Local governments in California, New Orleans, and Connecticut are implementing laws known as “TRUST acts,” limiting the scope of cooperation between local law enforcement and the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. We’ll hear pieces from Adrian Florido in California, Kate Richardson in New Orleans, and Lucy Nalpathanchil in Connecticut. We’ll also hear from a Connecticut TRUST act booster, state senate majority leader Martin Looney.

Photo: Josemaria Islas at a rally in New Haven, CT. His detention and pending deportation spurred the Connecticut TRUST act. Image courtesy of Unidad Latina En Acción.

Senator Looney is in his sixth term as Senate Majority Leader of the General Assembly, having first been elected to that leadership post in 2003. He is also Chair of the Executive and Legislative Nominations Committee and Vice Chair of the Legislative Management Committee. Since being elected to the State Senate in 1993 and prior to his election as Majority Leader, he served six years as Senate Chair of the Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee; Chairman of the Banks Committee; and one term as Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee.

Adrian Florido is a reporter for the Fronteras Desk where he covers the U.S.-Mexico border, immigrant and tribal communities, demographics, and culture. Before joining KPBS, he was a staff writer at Voice of San Diego. There he reported on San Diego neighborhoods, focusing on immigrant and under-served communities as well as development, planning, land use, and transportation.

Kate Richardson is from Houston, Texas. She is an independent radio producer and contributor to WWNO in New Orleans. She helps run a community media project called The Listening Post and teaches Spanish at Delgado Community College.

Lucy Nalpathanchil is WNPR’s All Things Considered Host and Correspondent. She’s an award-winning reporter who has worked in several states since starting her career at WDUQ in Pittsburgh. Lucy now lives in beautiful New England where she reports on news stories in the Connecticut region and contributes to National Public Radio.  While at WNPR, her stories have focused on immigration including New Haven’s controversial ID card program, efforts for an in-state tuition law for undocumented students, and the “Becoming American” series