U.S. Rep. John Larson held a press conference in West Hartford on Monday, June 29, 2026 following the detention of resident and business owner Seyo Cecunjanin.

By Ronni Newton

A West Hartford resident who also owns two businesses in town was recently apprehended, handcuffed, and taken into custody by agents from ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), and federal, state, and local officials, as well as other members of the community are asking for his release and for answers about why he was detained.

Seyo Cecunjanin, who has lived in West Hartford since 1997 and is the owner of Portobello Restaurant on Park Road in West Hartford and The Laundry Room on the Ave on Farmington Avenue, also in West Hartford, was taken into custody in the parking lot of the Dunkin Donuts at 56 Park Road, just east of his restaurant, on Saturday, June 20.

Over the weekend, family members sought the assistance of U.S. Rep. John Larson – who scheduled Monday’s press conference – as well as U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal. No speaker was able to provide information about the grounds for Cecunjanin’s being detained, and no one who spoke at the press conference said they were aware of any evidence of criminal activity associated with the West Hartford man.

“I’ve only been able to talk to him for limited amounts of time. I get lucky if it’s more than five minutes,” Emir Cecunjanin, Seyo’s oldest son, told We-Ha.com, but he said he hasn’t been able to see his father, who is currently detained in Rhode Island. “I know where he is, and I’m trying to, as a son, do as best I can to help him out.”

Emir spoke publicly, and told the roughly 100 people who gathered at West Hartford Town Hall on Monday morning that on Saturday, June 20, he was with his father and one of his two brothers, when his father was “stripped away” right in front of them. “I witnessed something that I wish upon no person to ever witness,” he said.

“We were at Dunkin’ Donuts, and out of nowhere, five unmarked cars surrounded me, my father, and my brother. They all came out with guns, automatically wanting for his arrest,” Emir said. “They didn’t ask for his name, for any identification, and even though I was pleading with the officers it came to no avail and they just took him away.”

Emir said he’s speaking not just for himself and his family, but for other people as well. “I don’t want anyone to go through this ever again,” he said.

“I just want my father to come home. He’s a good man. He’s not a criminal,” said Emir, who is 22 and works as an electrician but has stepped in during his father’s absence to run Portobello Restaurant. He said his father is a big part of the community, and loves West Hartford, where his three children went to school and where the youngest, Amar, is a sophomore at Hall High School. The middle brother, Esmir, is 19 and is studying civil engineering at the University of Hartford.

Seyo Cecunjanin is a native of Montenegro, who settled in Connecticut to raise his family after fleeing to the United States in 1997, when Montenegro was still part of Yugoslavia, amid the political turmoil and “Slobodan Milošević’s genocidal campaign of ethnic cleansing,” Larson said in a news release.

According to a statement from Larson, Seyo Cecunjanin “is legally authorized to work in the United States and owns a restaurant and dry cleaning business in West Hartford. He has been working toward becoming a Lawful Permanent Resident.”

“Especially, as we approach the 250th anniversary of our country’s founding, it becomes even more important that we stand up for people’s rights and responsibility,” Larson said Monday. He, Blumenthal, and others at Monday’s press conference stood in nearly the same spot at the steps of West Hartford Town Hall just two days earlier, at the the kick-off to the Pride Festival. “It was an outstanding event, celebrating diversity, the culmination of Pride Month here in West Hartford, CT. Later that day he and Blumenthal both attended a ceremony at the Yard Goats game in Hartford where 24 immigrants were sworn in as U.S. citizens, and the judge spoke to them about the Constitution, and rights and responsibilities. Within hours, he said, they learned about Cecunjanin.

“Seyo has been a pillar of the community – raising a family, starting two businesses, and giving back to others – yet that didn’t stop armed ICE agents from pulling up in unmarked vans with guns drawn, and handcuffing Seyo in front of his children on Park Road last week,” said Larson. “This is not Russia or China, but right here in West Hartford, Connecticut. We’ve seen agents snatch mothers from their children at car washes in Newington and Southington and even take an Afghan green card holder in my hometown of East Hartford. State police aren’t notified of these operations. Local officials are kept in the dark – and immigrant families are paying the price. I am proud to stand together with the Cecunjanin family and the community with one voice to demand Seyo’s release and an end to these out-of-control raids on our streets.”

Blumenthal called what ICE’s treatment of Seyo Cecunjanin “overreaching – inhumanely and illegally,” as the agency extended its “claws into Connecticut, as it has done in communities throughout the country, to seize a law-abiding person here, with a family, a business, a life that benefits all of our state.” He was following the rules, Blumenthal said, but was seized without warning.

Blumenthal said he and his colleagues have gone to bat previously for other state residents who have been detained – including a recent case involving a high school student in Cheshire – and are in the process of finalizing a letter requesting answers. “We’ve seen this movie before. We want this to end the same way, with the release of Seyo back to his family and community. … We are going to pummel the Department of Homeland Security with demands for information about why Seyo was seized in this way,” he said, adding that Cecunjanin is not a flight risk and is as far from a danger to the community as anyone could imagine.

“All he wants to do is work, and live, and contribute. … There is no excuse for ICE to be detaining Seyo in Rhode Island, where he is now away from his family, and also away from legal counseling. This is ICE’s MO,” Blumenthal said, which he said he hoped would have changed after events in Minneapolis.

“Seyo, you are not alone. Connecticut stands with you,” Blumenthal said. “ICE seems to play by its own rules. It thinks it’s above the law. To ICE, let me just say, you are not above the law,” he said, adding, as the crowd applauded, that law is on our side.

State Sen. Derek Slap (D-West Hartford) said two days earlier West Hartford celebrated Pride at that same site, and it was an event attended by thousands, “an inspiring, uplifting event, and we talked about how no community is alone,” he said, and about how everyone – not just the LGBTQ+ community, “deserves dignity, deserves due process, deserves to be treated fairly, and with respect.” The West Hartford community is coming together now, he said, because a family in our community has been ripped apart and is not being given due process.

West Hartford Mayor Shari Cantor is away due to family obligations, but sent an official letter of support for Cecunjanin, noting that he is a valued member of the community and owner of a restaurant that has become a beloved gathering place as well as another business. “He is not only a resident but also a small business owner who has invested in our town, created jobs, and helped strengthen our local economy,” she said.

Cantor said it’s her understanding that Cecunjanin has authorization for employment and “has a pending Adjustment of Status application.” She noted that he had traveled out of the country to visit his ill father in 2024 and was lawfully permitted to return to the United States. His detention have caused fear and hardship for his family, his employees, and others in the community, she said.

“The June 20th seizure of West Hartford businessman Seyo Cecunjanin, surrounded by approximately five ICE agents in five separate vehicles at the Park Road Dunkin’ Donuts, without explanation, without cause given, and without even a request for identification – was a shocking display of federal overreach that has shaken our entire community,” Cantor said in her statement. “Every person on American soil has the right to due process and basic human dignity, and what took place on Park Road that morning appeared to honor neither. I am deeply grateful to Congressman John Larson for his immediate and tireless efforts on Mr. Cecunjanin’s behalf, and I stand with him in demanding answers, accountability, and Seyo’s swift release.”

In her letter, Cantor said, “I respectfully urge that Mr. Cecunjanin be released while his immigration proceedings continue and that his pending application for lawful permanent residency receive full and fair consideration.”

Deputy Mayor Deb Polun spoke at Monday’s press conference, representing West Hartford on Cantor’s behalf, and was flanked by the other Democrats on the Town Council who were present. She pointed out that she was wearing her West Hartford pin, and above it an American flag pin, “and that’s because I am an American, and I’m proud of what our country can be.”

Polun said what happened to Cecunjanin, and similar situations that have occurred in other communities, “is not what America should be. We must do better. We cannot have U.S. agencies, federal agents, coming into our community, drawing guns in a. Dunkin’ Donuts parking lot with other people around, to arrest somebody with no cause, likely no warrant, and drag him away to another state, with no legal representation.” Even if it wasn’t a West Hartford residents, she asked, “Who’s next?”

The country needs to change direction and fight back, “and become who we are meant to be,” Polun said.

Cecunjanin’s restaurant, Portobello, is on Park Road, and Tracy Flater, who is executive director of Playhouse on Park and co-president of the Park Road Association, said he is a valued and active member of the community and the restaurant is one of the Playhouse’s dining partners. “The food is absolutely delicious, but what makes it truly special is the warmth, the authenticity, the hospitality that comes through every dish and every interaction. It reflects everything that Seyo puts into all he does – a genuine love of bringing people together.”

She called on the community to continue to support Portabello, and said the Park Road Association will do what they can to support Cecunjanin and his family.

Other speakers, including Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services (IRIS) Executive Director Maggie Mitchell Salem, state Sen. MD Rahman (D-Manchester), and state Sen. Matt Lesser (D-Middletown) also called for Cecunjanin’s release and for communities to stand up against such actions by ICE.

“The main goal is to unite Emir and his family with his father,” Larson said, asking people to use their voices and their votes.

Larson, a 14-term incumbent who is running in a four-way primary in Connecticut’s 1st District and has called for disbanding ICE and voted against the recent bill to provide the agency with billion of additional funding, said this isn’t a “Democrat, Republican, or unaffiliated issue. This is an American issue, and we have to stand up, and speak out,” and send a message to Washington.

“It’s important that we send a message to Washington, that authoritarianism isn’t tolerated, Gestapo tactics are not tolerated in West Hartford, in America, or in any city in this great nation of ours,” said Larson.

We-Ha.com reached out to the Department of Homeland Security requesting further information about Cecunjanin’s detention, and received the following statement: “On June 20, ICE arrested Sead Cecunjanin, a criminal illegal alien from Montenegro with a previous DUI conviction. Cecunjanin illegally entered the United States on March 21, 1997, presenting a fraudulent passport of a Dutch national. On September 25, 1997, a Justice Department immigration judge issued him a final order of removal. On July 30, 2024, Cecunjanin departed the United States for Serbia, only to return about two weeks later on August 16. He was promptly RELEASED back into the United States under the Biden Administration – despite having a final order of removal over 25 years old. Cecunjanin has made a mockery of our immigration laws on several occasions for more than two decades. DHS is working rapidly and overtime to remove aliens like this from our streets and to their final destination – home. Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in our country.”

The information in the statement from DHS could not immediately be confirmed through other sources, and We-Ha.com has requested further details. A response has not yet been received.

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