Connecticut Attorney General William Tong. Courtesy photo

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong has sued five U.S. government agencies in federal court, alleging they're "singling Connecticut out" by rejecting the state's pardon of criminal defendants.

In a 25-page lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, Tong raised constitutional and sovereignty issues. He claimed the state is the only one in the country where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement doesn't recognize the pardon system.

"This is not about any one individual case," Tong spokeswoman Elizabeth Benton said Friday. "It's about the legitimacy of Connecticut's pardon process."

The federal government says it only acknowledges pardons handed down directly from governors. But Connecticut is one of six states—along with Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, South Carolina and Utah—that use a governor-appointed commission instead.

Tong alleges the federal government accepts pardons from five of these states, but not Connecticut.

"By irrationally singling Connecticut out from among its 49 sister states without showing any need, defendants have violated the constitutional principle of equal sovereignty," the lawsuit states. "Defendants have abruptly abandoned 66 years of settled practice, and singled-out Connecticut's government, law, and residents for deeply unequal and prejudicial treatment in the nation's immigration system."

The suit names ICE, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Executive Office for Immigration Review as defendants. The Justice Department declined to comment, and no one from the other agencies responded.

The lawsuit alleges the federal government had previously accepted Connecticut's pardons, but seemed to change direction in 2018, with the case of defendant Richard Thompson.

Thompson is a lawful permanent Connecticut resident who moved to the U.S. from Jamaica at 17 years old. Connecticut gave him a complete pardon for his role in a second-degree assault after a bar fight, but ICE detained him for deportation.

Another case has also come into the spotlight, involving England native Wayzaro Walton, who ICE detained in Massachusetts. The federal government is seeking to deport Walton to England over several crimes she committed in Connecticut, but for which she received a full pardon.

Tong's lawsuit seeks declaratory and injunctive relief. Among other things, it seeks that the court "hold unlawful, vacate, and set aside defendant's practice of disregarding the efficacy and impact of Connecticut's pardons under the Pardon Waiver Claim."

The matter is scheduled for a hearing before Judge Vanessa Bryant.

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