Can noncitizens be CT police officers? Depends where they apply

Angelo Mendoza was a patrol officer in a top police department before moving to Connecticut. He loved the work and hoped to continue his law enforcement career here.

So far, no luck.

The issue is that he is not a U.S. citizen and was told he had to be a citizen in order to be hired as a police officer. He is a British national, and his previous service was in the London Metropolitan Police Force. 

Mendoza married a Connecticut woman, and they moved to Southington in September to be near her family. He is a lawful permanent resident (LPR), so identified by the green card in his wallet. He said in an interview that he queried a half-dozen departments in Connecticut, and a few in other states, and was told he had be a citizen to be a cop.

Except, he doesn’t. Connecticut towns and cities can, if they choose, hire LPRs as police officers. But some don’t seem to realize it. All the major and most mid-sized cities still post the citizenship requirement on their websites, even though the rule changed three years ago.

The issue seems to confound Connecticut and much of the country. State and local policies are all over the lot. But with police departments experiencing major staffing shortages, the trend is toward letting green-card holders wear blue.

Non-citizens

Lawful permanent residents are non-citizens who are authorized to live permanently in the United States. As of Jan. 1, 2023, there were 12.7 million green card holders in the country, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security

The law provides several classes of admission for foreign nationals seeking LPR status, the largest of which is family reunification. Other major categories include economic and humanitarian immigrants, as well as immigrants from countries with relatively low levels of immigration to the United States. They can go on to become citizens by meeting further eligibility requirements; many do, some choose not to.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, LPRs may “accept an offer of employment without special restrictions, own property, receive financial assistance at public colleges and universities, and join the Armed Forces.” 

They cannot vote, run for public office or hold certain sensitive federal jobs. 

But whether they can become police officers seems to depend on where they land. 

In a 2021 backgrounder, a nonprofit organization called the Law Enforcement Immigration Task Force, which attempts to improve relations between immigrants and police agencies, detailed state policies on hiring non-citizens as peace officers. Most states require applicants to be citizens. 

Three — Vermont, Colorado and West Virginia — have no statewide citizenship requirements but allow cities to impose citizenship qualifications.

Louisiana and Maine allow anyone with a work permit — LPRs and some visa holders — to become a police officer. Hawaii requires that applicants be at least a permanent resident of the U.S. or eligible under federal law for unrestricted employment. North Dakota and Washington allow LPRs to apply for police positions. In Maryland and Tennessee, LPRs who have been honorably discharged from the U.S. Military are eligible to become police officers. 

In short, there is no national consensus on whether non-citizens can become police officers. But the door is opening, particularly to LPRs. Since 2022, Illinois, California, Colorado and Washington, D.C. have passed laws allowing LPRs and some other legal immigrants to become police officers.

Connecticut is not a picture of clarity on this issue.

The requirements

A state agency, the Police Officer Standards and Training Council, known by the acronym POST, oversees most aspects of police training, qualifications and certification in Connecticut. 

For years, POST did require prospective police officers to be U.S. citizens. But at a special meeting on Nov. 19, 2020, the POST Council voted to allow permanent legal residents to enter police service (assuming they meet all other requirements), according to POST certification coordinator Karen Boisvert.

For whatever reason, the change has not taken hold. The police department websites in Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven, Stamford, Danbury, Norwalk, New London, Middletown, Waterbury and most others say that U.S. citizenship is an entry-level requirement. 

Was this by choice, inertia, tradition or a communication breakdown? 

POST sets minimum standards: “the floor, not the ceiling,” as Boisvert put it.

Towns can increase them if they wish. So, notified that they could hire legal permanent residents, towns could have chosen to retain the citizenship requirement. But that is probably not what happened here, at least in most municipalities.

For one thing, “police chiefs are absolutely not opposed to hiring qualified legal permanent residents,” said Cheshire police chief Neil Dryfe, immediate past president of the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association. Dryfe said his department would hire qualified legal permanent residents.

Second, several departments queried by The Connecticut Mirror didn’t seem to know they could hire green card holders. 

For example, asked about its citizenship requirement, Hartford’s human resources department responded by saying the city “follows the recruitment requirements set by (the) Connecticut Police Officer Standards and Training Council, which does require an applicant to provide proof of U.S. citizenship.”

No, it doesn’t.

Similarly, a spokesman for the Enfield department, asked about its citizenship requirement, replied by email: “POST academy requires that you be a U.S. citizen.”

Not anymore.

Adoption of the new policy has gone ever so slowly, possibly delayed by two factors. Though POST voted to allow LPRs to be police officers more than three years ago, and, said Boisvert, the change went into effect immediately, it has not yet been incorporated into published state regulations — often a lengthy process — which still cite the citizenship requirement.

Also, until last month, POST’s own website still had the citizenship requirement under “Frequently Asked Questions.” 

On the other hand, the form that police departments must send to POST upon hiring a new officer was updated immediately to indicate that the recruit must be a “US Citizen or Permanent Legal Resident.”

An asset?

Staffing shortages are not the only reason to consider hiring LPRs. 

Michael Lawlor, associate professor of criminal justice at the University of New Haven, also serves on the New Haven Board of Police Commissioners. 

He said the Elm City department has not yet hired any LPRs but has recently hired several naturalized citizens from a variety of countries.

“So, many speak the languages of immigrant communities, which helps rebuild trust where trust has lagged. And their perspective is helpful,” he said.

Noting that LPRs can serve in the military and get pistol permits, and that police applicants are “elaborately vetted” in Connecticut, he said he has no problem with hiring LPRs. “If anything, I think it is a plus.” 

Actually, at least one police department did hire a non-citizen. A few years ago, the Willimantic Police Department hired a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals individual. DACA is the Obama-era program aimed at protecting young undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, temporarily shielding them from deportation and authorizing them to work in this country. DACA is a rather confused status; the “Dreamers” are in this country legally but are not legal residents. The program has been mired in controversy for years.

The Willimantic officer, Jose Gutierrez, was hired with a waiver from the POST council in December 2020, shortly after the citizenship requirement was dropped.

“He has been great,” said Lt. Matthew Solak, a department spokesman. Solak said his department, like many others, has seen a sharp decline — 75% to 90% — in qualified applicants in the COVID era of the past two or three years. This has led to intense competition, including poaching, among departments.

Would he hire a qualified LPR? 

“Sure.”

Willimantic may be in the vanguard of a trend: The Virginia State Senate just approved a bill that would allow DACA individuals to serve as police officers.

Legislative action

Finally, this entire imbroglio may soon be resolved by the General Assembly. State Rep. Christopher Rosario, D-Bridgeport, introduced a bill in the 2023 session that would have allowed lawful permanent residents to work as police officers or firefighters (there is no statewide citizenship requirement for firefighters, but towns theoretically could impose one).

The bill did not pass. The language was inserted in another bill, but it too failed to reach the finish line. Rosario said he “absolutely” plans to reintroduce it. He said he was aiming in large part at LPR police officers getting out of the military. He said he knew of a case where a military police lieutenant was turned down by a department in his part of the state because he was not a citizen. “If they patrolled Fallujah, I’m pretty sure they can patrol the East Side of Bridgeport.”

He said the military provides a fresh batch of certified police officers every year, “right under our noses.”

Asked what arguments opponents of his bill might have made, he answered: “There was no opposition.”

As for Angelo Mendoza? He said leaving the “Met,” said to be the world’s first modern police force, founded by the 19th century Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel (hence the nicknames “Bobbies” and “Peelers,”) was the hardest thing he ever had to do. As the spouse of a U.S. citizen, he has a three-year wait to apply for citizenship, which he said he plans to do. 

For the time being, he has found a job somewhat akin to police work. He said he has just completed training to become an EMT.