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Cabrera and Winfield at WNHH: Where would it end?
Gary Winfield and Jorge Cabrera are determined not to blink.
The two newly reelected Democratic state senators made that determination about a possible choice state and local lawmakers may face in the second Trump administration: Whether to change policies out of favor with Washington if that means forfeiting federal money.
Specifically, some supporters of the president-elect have suggested withholding grants to police departments that decline to cooperate with federal immigration officials on mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. Another suggestion has been withholding education money from local communities that recognize students’ transgender identities.
Such policies would put lawmakers in a bind, especially in fund-strapped cities struggling with academic achievement and crime.
Winfield, who represents New Haven’s and West Haven’s 10th State Senate District, has been at the forefront of both issues: He sponsored the CT Trust Act, which instructs police not to cooperate with federal immigration raids. He also sponsored a bill protecting transgender people’s civil rights.
Connecticut should stand by those commitments in the face of any Trump II Administration threats, Winfield said during an appearance Thursday on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program.
“It’s important first to recognize you’re being blackmailed,” Winfield said. “We could [give in]. But I don’t think it is a smart choice, because at what point does it end? … We don’t know how far that goes.”
“That Pandora’s box, to allow that kind of leverage to be exerted on your state,” Cabrera agreed on the program, “that’s a really bad precedent.”
The senators spoke of ways they expect to work with their colleagues in the upcoming legislative session to fight back against promised Trump II policies. Winfield, who co-chairs the legislature’s Judiciary Committee, spoke of updating the Trust Act if necessary to make sure it applies to any new federal deportation efforts. Cabrera, a union organizer by profession who serves as vice-chair of the Labor and Public Employees Committee, spoke of passing legislation to safeguard conditions for warehouse workers, prevent private equity firms from buying more hospitals, and qualify strikers for unemployment benefits after two weeks on the picket line. He said he’s also looking to include money in the budget to boost the number of Labor Department inspectors to enforce health and safety codes in workplaces.
Both senators called for revisiting the “fiscal guardrails” formula in a bipartisan 2017 agreement to limit how much the state can spend from quarterly income tax receipts, in order to free up more money for pressing needs. Among those possible needs: replenishing education or crime-fighting money lost in any Trump II clawbacks tied to LGBT or immigrant rights.
Click on the video below to watch the full interview with State Sens. Gary Winfield and Jorge Cabrera on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven.” (Click here to subscribe or here to listen to other episodes of“Dateline New Haven.”)