by | Sep 20, 2018 3:51 pm | Comments (35)
Paul Bass Photos
Students converge on Elm/College corner …
… as Nelson Pinos watches from his sanctuary.
Hundreds of New Haven high school students walked out of classes Monday to a downtown “sanctuary” church — with the support of school officials but very much on their own terms.
by | Sep 17, 2018 8:07 am | Comments (2)
Desir with State Rep. Robyn Porter and JAC President Karaine Holness.
Castillo at center.
A Haitian and a Jamaican by way of Panama were honored as trailblazers at the Jamaican American Connection (JAC) of Greater New Haven Inc.‘s eighth Trailblazer Scholarship Banquet.
Continue reading ‘Caribbean, America Connect At Scholars Banquet’
by | Sep 13, 2018 3:34 pm | Comments (13)
Sonya Schoenberger Photo
Crowd gathers for foreclosure auction.
As a crowd looked on, two Fair Haven families competed to rescue a boarded-up two-story house on Blatchley Avenue.
by | Sep 7, 2018 12:12 pm | Comments (7)
Allan Appel Photo
New Executive Director Reyes with predecessor Sandra Trevino.
A little over a year after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, the organization that took the local lead in aiding victims and resettling 450 families in our area celebrated 49 years of service — and announced hiring a new leader for the future.
Continue reading ‘JUNTA Celebrates 49 Years, Welcomes New Leader’
by | Aug 23, 2018 7:37 am | Comments (0)
Christopher Peak Photo
Salma Sikandar, with her son.
An immigrant mother from New Haven who faces deportation back to Bangladesh will be able to move her son into college, after immigration authorities granted her an emergency stay.
by | Aug 22, 2018 7:55 am | Comments (5)
Samir Mahmud with his mother, Salma Sikandar, who’s been ordered to leave the country by Thursday.
Samir Mahmud, a first-generation college student, said he should be thinking about how to keep up with his studies and fit in with his classes when he starts at Quinnipiac next week. Instead, the 17-year-old is worrying whether his mother will be there on move-in day or if she’ll be deported 7,800 miles away to Bangladesh.
by | Aug 9, 2018 12:11 pm | Comments (8)
Thomas Breen Photos
Contreras: Check out my white hairs.
Contreras’s 126 Farren garage, which the city says was illegally converted into an auto body shop.
At 33, Antonio Contreras is watching hair turn white.
He blames zoning rules that have landed him and other small-business and property owners in trouble in the Annex neighborhood.
by | Aug 7, 2018 7:51 am | Comments (9)
Christopher Peak Photo
Activists protest against ICE’s courthouse arrests, outside the Elm Street courthouse.
Mayor Toni Harp called on people to let Washington, D.C. know that undocumented immigrants live here and should count toward our official population figures.
by | Jul 18, 2018 8:13 am | Comments (1)
Christopher Peak Photo
Attorneys: A precedent’s been set for reuniting migrant kids with their parents.
Immigration lawyers don’t need to wait for an uncertain remedy out of a California court to reunite undocumented families separated at the border. Instead, they now have a model in Connecticut for proving that migrant children’s trauma needs to be addressed immediately.
Continue reading ‘Lawyers: Immigration Win Offers Nationwide Model’
by , and | Jul 16, 2018 12:32 pm | Comments (20)
Thomas Breen Photo
Immigrant rights supporters outside the courthouse.
MacMillan File Photo
Federal Judge Victor Bolden.
Updated—In response to a landmark ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Victor Bolden, two immigrant children being held in Connecticut will be reunited with their parents.
The federal government agreed to release the parents from a detention facility in Texas, where they had been separated from their children under a short-lived Trump administration border crackdown on undocumented families.
by | Jul 12, 2018 8:18 am | Comments (20)
Wilbur Cross rising junior Carlos Jaramillo.
Bridgeport — Immigrant rights lawyers and a leading child psychiatrist from New Haven tried to convince a federal judge to reunite two traumatized migrant children in Connecticut with their parents who are in Texas.
Meanwhile, two New Haven activists helping to lead a protest outside the courthouse shared their own stories of trauma, fear and resilience as undocumented immigrants living in America.
by | Jul 9, 2018 8:37 am | Comments (4)
Carly Wanna Photo
Murphy walks the last miles of his trek, in New Haven.
In a quest to raise enough money to travel to Orlando for a basketball tournament, the New Haven Heat was lucky to bump into a U.S. senator Saturday.
by | Jul 6, 2018 8:42 am | Comments (14)
Allan Appel Photo
Aviva Luria of Madison protests the Trump immigration policy, at Friday’s Yale Law event.
(Updated) A 9‑year-old boy from Honduras and a 14-year-old girl from El Salvador are suing the federal government after being separated from their parents at the U.S. border and then transported Connecticut.
Continue reading ‘Legal Aid, Yale Law Sue Feds Over Immigrant Children’
by | Jun 26, 2018 1:53 pm | Comments (2)
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Nelson Pinos shares a moment with his son outside First & Summerfield at Tuesday’s rally.
It has been 208 days since Nelson Pinos sought refuge at sanctuary at the corner of College and Elm streets, and it could be many more days as he awaits a decision from an immigration appeals board in Bloomington, Minn.
by | Jun 25, 2018 1:46 pm | Comments (13)
Carly Wanna Photo
Rosa DeLauro at Monday’s press conference.
At detention centers on the Southern border of the United States, a sea of mylar subsidizes comfort, predictability and parents for the thousands of children detained and separated from their mothers and fathers in attempts to cross the border.
Continue reading ‘DeLauro: Border Children’s Plight “Worse Than Imagined”’
by | Jun 20, 2018 8:16 am | Comments (28)
Paul Bass Photo
Hatfield at WNHH FM: Will she be 1st woman to win AG race?
Don’t look for Sue Hatfield to sign onto letters attacking Donald Trump if she becomes Connecticut’s next attorney general, even when some of her fellow Republicans criticize him for separating parents and children at the border.
by | Jun 20, 2018 8:07 am | Comments (0)
Allan Appel Photo
Paola Morales, after she spoke.
Four years ago Paola Morales came to New Haven from Colombia. The only English she knew was “yes” and “no” and friends communicated with her – or tried to – through Google Translator.
She persevered with language and more, and finished High School in the Community (HSC) a year early. She has already completed a semester of courses at the University of New Haven.
She was back Tuesday evening, wearing a white gown, and a broad smile of pride as the valedictorian of the 2018 graduating class of HSC
Continue reading ‘Trailblazers And Ceiling-Breakers Hailed At HSC Graduation’
by | Jun 20, 2018 7:55 am | Comments (0)
Allison Park Photo
Tubac and Silvernale.
Nidia Tubac entered her senior year of high school knowing barely any English. On Tuesday evening, when she stepped on the stage at Hillhouse High School’s Bowen Field to receive her high school diploma, she had defeated the odds.
by | Jun 19, 2018 4:50 pm | Comments (4)
Allison Park Photo
Kanafa, a sweet traditional dessert.
Zainab Al-Qaderi had a satisfied smile on her face as she presented her guests with her sweet Iraqi specialty called kanafa. The guests dug in, with their forks gently cracking the crispy outer layer of shredded phyllo dough, to reveal creamy layers of baked goodness: a filling of sweet cheese and clotted cream, with a dainty pistachio garnish. She motioned her guests towards a small jar full of syrup and urged them to drizzle the sugar-water concoction over the dish to enhance the flavor.
by | Jun 18, 2018 12:38 pm | Comments (14)
Allison Park Photo
Maria Guallan with Sen. Blumenthal.
Maria Felicidad Guallan’s search for a better life came at a painful cost — leaving her son behind at the border. Now she’s scared of being separated from her young daughter as well.
Continue reading ‘Separated Families Get A Senatorial Promise’
by | Jun 13, 2018 12:33 pm | Comments (5)
Photo by Carly Wanna
Moderator John Dankosky and panelist Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak.
Immigration aids the U.S. economy, despite myths to the contrary.
Continue reading ‘A&I Panel: Immigration Boosts The Economy’
by | Jun 11, 2018 10:47 pm | Comments (5)
Campaigns outside the Shubert before the debate.
Paul Bass Photos
2 Tacks: Herbst, Boughton in New Haven Monday night.
Four leading Republican candidates for governor debated each other in Connecticut’s best-known sanctuary city — and to a man condemned sanctuary cities.
But there was at least one noticeable difference between the way two of them did that.
Continue reading ‘In Sanctuary City, GOP Gubernatorial Candidates Bash Sanctuary Cities’
by | Jun 9, 2018 10:04 pm | Comments (15)
Allison Park Photos
Imagine a life of forced removal from a war-ridden home at just two years old, and relocation to a foreign country where education was scarce, support was inadequate, and comfort was not an option. For Gladys Mwilelo, this consumed 13 years of her life.
Continue reading ‘Public Exhibit Offers Intimate Portraits Of Immigrants’
by | Jun 5, 2018 2:51 pm | Comments (0)
Elizabeth Nearing Photo
Azhar Ahmed.
Azhar Ahmed fled the war in Sudan in 2004. For a decade she lived with her husband in Cairo, working as a teacher and applying for refugee status in the United States. In June 2015 she and her husband finally arrived in New Haven. Her son was born six months ago, in a friend’s house.
“You have to start from the beginning,” she said, of her experience of arriving in the United States.
by | May 24, 2018 7:36 am | Comments (1)
Isis Davis-Marks Photo
When other kids were in school, Gladys Mwilelo recalled, she was standing in line for water or out selling patties so her family could have enough money to eat.