by | Mar 1, 2013 3:43 pm | Comments (17)
Paul Bass Photo
Behind this anonymous door three floors above downtown New Haven, a Yale-affiliated shrink is paying local immigrants $150 to help the FBI sniff out liars when hunting terrorists.
Continue reading ‘Shhh: Terrorism Study’s Already In Full Swing’
by | Feb 22, 2013 5:55 pm | Comments (7)
As critics line up to denounce a planned new military special-ops research center relying on New Haven immigrants as test subjects, the idea of the center itself became shrouded in mystery worthy of … well, special ops.
Continue reading
‘Yale Scraps Plans For
Military Research Center’
by | Feb 21, 2013 5:34 pm | Comments (13)
Paul Bass Photo
Lugo: “We’re not lab rats.”
(Updated 7:28 p.m.) After an outcry from campus groups and New Haven immigration activists, Yale announced Thursday night that it will put on temporary hold plans to launch a Department of Defense-backed research center that would rely on local immigrants as military test subjects.
Continue reading ‘Yale Puts Controversial Military Project On Hold’
by | Feb 19, 2013 2:30 pm | Comments (4)
(Updated 1:42 p.m.) WIth the help of Yale law students, Sergio Brizuela has won a legal victory that means fewer immigrants like him will be handed over to the feds.
by | Jan 22, 2013 8:52 am | Comments (0)
As President Obama began his second term Monday with a pledge for greater equality and opportunity, New Haven activists called on him to finish the job on immigration reform.
by | Jan 9, 2013 5:33 pm | Comments (2)
Paul Bass Photo
As a knife-wielding robber approached a Hill grocery store for a third consecutive heist, clerk Sarhan Abdullah had his aluminum bat ready behind the counter.
Fortunately for everyone involved, Officer Joe Roberts was in the neighborhood. With his eyes open.
by | Nov 20, 2012 4:47 pm | Comments (0)
The federal government has signed off on a set of rules for East Haven to fix the way it treats immigrants.
by | Nov 16, 2012 12:08 pm | Comments (4)
Paul Bass Photo
Ortega confers with Gemeiner before pleading Thursday.
From the back of the courtroom, Dario Ortiz watched Wilfredo Ortega say “guilty” four times. He watched a judge tell Ortega he’s headed to jail. That didn’t make him feel any safer.
by | Nov 1, 2012 11:39 am | Comments (7)
Thomas MacMillan Photo
Murphy hits Grand Ave. with Candelaria (left) and SAMA’s Frank Alvarado.
Chris Murphy didn’t say yes. And he didn’t say no.
by | Oct 25, 2012 8:12 am | Comments (1)
As years of harassment at the hand of East Haven cops come to an end, Latinos are beginning to move across the border from New Haven.
by | Oct 23, 2012 12:49 pm | Comments (1)
Nearly four years after allegations of widespread harassment of Latinos by East Haven cops came to light, the town has agreed to a set of sweeping reforms.
by | Oct 22, 2012 7:37 am | Comments (2)
Paul Bass Photo
Efraim and Ashly Salas were among 250 St. Rose congregants pressing the chief for help Sunday.
Dario Ortiz and his family fought off and held onto a violent mugger for the cops. Now hundreds of fellow Fair Haven immigrants want the cops to do more to keep them safe.
by | Oct 11, 2012 12:40 pm | Comments (4)
Allan Appel Photo
68 Chapel owner Benito Urgiles & Sgt. Anthony Zona.
Benito Urgiles asked zoners for permission to turn his now boarded-up ground-level space on Chapel Street at Ferry into a clothing store. He said he can’t find residential renters for a space that has been vacant since 1957.
Fair Haven’s top cop rose to declare: Terrible idea.
by | Aug 9, 2012 4:05 pm | Comments (2)
Melissa Bailey Photo
Dreamer Jordy Padilla plans to launch an engineering career.
As the feds open the doors for young undocumented immigrants to seek temporary refuge from deportation, New Haven legal aid has opened a help center downtown — to try to prevent a dream from becoming a ripoff.
by | Jul 26, 2012 6:00 pm | Comments (1)
Thomas MacMillan Photo
Kica Matos.
Few would have dreamed five years ago that, in 2012, New Haven immigrants would get official IDs, the state (and then federal government) would give public college opportunity to undocumented students, that police in at least one Connecticut city would be barred for inquiring into the immigration status of people they stop.
What next?
by | Jul 25, 2012 8:21 am | Comments (4)
Just as she did five years ago, Migdalia Castro stepped into a City Hall office Tuesday, plunked down $10, and walked out with a new Elm City Resident Card.
by | Jul 23, 2012 2:28 pm | Comments (8)
Thomas MacMillan Photo
Yolanda Guzman Elias: “It’s a good thing … to show we live here.”
Doomsday never arrived. Nor did hordes of immigrants suddenly open new bank accounts with their first-in-the-nation municipal ID cards.
by | Jul 20, 2012 8:38 am | Comments (12)
Melissa Bailey Photo
After falling in love and marrying, Francesca Martin and Gudrun Scheffler find themselves at risk of being torn apart: When Scheffler’s work visa expires in September, they will be forced to separate or leave the country, because the federal government refuses to recognize their union.
Continue reading ‘Law Pushes Married Lesbian Couple Out Of U.S.’
by | Jul 10, 2012 12:07 pm | Comments (1)
Melissa Bailey Photo
Libia Beboya: “An ice at every corner.”
Two scoops of rainbow. And how about a job?
Those requests came over the counter at one of three family-run tropical ice carts on Grand Avenue, as one Honduran family entered its 13th summer of keeping the city’s fastest-growing Latino neighborhood cool.
by | Jun 19, 2012 7:48 am | Comments (3)
Melissa Bailey Photo
After a gift from the president, aspiring engineer Diego Aguilar decided to head to UConn in the fall instead of packing his bags for Canada.
by | Jun 4, 2012 3:18 pm | Comments (2)
Nadia Imanishimwe, an African immigrant who came to the U.S. from a refugee camp knowing no English, saw her fortune change last week when a local motorcycle club paid her way to the prom in a limo.
Nadia, a senior on the honor roll at Hillhouse High School, won the Presidents Motorcycle Club’s second annual senior prom award.
by | May 31, 2012 2:19 pm | Comments (2)
Nicolás Medina Mora Pérez Photo
“Calabaza” became “zucchini” for Alejandro Algredo thanks to a nighttime class he took on Grand Avenue. As Connecticut cuts back on such classes statewide, other adult immigrants like Algredo will be able to keep learning English on Grand thanks to a timely “Hi‑5.”
Continue reading
‘Surprise Gift Breaks
The Language Barrier’
by | May 25, 2012 8:17 am | Comments (0)
Nicolás Medina Mora Pérez Photo
Maria Ramirez was pleased when her union won higher wages in a new contract at the Omni Hotel — and happier about new protections for immigrant workers like herself.
Continue reading ‘Omni Contract Ratified, Protects Immigrants’
by | May 23, 2012 5:10 pm | Comments (0)
JUNTA and the Yale Law School released a report highlighting the problems that immigrants face when they try to send money back home — and identified some possible solutions like having “remittance agencies” disclose fees more clearly.
by | Apr 12, 2012 11:14 am | Comments (1)
Thomas MacMillan Photo
Sara and Berket Tewolde.
Berket Tewolde, who was carried as an infant refugee out of Ethiopia, is poised to join a national youth leadership conference this summer in Washington D.C. But he’s over a thousand dollars short of the $1,900 fee.