibility tactics—such as neighborhood saturation, traffic stops, and workplace raids
Weeks before the arrests, DHS highlighted Danbury in a July 30 social media post about Melissa Esperanza Ramirez Romero, who is charged in a fatal crash that killed a Danbury police officer and his girlfriend. The agency called on Connecticut officials to cooperate with ICE and keep her in custody.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Matthew Cannon, James Debens and Cristina Diciu
Update, 08/27/26, 11:50 a.m. ET: this article was updated with comments from the mayor's office.
Update, 08/27/26, 12:10 a.m. ET: this article was updated with comments from DHS
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