STAMFORD – The photo shows two Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents with their backs to a bathroom door in the Stamford courthouse lobby, each with a heel raised to a glass panel in the wood.A third ICE agent, his face concealed by a mask and a cap, stands guard.Witnesses say the ICE agents at the bathroom door kicked in the glass to get to two brothers from Guatemala who’d locked themselves inside.Videos show what happened a few minutes later. Half a dozen armed, masked federal officers, most wearing bullet-proof vests, escort the brothers out of the building and into vehicles parked in the driveway that circles in front of state Superior Court on Hoyt Street.The vehicles quickly drive away.Max Cisneros, a member of Stamford-Norwalk United with Immigrants, said that, since the spring, ICE agents and other law enforcement officers working with ICE have been arresting migrants walking in or out of the courthouse.But Monday brought a twist.“It was the first time I saw them apprehend someone inside the courthouse,” Cisneros said. Monday felt differentMonday “was a day that, even for those who have been engaging in observation work for months … feels different. A courthouse is a sacred place of justice and gravitas. This was a blatant disregard for norms.” Something else has changed since June, when Cisneros began observing ICE apprehensions at the courthouse that serves the Stamford-Norwalk judicial district.“There is an escalation,” Cisneros said. “Every time I engaged, ICE didn’t say anything, our observers didn’t say anything. It was eerie. The escalation is not just in ICE tactics – now they’re going into the courthouse – but also in ways we are interacting. There is a conversation happening. People are filming.”Multiple people did so Monday.A person related to the two brothers said they are undocumented workers who pay taxes. They were in court to comply with terms stemming from their arrests two years ago in connection to a street altercation, according to a family member. The person said that, when the immigration enforcement agents entered the courthouse, one of the state judicial marshals tried to stop them.The marshal “told them they could not pass, they have no permission. But they went past,” said the family member, who shot the photo of the agents kicking in the glass. “I was standing in front of the bathroom door. I asked them to show me papers, to say why they are taking [the brothers]. But they didn’t show me anything. They told me to back off. They had handcuffs and pepper spray and a Taser.”‘You went inside the courthouse!’Outside the courthouse, observers shooting the scene on their phones shouted at the ICE agents as they walked the brothers to the waiting vehicles. “You are not allowed to do this; this is illegal,” a woman filming the agents shouted. “You went inside the courthouse!” In another video, a man shooting a video shouted at the agents, “Where is the signed judicial warrant? You violated the Connecticut Trust Act!”The state law prohibits state law enforcement officers from detaining people at the request of federal immigrant authorities. There are exceptions – people can be detained if they have been convicted of a Class A or Class B felony; if a judge signed a warrant; or if the person is named on a terrorist watch list.State Attorney General William Tong of Stamford has been an advocate of the Trust Act, and has said that police officers in Connecticut should not be used to enforce federal immigration laws. The act aims to ensure that undocumented migrants feel safe reporting crimes and seeking help from police without fear of being deported, Tong has said. Tong spokesperson Elizabeth Benton said Monday the office is “aware of the concerning reports and seeking further information.” But, she said, “as a general matter, the Trust Act does not prohibit access to public spaces.”As such, state judicial marshals in the Stamford courthouse did their jobs on Monday, said Rhonda Hebert, deputy director of communications for the Connecticut Judicial Branch.“The Judicial Branch adheres to the Trust Act,” Hebert said. “Under the act, we are not to prevent or assist ICE in the apprehension of individuals in the courthouse.”Courthouse enforcementAcross the country, grassroots advocacy groups have sprung up since ICE agents began apprehending farm workers, day laborers, housekeepers and others in response to a quota set in May by President Donald Trump to arrest 3,000 undocumented migrants per day.Those advocates say they are concerned because the Constitution guarantees that all people, regardless of immigration status, have the right to an attorney and a court hearing when charged with a crime.They say the Constitution is violated when masked, armed, unidentified law enforcement agents take people from courthouses, schools, churches, workplaces and neighborhoods, and transport them to unknown detention facilities.In January ICE officials addressed how agents should behave in courthouses. They issued a directive clarifying that ICE agents may conduct immigration enforcement at courthouses “when they have credible information that leads them to believe the targeted alien(s) is or will be present at a specific location.” Agents should not violate “laws imposed by the jurisdiction in which the immigration enforcement action will take place,” according to the directive.Before conducting enforcement actions at courthouses, ICE agents must coordinate with the ICE field office to determine whether the local jurisdiction has set legal limitations.Enforcement actions should “take place in non-public areas of the courthouse, be conducted in collaboration with court security staff, and use the court building’s non-public entrances and exits,” the directive states. ICE agents must conduct enforcement actions “discreetly to minimize their impact on court proceedings,” it states.‘As good as gone’It’s unclear whether kicking the glass out of a courtroom bathroom door complies with the directive.The ICE Office of Public Affairs on its website instructs reporters to send questions to [email protected]. But no one replies.The phone system at the ICE Field Office in Hartford hangs up without allowing a caller to leave a message.Marie Orsini Rosen of Stamford represents the Interfaith Council of Southwestern Connecticut and is a member of the Stamford Clergy Group. Both provide ministerial and pastoral support for the families of those who are taken by ICE.“We understand that this is a first, ICE going into the courthouse,” Orsini Rosen said. “We looked into the Trust Act and we learned that this is not illegal. They can do this. They just haven’t done it until now.”Within a few hours of Monday’s incident, “there was brand-new glass in the door,” Orsini Rosen said. It was as if it had never happened, she said.Cisneros said the brothers arrested Monday got in trouble after one defended the other in a fight that broke out two years ago.“They have followed court rules and made court appearances as they were ordered,” Cisneros said. “These are hard-working guys who mostly know just their home and their work.”Cisneros said migrants he meets through his group say that someone from ICE is in the Stamford courthouse lobby each day reading the docket and photographing people gathered there.“They tell me that if they take your photo, it’s a sure sign you’re as good as gone,” Cisneros said.