by | Dec 20, 2019 1:33 pm | Comments (5)
Sam Gurwitt Photo
Loubabatou Harris rose by 5 a.m. First she prayed; then she hit the road to Hartford to pick up a delivery of meat. It was time to stock up for the holidays on food that many of her African-born customers remember from the motherland — and can find only at Motherland Market.
by | Dec 19, 2019 1:39 pm | Comments (44)
ICE agent begins arresting Ana Lucero.
A federal immigration agent began to arrest a New Haven woman inside a state courthouse Thursday. New Haven activists interrupted the arrest — and captured him on camera.
Continue reading ‘Another ICE Courthouse Arrest Interrupted’
by | Dec 12, 2019 1:51 pm | Comments (2)
Christopher Peak Photo
Cross students hear an update about Mario Aguilar’s asylum claims at a Thursday morning assembly.
A New Haven high-schooler will be stuck in federal detention for at least another week, after an immigration judge held off on issuing a decision that could lead to his deportation.
Continue reading ‘Court Delay Keeps Cross Student In ICE Lockup’
by | Dec 10, 2019 11:23 pm | Comments (2)
Simon Bazelon Photo
Wilbur Cross High School students headed up the stairs to the Track 14 platform at Union Station Tuesday afternoon to embark on a field trip of sorts — to seek justice.
by | Dec 10, 2019 4:40 pm | Comments (19)
Christoper Peak Photo
Teacher Nataliya Braginsky talks through primary sources.
Alyssa Washington couldn’t stop thinking about the multi-colored map of New Haven on her classroom wall: the narrow green around Prospect Hill and Westville; the swathed yellow, like a waning moon, from Beaver Hills to City Point; the foreboding red around Dixwell and Fair Haven — each section of the city walled in by fixed black lines.
by | Nov 26, 2019 8:34 am | Comments (0)
New Haven Mayor Toni Harp joined 87 of her colleagues nationwide in urging the Trump administration to rescind a Sept. 26 executive order that changes the country’s system for resettling refugees.
Continue reading ‘Mayors Urge Reversal Of Executive Order On Refugee Resettlement’
by | Nov 22, 2019 12:50 pm | Comments (1)
An all-star cast of New Haven musicians is heading to Goatville Sunday night to raise their voices — and money and consciousness — for New Haven’s ongoing quest to resettle refugees here.
by | Nov 21, 2019 7:37 pm | Comments (1)
Christopher Peak Photo
New Haven contingent outside Boston federal building.
BOSTON—“We’re with you,” about two dozen Wilbur Cross High School students cupped their hands and shouted to the top of a federal building in Boston, where their classmate was trying to convince an immigration judge to let him stay in this country.
by | Nov 1, 2019 12:31 pm | Comments (3)
Steve Hamm photo
Amalfi from the sea.
New Haven’s Frank Carrano with Amalfi Mayor Daniele Milano.
With a documentary in tow about new lives in the U.S., we traveled from the heart of New Haven’s Italian-American community back home to Amalfi — where we saw immigrants’ stories in a new light.
That doesn’t mean any minds were changed about pizza.
by | Nov 1, 2019 8:02 am | Comments (28)
Christopher Peak Photos
Domar Shearer, Shaundrece Beckford at the People’s Center Thursday night. Below: ULA activists celebrate Shearer’s escape.
Six hours after hiding from federal agents, Domar Shearer savored his temporary freedom, marveled at the help he had received — and weighed his options as he headed into hiding.
by | Oct 31, 2019 5:23 pm | Comments (16)
Contributed photo
Activists escorted a 23-year-old Jamaican immigrant to New Haven Thursday evening after prevailing in a dramatic six-hour standoff against federal agents.
by | Oct 18, 2019 9:21 pm | Comments (29)
Christopher Peak Photo
Cross student Tayshalee Hernandez leads chants at Friday’s rally.
Which is the real threat to the public? An 18-year-old undocumented immigrant, known throughout his high school as a “bright student,” who was pulled over for driving erratically? Or the ICE agents who were waiting “to stalk and kidnap him” at his next his court date?
Vanesa Suarez, an organizer with the Connecticut Immigrant Rights Alliance (CIRA), said that a federal judge had given the wrong answers to those questions.
She was one of hundreds of people at a defiant rally Friday evening on the steps of City Hall to demand the release of a New Haven teen who’s being held for deportation by immigration authorities.
by | Oct 15, 2019 7:57 pm | Comments (37)
Contributed photo
Mario Aguilar Castañon.
New Haven is rallying around a Wilbur Cross junior snapped up by federal immigration authorities and locked up in a Massachusetts detention center.
“Somehow,” Mayor Toni Harp vowed, “we’ll get him back.”
A rally is planned for Friday on behalf of the student, Mario Aguilar Castañon. At Tuesday night’s Board of Education meeting, officials also pledged to help prevent his forced return to Guatemala.
by | Oct 11, 2019 12:52 pm | Comments (1)
Paul Bass Photo
William Tong.
State Attorney General William Tong has sued the the federal government to try to force it to recognize the legitimacy of state pardons used to block deportation orders.
by | Oct 3, 2019 7:44 am | Comments (11)
Thomas Breen photos
Protesters rally for a sanctuary city law outside City Hall.
Several dozen immigrant rights rallied outside City Hall in support of the Board of Alders passing a sanctuary city law that would build on an executive order signed by the mayor this summer.
by | Sep 20, 2019 1:03 pm | Comments (2)
Sam Gurwitt Photos
Moshair Gameel, Amina Maniriho, and Jane Kinity.
Amina Maniriho stood laughing and dancing while the trees at the edges of the park reverberated with the Swahili lyrics of “Dunia Haina Hurumu” — the world has no mercy. Her seven children jumped and wove about the new friends she has made since she arrived seven months ago. Above her, a strong South wind whipped the American flag mounted on a tall white pole.
by | Sep 17, 2019 2:35 pm | Comments (9)
Markeshia Ricks Photo
State Rep. Toni Walker: Suspects school poverty counts.
More New Haven families are sliding into poverty — at least according to a count of students that state officials are now second-guessing.
by | Sep 10, 2019 3:42 pm | Comments (1)
Paul Bass Photo
Hayfaa Alabdullah and Imad Shaboo piiled into Jane Kinity’s Subaru Tuesday so they could exercise a right they said they couldn’t back in Iraq — voting for their elected officials.
by | Aug 19, 2019 7:00 pm | Comments (14)
Thomas Breen photo
Balmer Gonzalez with wife Maria Arce and son David.
David Gonzalez photo
Balmer Gonzalez’s daughter-in-law after the paintball shooting.
Balmer Gonzalez was closing up shop at his Colombian restaurant in the Hill when a group of strangers rolled down their car window and sprayed him and his family with bullets.
So Gonzalez pulled a handgun from his back pocket and returned fire. And ended up arrested.
Continue reading ‘They Shot. He Shot Back. Trouble Followed’
by | Aug 15, 2019 8:02 am | Comments (22)
Christopher Peak Photo
Mayor Toni Harp announces executive order at rally.
Activists demand alders take next step.
A month after immigration activists heckled her at a rally, Mayor Toni Harp surprised them Wednesday night by announcing a new sanctuary-style executive order to protect the legal rights of the undocumented.
Activists praised the move — and called on the Board of Alders to take the next step by passing a law to make official New Haven’s status as a “sanctuary city.”
by | Jul 9, 2019 3:44 pm | Comments (5)
Eliza Vargas at an Ice The Beef anti-violence rallly.
Thomas Breen Photos
James Bhandary-Alexander address a worker rights rally. (At left: organizer John Lugo.)
James Bhandary-Alexander gets in the trenches with immigrant hotel housekeepers, building cleaners and Uber drivers to fight for decent pay and working conditions. Darrell Allick’s Ice The Beef gets in the trenches with young people in New Haven neighborhoods to save lives by stopping violence.
by | Jul 2, 2019 3:34 pm | Comments (5)
Sophie Sonnenfeld Photo
Over 100 demonstrators flooded Elm Street outside U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro’s New Haven office Tuesday to protest the immigrant detention centers on the border.
by | Jun 27, 2019 8:22 am | Comments (9)
Laura Glesby Photo
Harp at the rally.
After facing heckling from protesters, Mayor Toni Harp agreed to meet with immigrant rights activists in support of passing a sanctuary city ordinance in New Haven.
Continue reading ‘Heckled, Harp Agrees To Meet With Sanctuary Bill Proponents’
by | Jun 17, 2019 2:53 pm | Comments (0)
Sam Gurwitt Photo
Customer Shelton Butler and Jahesh Maher.
When Jayesh Maher opens a new liquor store on State Street, the variety of wines and IPAs won’t be all that helps it stand out among 20-odd competitors in Hamden. Judging based on how he runs his other business now, Maher himself will be a part of the draw.
by | Jun 15, 2019 10:02 pm | Comments (1)
Maya McFadden Photo
Divine Mahoudi Sombi: “I wondered if high school in America was really like ‘High School Musical.’”
After a motivational keynote address from U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, Divine Mahoudi, 18, crossed the James Hillhouse High School graduation stage to receive her diploma after emigrating from central Africa only four years ago.
Continue reading ‘At Hillhouse Graduation, A Divine Milestone’