by | Feb 24, 2011 7:35 am | Comments (14)
Melinda Tuhus Photo
After weeks of pickets outside two city restaurants, former workers who claim they’ve been denied $123,000 in wages have convinced the state to take a look.
by | Jan 7, 2011 4:02 pm | Comments (46)
Melinda Tuhus Photo
Garzon addresses a crowd outside police HQ.
When Alvaro Garzon filed an official complaint accusing Officer Dennis O’Connell of choking and tasing him while he was handcuffed, it prompted the ninth internal affairs investigation of the officer in six years.
by | Jan 4, 2011 1:01 pm | Comments (1)
Gallo (pictured) used to be a top-ranking New Haven cop until the early days of community policing.
East Haven Police Chief Leonard Gallo is expected to testify before the Freedom of Information Commission Jan. 25, according to his lawyer. Gallo was subpoenaed last November—but did not show up—to explain why requested documents pertaining to allegations of police abuse and racial profiling were not turned over.
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‘After Ducking, Gallo
Set To Testify Before FOIC’
by | Dec 17, 2010 8:29 am | Comments (6)
In their quest to hold immigration agents accountable for alleged constitutional violations during June 2007 raids in Fair Haven, 11 New Haven immigrants can take their case all the way to the top.
by | Dec 10, 2010 12:01 pm | Comments (6)
Allan Appel Photo
Marco Castillo
New Haven’s newest sister city in the Mexican state of Tlaxcala has sent an estimated 10 percent of its entire population, about 1,000 people, to live in New Haven’s Fair Haven and Hill neighborhoods.
by | Dec 10, 2010 8:25 am | Comments (9)
Thomas MacMillan File Photo
Washington Colala (right) and law student Mark Pedulla.
It’s a bad idea for the U.S. government to deport Washington Colala before he can testify about alleged illegal activity by immigration agents, but I can’t stop it from happening, a federal judge said.
by | Dec 8, 2010 1:28 pm | Comments (6)
EAST HAVEN — At a press conference late Wednesday morning right outside her office, Mayor April Capone Almon announced that FBI agents from New York and Washington, D.C., came to Town Hall Tuesday morning to “conduct an investigation of certain members of the East Haven Police Department.”
by | Dec 6, 2010 6:28 am | Comments (6)
Melinda Tuhus Photo
Workers rallied downtown Friday to decry what they called unfair treatment by several employers and claim they were owed tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid wages — while one of the targeted employers claimed he was a victim of the workers’ manipulation.
by | Dec 3, 2010 5:30 pm | Comments (17)
Thomas MacMillan Photo
(UPDATED) Three days before a government-ordered flight back to his native Ecuador, Washington Colala was granted a week’s reprieve by a federal court judge — giving his legal team extra time to argue that he should be allowed to stay in the country to testify about government misconduct.
by | Oct 25, 2010 7:41 pm | Comments (24)
East Haven is being slammed again for alleged brutality against Latino immigrants, this time in the form of a civil rights lawsuit to be filed Tuesday in federal court in New Haven.
Continue reading ‘Latinos Filing Federal Suit Against East Haven’
by | Oct 5, 2010 9:50 am | Comments (4)
Melinda Tuhus Photo
Foley, at left, with Alderman Joseph Rodriguez, at right.
The issue of immigration seemed bound to come up at a gubernatorial debate Monday evening sponsored by a Latino organization. Especially since one candidate’s running mate wants to rid his city of undocumented immigrants and whose police force is working with the federal government to enforce immigration laws,
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‘Foley To Latinos:
I'm Pro-Immigrant. Really’
by | Oct 4, 2010 3:32 pm | Comments (6)
Kica Matos Photo
New Haven Mayor John DeStefano joined counterparts from around the world on a panel in the Netherlands about an issue that has bedeviled communities worldwide: how to absorb waves of immigrants.
by | Sep 14, 2010 1:56 pm | Comments (3)
Jessica Cole Photos
Chad Warren and his daughter, Jayne, check out the inventory at the newly opened “Clothes Without Borders.”
At 9 months old, little Jayne Warren was the youngest shopper in “Clothes Without Borders.” At one day old, the store itself was even younger than that.
Jayne and her father were among a festive group of shoppers, neighbors, clients, and volunteers at 900 Grand Ave. on Friday night for the grand opening of the thrift store. Owned and operated by Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS), a New Haven not-for-profit that helps to resettle and provide services for refugees, “Clothes Without Borders” is a for-profit store with a social mission: first, creating a sustainable income for IRIS while taking advantage of clothing donations from around the state; and, in the future, helping refugees gain valuable job training and retail experience.
by | Sep 8, 2010 12:14 pm | Comments (2)
Melinda Tuhus Photo
Bruno Suraci said he fired Gregorio Mendoza for sleeping on the job and other violations. Mendoza said, in an interview from Mexico, “There are cameras everywhere in there. None of them will show me sleeping on the job.”
by | Aug 30, 2010 8:34 am | Comments (6)
THomas Macmillan Photo
Mesias Brito hung out his shoe shine shingle at Union Station with high hopes for his new business: improving his English and earning the money he needs to bring his wife and son from Ecuador to New Haven.
by | Jul 29, 2010 8:16 am | Comments (9)
Jay Dockendorf Photo
Yolanda Mendieta, the mother of Mexican immigrants to the U.S., joined 40 other protesters on New Haven’s Federal Plaza to make a point about a federal lawsuit playing out on the other side of the country.
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‘Arizona Law Attacked,
Ruling Praised At Demo’
by | Jul 22, 2010 7:43 am | Comments (2)
As he waded into the town being investigated for possible racial profiling of Latinos, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Dick Blumenthal had the same to say on the subject as his leading Republican opponent — not much.
by | May 21, 2010 8:21 am | Comments (57)
T. MacMillan and M. Bailey File Photos
City lawmakers voted to send Arizona a message: We don’t like your “anti-illegal immigration” law. Two dissenters showed their displeasure by voting with their feet.
by | May 3, 2010 7:14 am | Comments (20)
Allan Appel Photo
Galvanized by Arizona’s new crackdown, Jorge Marroquin donned his double-fisted American flag cap and joined 1,000 fellow marchers in the streets of immigrant-friendly New Haven to demand national immigration reform, soon.
by | Apr 23, 2010 10:48 am | Comments (35)
Thomas MacMillan Photo
A week after the feds slammed the town’s police procedures, a damning new report prepared by Yale student attorneys indicates that East Haven police ticket Latino drivers at vastly disproportionate rates — then record them as white motorists, concealing the facts.
by | Apr 20, 2010 7:12 am | Comments (1)
Under what circumstances have East Haven police used pepper spray or Tasers?
by | Mar 22, 2010 7:50 am | Comments (2)
Henry Fernandez Photo
Sixteen busloads of New Haveners head to D.C. for massive immigration reform rally.
• Why 9‑year-old Andy Hernandez stayed up late on a school night: Neena Satija reports.
• Obama’s friends apply the pressure: Kica Matos reports.
by | Mar 22, 2010 7:42 am | Comments (4)
Henry Fernandez Photo
Washington, D.C.—Note: Kica Matos, who has helped craft New Haven’s immigration policy for years as director of Junta For Progressive Action and then City Hall’s Community Services Administration, joined 16 busloads of other New Haveners to a pro-immigrant rights rally Sunday. She sent back this account.
Anyone driving by the Long Wharf terminal on Sunday before sunrise would have noticed a strange sight: buses. Plenty of them, sitting idly, waiting for passengers to fill the seats. Early Sunday morning, hundreds of New Haven residents from all walks of life woke up in the early hours, and made their way to Long Wharf to fill those seats. By 7:30 am, 16 buses were en route from New Haven to Washington D.C.. New Haveners traveled to join hundreds of thousands of others heading to the nation’s capital with one goal in mind: to demand immigration reform.
by | Mar 22, 2010 7:17 am | Comments (3)
Neena Satija Photo
Washington, D.C.—Julio Hernandez and his 9‑year-old son, Andy, woke up before 5 a.m. Sunday so they could arrive here by bus around 12:15 p.m. They spent about five hours on the National Mall before returning to New Haven near midnight. And Andy has school Monday.
Continue reading ‘16 New Haven Busloads Hit D.C. For Immigration Reform’
by | Mar 1, 2010 12:56 pm | Comments (1)
Allan Appel Photo
Nelida Hernandez organizes soccer leagues for kids in New Haven. Mercy Vallejo is a successful restaurateur. They were among seven Ecuadorean immigrant women in Connecticut who were honored by their consulate Saturday for exemplary achievements as citizens and entrepreneurs.