When Attorney General William Tong crossed the California-Mexico border into Tijuana, he met a young man waiting on the other side of the steel barrier, hoping to be granted asylum in the U.S. where his family lives.
The 18-year-old boy was waiting for a court date and a ruling on his asylum application (a legal means of entering the United States for people who believe their life is in danger elsewhere). Tong said under the Trump administration, asylum seekers are forced to wait in Mexico until their application is approved, which can take months.
“It was deeply affecting to me and gives real meaning to the work that we do every day on immigration in the attorney general’s office, from fighting the unconstitutional national emergency, protecting dreamers, fighting the turn-back policy, to fighting the family separation policy,” Tong said.
Tong has been in office for less than 80 days — he can spout the exact number, maybe even down to the minute, on a moments notice— and he’s making strides in defining the identity of the office under his leadership.
He isn’t seeking to take on the cases of individuals like the young man he met in Mexico, but he’s eager to fight back in broad terms against President Donald Trump’s policies — like the turn-back policy for asylum seekers — that he views as flagrant violations of civil rights.
He’s working to establish a civil rights division within his office, has hired at least one prominent civil rights lawyer, and has introduced legislation that would expand the attorney general’s right to not only defend the state against civil rights lawsuits, but initiate civil rights suits on behalf of the state or residents. And on Monday, he hosted an interstate summit on civil rights, inviting representatives from the attorney general’s offices in New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts, which all have civil rights units similar to the one Tong is working to create.
All of these steps are an indication Tong hopes to move beyond the high profile consumer protection cases that have defined the Connecticut Attorney General’s office for nearly three decades, and continue the work of his predecessor, Attorney General George Jepsen, in fighting back against the policies of the Trump administration.
“I think I’m building on what our office has been doing for a long time,” Tong said. “I think it’s really important to remember that Attorney General Jepsen had commenced 40 actions against the Trump administration, including the travel ban, cause of dreamers, cancellation of the policy on DACA. So I’m building on the great work that our office has been doing already for the last couple years and before that. But there’s no doubt that I’ve taken it to another gear and I think it’s because I was elected to be the firewall and with other state attorneys general, we are the firewall.”
Building the Firewall
As it stands, the Connecticut attorney general isn’t explicitly prohibited from bringing civil rights lawsuits against violations of existing constitutional and statutory rights, but it’s also not formalized under the duties of the office.
So, Tong has introduced legislation to clear up any confusion, similar to neighboring states. The law wouldn’t authorize the attorney general to represent individuals in civil rights cases. Rather, Tong said, the office would be able to bring cases against organizations and groups plagued by systematic and ongoing civil rights violations.
“It is important that the state take action in the name of the state to vindicate the civil rights of our residents and enforce civil rights law,” Tong said. “Once the standing is clarified, we’ll organize our lawyers in a way that enables us best to pursue and enforce civil rights claims.”
Earlier this year, Tong hired Joshua Perry, who previously worked as an attorney with Connecticut Legal Services and was one of the lawyers who worked on the case involving two immigrant children who ended up in Connecticut after being separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. Perry, one of just a handful of hires Tong has made since taking office, was given the title of Special Counsel for Civil Rights in the Office of the Attorney General and will lead the civil rights division once it is officially created.
Tong said he doesn’t have plans to hire more lawyers — he has 200 on hand — but he has been making structural and organizational changes to shift his office’s focus to civil rights cases in preparation for the passage of the legislation.
“I have many lawyers who have already expressed an interest in taking these kinds of cases,” Tong said. “I think they’ve all done it, but I definitely want to make it a focus of my work and I think that’s because there is historic insecurity about our civil rights right now. Among religious communities, among racial and ethnic communities, among immigrants, among women, among LGBTQ people.”
Civil rights, consumer protections and everything in between
Even with all that talk of focusing on civil rights, Tong said it doesn’t mean his office won’t continue to fight the consumer protections cases the state has become known for under previous Attorneys General Jepsen, now-Sen. Richard Blumenthal and even former Sen. Joe Lieberman. In fact, those cases are usually related to or overlap with civil rights violations.
“I think one of the reasons it is really critical for state AG’s to be engaged in civil rights spaces is because civil rights intersects with so many other issues, for vulnerable communities in particular,” said Jonathan Miller, head of the Public Protection and Advocacy Unit in the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office. Miller spoke at Tong’s interstate summit on civil rights.
“So when I think about the portfolio of work we do protecting workers, protecting consumers, there’s so much intersection on those issues, and sort of having that perspective and to see those connections really can inform and enhance the enforcement choices you make, and, I think, your broader connections to communities,” Miller said.
Jennifer Levy, a deputy attorney general in New York, cited the rise in hate crimes in recent years and rollbacks of federal protections as reason for state attorneys general to increase their involvement in civil rights cases.
Hate crimes stemming from racial and ethnic bias, religion and sexual orientation, as well as incidents relating to disability and gender, all increased in 2017, according to data from the U.S. Department of Justice. Data for 2018 is not yet available, but there were several high profile incidents in Connecticut and across the country last year, particularly related to anti-Semitism.
“We have been fighting against every practice of the federal administration as it comes down,” Levy said. “Including rules that would erode employer liability, including rules that would roll back all of our consumer protections so that the federal government is no longer playing a role in protecting our consumers. So in every stage, the state AG’s are standing up and fighting back, and it’s the enforcement of state laws that protect the rights of our citizens.”
And Tong isn’t letting up on consumer protection. He’s currently leading a 49-state coalition in a case against generic drug price-fixing, a case originally brought by Jepsen that has exploded into an investigation of alleged price-fixing involving at least 16 companies and 300 drugs.
“I see our office as the firewall for Connecticut families,” Tong said. “Why is health care so expensive and why are prescription drugs so expensive? I’m obviously only in my first 60 days, but I do think the generic drug price-fixing case is an example of our priorities and our personality as an office. Which is to push back against powerful forces and be that firewall, and one of those most powerful forces is the prescription drug industry.”
kkrasselt@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2563; @kaitlynkrasselt
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