by | May 13, 2019 8:33 pm | Comments (5)
Thomas Breen photo
Edith Carapia (right) and ULA organizer John Lugo.
Monday’s protest.
A former housekeeper at a Chapel Street hotel has filed two anti-discrimination complaints against her old employer for allegedly firing her for speaking out about years of workplace prejudice against Mexican employees.
Continue reading ‘Former Study Housekeeper Alleges Workplace Discrimination’
by | Apr 16, 2019 7:28 am | Comments (3)
Christopher Peak Photo
Mayor Harp on the picket line supporting Stop & Shop strikers.
New Haven Mayor Toni Harp called President Trump’s bluff Monday.
by | Mar 29, 2019 1:30 pm | Comments (2)
MOLLY MONTGOMERY PHOTO
Faten Natafji, Nieda Mohammed Ali Abbas, Hala Ghali at work.
Katalina’s Bakery on Whitney Avenue has closed for the night. Three women, who do not bake for Katalina’s, are hard at work in the kitchen, oiling pans, grinding nuts, laying out translucent sheets of raw phyllo dough.
Tomorrow, servers around downtown New Haven will sell the sweet results, in the form of baklava.
by | Mar 27, 2019 12:40 pm | Comments (0)
Paul Bass Photo
Ana Maria Rivera-Forastieri and Hannah Chineyere at WNHH FM.
Immigrant-rights and bail-reform advocates have handed $300,000 to federal jailers. And they want to send more money.
Continue reading ‘Immigrant Bail Fund Inspires “Freedom Songs”’
by | Mar 20, 2019 12:12 pm | Comments (0)
Noah Kim photo
Gogol Bordello, the “Gypsy punks.”
Immigrant pride filled the College Street Music Hall Tuesday night as self-proclaimed “gypsy punks” Gogol Bordello played a New Haven on its 20th anniversary tour.
Continue reading ‘Gogol Bordello Shatters Borders At College Street Music Hall’
by | Mar 18, 2019 7:55 am | Comments (15)
Christopher Peak Photo
Nour Al Zouabi: Bilingual in English and Arabic.
Nour Al Zouabi, a Syrian refugee, has quickly picked up a new language — and is now about to prove it, as part of the first wave of New Haven high school students seeking to earn a state-sanctioned “seal of biliteracy.”
by | Mar 8, 2019 3:00 pm | Comments (21)
Thomas Breen photo
New Haven Uber driver Edgar N. en route to state Capitol.
Edgar N. recently drove six college students from Toad’s Place to Fairfield. He earned $82 for the late-night, 26-mile ride. Uber pocketed another $49 from the same trip.
Edgar decided to wheel up to Hartford to demand that the actual laborers of the ride-share economy get a fairer share of earnings from such rides.
by | Mar 8, 2019 8:46 am | Comments (11)
Sam Gurwitt Photo
No justice? No peace! No racist police!
A crowd gathered Thursday afternoon outside of the Hamden Police Department in the icy chill to offer that chant and seek to take the “ICE” out of police.
Continue reading ‘Rally Backs Bill To Take “ICE” Out Of “Police”’
by | Feb 27, 2019 8:55 am | Comments (1)
Thomas Breen photos
Eduardo De Lara shows his empanadas at Tuesday night’s pitch event.
Business Accelerator crews serve up the goods at The State House.
Loosen your belt and get ready to eat.
A cornucopia of fried, spicy, savory, and eminently portable international street food is about to hit New Haven, courtesy of a host of new food startups run by local immigrants with fare ranging from Dominican Republic-style spinach-and-feta empanadas, chutney from Mauritius, and social justice-flavored Salvadoran pupusas.
Continue reading ‘Int’l “Street” Food Start-Ups Ready To Roll’
by | Feb 12, 2019 4:16 pm | Comments (11)
Luis Jimenez-Jarmillo.
An Ecuadorean immigrant who claims a cop beat him up for no reason is getting a $20,000 payment to dismiss his pending legal action.
by | Feb 7, 2019 9:27 am | Comments (8)
Six members of the Hamden Legislative Council released a joint statement Wednesday evening calling for a police civilian review board in response to a Hamden’s body-cam video that allegedly shows misconduct by the officer.
Continue reading ‘Video Sparks Hamden Call For Civilian Review Board’
by | Feb 6, 2019 8:40 am | Comments (5)
Sam Gurwitt Photo
Curt Leng
Hamden Mayor Curt Leng issued a statement late Tuesday evening regarding a report by WTNH’s Mario Boone about a Hamden police officer threatening to report a detainee to ICE (Immigration & Customs Enforcement).
Continue reading ‘Leng On Cop’s Treatment Of Immigrant: “Disgraceful”’
by | Feb 4, 2019 8:32 am | Comments (4)
Simon Bazelon Photo
Over 3,000 people participated in Sunday’s 12th annual Run for Refugees, which raised more than $100,000 for the resettlement work of New Haven-based IRIS (Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services).
by | Jan 29, 2019 5:02 pm | Comments (0)
Allan Appel Photo
Aminah, Kutti, and Azhar
Aminah and her family fled from the violence of the Syrian civil war. Azhar and her family fled when her father was targeted in Sudan for helping internal refugees there.
Herman Bershtein wouldn’t be alive today and, at age 92, still running 5K races if his mother had not found an American sponsor to permit her to emigrate to the U.S. from Poland back in 1913.
Continue reading ‘Run For Refugees Marks 2nd “Banniversary”’
by | Jan 23, 2019 11:21 pm | Comments (4)
Thomas Breen photo
One of the many Venezuelan flags on display outside City Hall on Wednesday.
Venezuelan transplants rally outside City Hall in support of their new president.
With tri-colored flags clutched in their fists and emblazoned on their hats, dozens of Venezuelan émigrés rallied downtown in support of their native country’s new self-declared president.
by | Jan 21, 2019 2:02 am | Comments (2)
Paul Bass Photo
Sajjad Chaudhary with son Ali at their current garage.
Sometimes even heroes can get delayed by zoning ordinances. Sajjad Chaudhary made out better when he sought needed permission to take over an old auto shop on Dixwell.
Continue reading ‘New Haven “Hero” To Open Garage In Hamden’
by | Nov 28, 2018 2:05 pm | Comments (2)
Laurie Sweet Photo
Laurie Sweet finally got a glimpse through the fence. She and the people with her started singing.
Then the sheriff arrived.
by | Nov 26, 2018 8:22 pm | Comments (10)
Thomas Breen photo
ULA protesters outside the federal courthouse on Monday.
One of the many banners at Monday’s protest.
Two dozen local immigrant rights activists held a protest in the pouring rain one day after the U.S. border patrol shot tear gas into a crowd of Central American migrants and asylum seekers.
by | Nov 22, 2018 10:50 am | Comments (9)
KARLA CORNEJO VILLAVICENCIO PHOTO
Nelson Pinos and his family inside First & Summerfield.
Last Thanksgiving Eve, an Ecuadorian-born man living in a downtown sanctuary church won a surprise reprieve and went free.
This Thanksgiving Eve, an Ecuadorian-born man living in the same downtown sanctuary church, Nelson Pinos, wasn’t as fortunate.
by | Nov 19, 2018 1:00 pm | Comments (6)
Sam Fulwood photos
Migrants and refugrees at the Mixhuca Stadium in Mexico City.
Mexico City—Three young people. Teenagers. Sitting on the stairs of a stadium, chatting. They could be teenagers chilling on the steps of the New Haven Public Library. Instead, they are young people at the Mixhuca Stadium in Mexico City, traveling on the caravan headed north.
by | Nov 8, 2018 1:59 pm | Comments (0)
Karla Cornejo Villavicencio photo
Pinos with family in sanctuary a year later.
For the past year I have spent countless hours with a New Haven family that seems brought forth by the pages of a Hollywood sitcom, so all-American and wholesome it’s hard to believe they’re not Cold War propaganda. They love each other so ferociously, spend every hour together so joyously, and like each other so genuinely that young people in the community flock to them for a sense of family.
Being around them has provided me so much comfort and genuine joy that my real family has become jealous. You’re about to note the bizarre irony of their jealousy.
The Pinos family is fighting a deportation order that threatens to break their family apart. Many New Haven families have been faced with deportation orders. But here too the Pinos family is unlike the rest.
by | Oct 31, 2018 7:39 am | Comments (3)
Markeshia Ricks Photos
City officials joined the owners of Patty’s Caribbean Cuisine …
… and International Tastebuds for a dual ribbon cutting on Congress Avenue.
The taste of the Caribbean has come to Congress Avenue thanks to three immigrants who’ve recently decided to put out shingled — right next door to each other.
by | Oct 23, 2018 12:44 pm | Comments (8)
Immigrant-rights advocates from New Haven and beyond are working to build public support for the caravan of asylum seekers traveling from Honduras to the U.S. border seeking to enter the country.
by | Oct 12, 2018 8:13 am | Comments (3)
Thomas Breen Photos
Markeshia and Brian take a taste before saucing it up.
Poké is the latest trendy dish to sweep into Downtown New Haven, with the fourth spot in a year about to open.
Three intrepid New Haven Independent reporters went on a mission to find out more about New Haven’s new yen for a bowl of fresh veggies and raw fish.
by | Sep 24, 2018 8:09 am | Comments (9)
Paul Bass Photo
John Lugo outside City Hall.
New Haven immigrant rights and social justice organizer John Jairo Lugo heads to Washington, D.C. this week to pick up a national award “for organizing empowered leaders to build a community-wide movement addressing entrenched inequality.”