by | Nov 17, 2017 9:00 am | Comments (8)
Christopher Peak Photo
Nelson Pinos with his family.
Another undocumented immigrant, this time a father of three in the Annex who said he has paid his taxes and obeyed the law, has been ordered to leave the country by month’s end. New Haven’s taking up his cause. His story sounds familiar — with options running out.
by | Nov 3, 2017 7:58 am | Comments (1)
Cross students and amateur flamenco dancers Josselyn Escalante, Guizell Samaniedo, and Alondra Rodriguez.
Thomas Breen photo
Daisha Rivera in the halls of her new high school, Wilbur Cross.
Two weeks ago, Daisha Rivera was living on Puerto Rico’s north-central coast, where her family had trouble finding clean water a month after Hurricane Maria.
Thursday night Rivera joined other new students for a communal embrace at Wilbur Cross High, the new academic home for 10 other hurricane evacuees as well.
by | Oct 18, 2017 7:45 am | Comments (2)
Thomas Breen photo
Demonstrators march through Downtown and Yale’s campus on Tuesday night in support of a Yale undergraduate’s father who is facing deportation.
Hundreds of Yale students, immigrant rights activists, and community allies rallied through the streets of downtown New Haven on Tuesday night in support of a Yale undergraduate’s father who has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Colorado and faces deportation to Mexico.
Continue reading ‘Hundreds Rally Against Student’s Dad’s Deportation’
by | Oct 9, 2017 8:00 am | Comments (5)
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Ramirez: Time to bring it home.
U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro and state colleges and universities system President Mark Ojakian are calling on the president to stand by his promise to use his heart in deciding the fate of “dreamers.”
by | Sep 18, 2017 4:11 pm | Comments (1)
Markeshia Ricks Photo
President Kaplan signs the MOU Monday.
New Haven Sister Cities just got a whole school full of new ambassadors for the cause of peace thanks to a newly minted partnership with the University of New Haven.
by | Sep 18, 2017 8:03 am | Comments (12)
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Holness recognizes the hard working members of JAC at Saturday night’s banquet.
Two Jamaican-Americans were recognized Saturday night for their trailblazing career accomplishments in their adopted home here in the United States. And two Americans became honorary Jamaicans .
Continue reading ‘Jamaican-American Trailblazers Get Their Due’
by | Sep 12, 2017 1:01 pm | Comments (1)
David Sepulveda Photo
Sandra Trevino at Friday night’s gala.
Following months of internal turmoil, the executive director of a Fair Haven-based agency that has helped lead New Haven’s emergence as a “sanctuary city” for Latino immigrants is stepping down.
by | Sep 5, 2017 5:41 pm | Comments (13)
Paul Bass Photo
Sergio Olmedo-Ramirez.
Sergio Olmedo-Ramirez added a personal note when he joined New Haven officials Tuesday in calling for resistance to President Trump’s decision to deport children of undocumented immigrants: He’s one of those children. And he may have to leave the country he considers home.
by | Sep 1, 2017 1:13 pm | Comments (5)
Paul Bass Photo
If not for his talents for forgery and for culinary invention, Salam Al-Rawi probably wouldn’t have been on Whalley Avenue this week preparing to open Westville Village’s newest restaurant.
Continue reading ‘Soul Of Iraqi Village Surfaces In Westville’
by | Aug 30, 2017 8:15 am | Comments (24)
Brian Slattery Photo
The beginning of demolition at Church Street South.
If Marcus Paca becomes New Haven’s next mayor, he promises to take a closer look before allowing the developer who allowed the Church Street South complex to deteriorate to build it back up again.
by | Aug 24, 2017 8:41 am | Comments (2)
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Mayor Toni Harp with New HYTEs’ Mavi Sanchez-Skakle at Wednesday’s luncheon.
The women were assembled in an-air conditioned suite overlooking an outdoor court at the Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale for lunch and to celebrate women in business. But they were asked to resist the forces that might turn back the progress that has helped more women succeed.
Continue reading ‘Women’s Day Luncheon Aims At Stalled Progress’
by | Aug 21, 2017 3:06 pm | Comments (8)
Christopher Peak Photos
Reyes inside church with his daughter and wife.
Blumenthal at First & Summerfield Church: Just missed change.
Marco Antonio Reyes Alvarez, the undocumented Ecuadorian immigrant who has found sanctuary from deportation in a church downtown, might face a prolonged stay at First & Summerfield due to a new directive that limits the ability of members of Congress to halt removal orders.
by | Aug 21, 2017 2:36 pm | Comments (51)
Paul Bass photos
Paca, Harp at Sunday’s debate.
Marcus Paca promised that if he becomes mayor, he will fight gentrification, while Mayor Toni Harp argued that the burst of market-rate housing in town doesn’t constitute gentrification.
Harp promised to continue New Haven’s “sanctuary city” policies even if President Trump withholds federal grants, while Paca promised to take a closer look at the issue first to avoid losing needed dollars.
by | Aug 8, 2017 9:05 pm | Comments (22)
Christopher Peak Photos
Marco Antonio Reyes Alvarez with his 12-year-old daughter at First & Summerfield Church Tuesday.
In the face of a deportation order, an Ecuadorian immigrant who came to the United States to flee violence has taken sanctuary in a New Haven church — an act of defiance that was welcomed Tuesday evening by the city’s political representatives and immigration advocates.
Supporters rally outside the church late Tuesday afternoon.
by | Jul 26, 2017 6:21 pm | Comments (4)
Markeshia Ricks Photos
Chavarria addresses her supporters before Wednesday’s celebratory march in Fair Haven.
Clergy join Chavarria in leading off Wednesday’s march.
Hundreds of immigrant rights activists took to the streets of Fair Haven to celebrate — rather than protest as planned — after a 43-year-old woman taking sanctuary in a neighborhood church won a stay allowing her to remain in the country.
by | Jul 25, 2017 1:36 pm | Comments (4)
Paul Bass Photo
Harp: “Highest and best purpose of government.”
City government published a book Tuesday with a targeted audience — undocumented New Haveners facing possible deportation and neighbors seeking to help them.
by | Jul 25, 2017 7:59 am | Comments (4)
Christopher Peak Photo
Nury Chavarria Monday inside Iglesia de Dios.
Nury Chavarria’s decision to hole up in a Fair Haven church to evade deportation wasn’t the first time that she has fled her home to seek sanctuary.
In 1993, near the end of a three-decade civil war, government soldiers ransacked her village in El Petén, Guatemala’s northernmost region, forcing her to vacate her house and sleep overnight in a school. Shortly after, she flew to America, seeking a respite from her country’s violence and poverty.
by | Jul 24, 2017 7:50 am | Comments (7)
Jon Greenberg Photo
Rising Yale junior and undocumented person Alejandra Ortega at Friday’s discussion.
“I grew up in this country undocumented. I grew up in the shadows before DACA,” Isabella Ceballos recounted, her voice breaking with emotion. “I was 15 when my family received our permanent residency … and once I was eligible to be a citizen, I almost didn’t want it. A part of me was so angry. And then I realized that I had to do it, because I saw so many people still in the shadows.”
by | Jul 23, 2017 10:46 pm | Comments (34)
Paul Bass Photos
Chavarria makes appearance at Sunday night’s vigil.
Clarice Yasuhara of Guilford.
The plan was for Nury Chavarria to stay inside the church Sunday night as hundreds of supporters gathered outside to sing and chant their support for her to remain in the U.S.
The plan changed. As her plans in general seem to change these days.
by | Jul 21, 2017 2:03 pm | Comments (21)
Gov. Malloy at the church with Chavarria’s daughter Hayley, 9.
A Norwalk woman took up sanctuary inside a Fair Haven church Thursday, after federal immigration authorities ordered her to fly back to Guatemala.
by | Jun 29, 2017 7:45 am | Comments (0)
Lucy Gellman Photo
Sampedro welcomed home Wednesday night …
… after his release from federal detention.
After a whirlwind day in court in Hartford, raising bail in New Haven, then heading back up to a detention center in Massachusetts, immigration reform activists welcomed Cristian Coyazatl Sampedro home Wednesday night and vowed to continue helping other local people facing deportation.
by | Jun 22, 2017 3:00 pm | Comments (0)
Allan Appel Photo
Hunmae (in blue) and Hunyee McCollum, with parents Allen and Kathy and city culture commission chair Aleta Staton.
The half-Chinese and half-African-American McCollum sisters have been speaking Cantonese at home all their lives. Thursday morning they put their linguistic talents to inspirational use, only they had to switch to Mandarin, the national dialect of China.
The sisters were part of the cultural program on the occasion of formal signing ceremonies marking Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province, becoming New Haven’s eighth sister city.
Continue reading ‘New Haven, Changsha Sign Sister-City Pact’
by | Jun 5, 2017 7:49 am | Comments (4)
Markeshia Ricks Photo
The Jamaican American Connection shares information about Jam Rock.
Rain and wind didn’t stop the annual celebration of Caribbean heritage in New Haven.
by | Jun 2, 2017 7:09 am | Comments (1)
Lucy Gellman Photo
Students Austina, Claudine, Noorhan and Rawan .
Something decidedly unquiet was transpiring in the Fair Haven branch library community room. Chins pressed themselves to chinrests. Tiny hands gingerly gripped equally tiny bows. A few feet spread out on the sun-bathed carpet, getting in position.
The room exploded in Pachelbel’s Canon. A handful of parents glued their eyes to the gaggle of youngsters before them.
The group wasn’t just playing together for the first time. Several of them were playing publicly for the first time in the United States.
by | May 30, 2017 4:06 pm | Comments (1)
Lucy Gellman Photo
Iftar gets underway at 8:25 p.m.
As night fell at Brick Oven Pizza restaurant on Howe Street, Kadir Catalbasoglu lifted a steaming spoonful of şehriye çorbasi — a tomato-based soup with thin noodles — to his mouth. It was the first thing he’d eaten since 3:17 that morning.