Fearing Feds, Immigrants Ask For Protection

Three weeks after getting married, Erika found herself wondering whether her family was one of at least 78 couples that a city official had reported to federal immigration authorities. 

“I am very afraid,” she said in Spanish.

Erika was one of about 25 people at a protest staged outside City Hall on Monday evening. Local immigrant rights organization Unidad Latina en Acción (ULA) convened the protest after the city placed Registrar of Vital Statistics Trish Clark on paid administrative leave for reporting 78 out of 215 marriages as potentially fraudulent to federal Citizenship and Immigration Services authorities during a three-month period between late August and late November. 

The city is investigating whether Clark violated the ​“Welcoming City” executive order, which prevents New Haven employees from asking about or reporting a constituent’s immigration status ​“unless required by state or federal law.”

The city is now working on identifying which couples were reported to federal authorities and plans to notify those couples sometime this week, according to spokesperson Lenny Speiller.

In the meantime, Clark’s actions have sown fear among recently-married immigrants, who are now wondering whether they will be investigated, according to those who spoke up at Monday’s protest.

ULA founder and protest organizer John Jairo Lugo noted that newly-married couples are worried not only about the immediate future, but also about how Clark’s reports about their marriages might be used against them years down the line, including ​“if [ex-President Donald] Trump is coming back again.”

People convicted of ​“marriage fraud” in the United States can face prison time, fines, and deportation, and would likely find it nearly impossible to obtain a visa or green card in the future. 

Erika, who got married shortly before Clark was placed on administrative leave, is so worried about the consequences of possibly having been reported that she almost didn’t come to Monday’s protest.

“She saw my Latino last name,” she said in an interview, referring to Clark.

In the end, she decided to speak out about her experience.

“I’m here to denounce this racist act from this worker,” she said to the crowd in Spanish, as Lugo translated. ​“Because right now, I am very afraid about what can happen to us.”

In a previous interview with the Independent, Clark said she had done nothing wrong. An email message obtained by the Independent showed that a state official informed Clark that she ​“should” report ​“suspicious” marriages to federal authorities. (Read more on that here.)

Erika and her husband applied for a marriage license in City Hall. But their actual wedding took place on the third floor of 51 Elm St. where Norma Rodriguez-Reyes conducts marriages, primarily for Spanish speakers. (Rodriguez-Reyes, a justice of the peace, also works as publisher of the Spanish-language newspaper La Voz Hispana; Rodriguez-Reyes serves as well as board chair of the nonprofit that publishes the Independent.) Rodriguez-Reyes sets out a white tablecloth for these wedding ceremonies, often arranging a vase of fresh flowers. 

“The day of a marriage is one of the happiest days in their lives,” Rodriguez-Reyes said at the ULA protest outside City Hall on Monday. ​“Now they have to worry” that ​“they will not be accepted” by immigration officials.

The protesters also set forth a list of demands for how City Hall should address the fallout of the immigration reports.

Lugo called for the Board of Alders to codify the Welcoming City executive order, which the mayor’s office has power to alter, into a Sanctuary City ordinance that could only be changed only through legislation. 

He called for the city to provide legal assistance to the families whom Clark reported.

He called for the city to create a governmental department dedicated to helping immigrants who come to New Haven navigate a complex web of resources and requirements.

Other speakers argued that city employees need more education on what the Welcoming City executive order and federal immigration laws do and don’t require them to do.

Kica Matos, president of the National Immigration Law Center and an organizer of the protest, reiterated that she knows of ​“no law that exists” that would have required Clark to report couples whose marriages she doubted.

She stressed that Clark not only violated the executive order, but made judgments about the validity of marriages that she was not qualified to make. ​“She lacks any experience or knowledge of immigration fraud,” Matos said, noting that federal immigration authorities use ​“complicated” methods including ​“deep background checks” to investigate the intent behind marriages involving Green Card applicants.

Local immigration attorney Glen Formica argued that Clark’s behavior ​“shows a lack of education in that building about what immigration is” and how federal immigration laws work.

The Elicker administration has hired a group called New Light to investigate whether or not Clark’s actions violated the ​“welcoming city” executive order, and to look into just how many marriage licenses to immigration Clark flagged as potentially fraudulent.

Legal Help, Ordinance Protection Demanded

Mayor Justin Elicker agreed at the protest to meet with the immigration advocates.

He told reporters after the protest that he is ​“open to talking about expanding personnel,” including in the form of a new immigration office in the city. 

He said that when the city reaches out to the couples affected by the Vital Statistics immigration reports this week, officials will provide information about pro bono legal services.

Elicker defended his record on protecting immigrant rights, pointing out that his ​“Welcoming City” executive order passed in 2020, which expanded Sanctuary City protections to apply to all city employees and not just the police, is what made Clark’s actions counter to city policy in the first place. He said that New Haven is a safe place for immigrants ​“definitely compared to every other city in Connecticut.”

Lugo had asked Elicker to apologize. ​“That is the least he can do for a community that is in fear right now,” Lugo said.

“I’m sorry,” Elicker said, ​“for the incredible anxiety that this situation has caused a lot of people.”

Correction: A previous version of this article stated that Clark reported 73 out of 215 marriages between citizens and non-citizens to immigration services. On Dec. 14, the Elicker administration clarified that Clark actually reported 78 out 215 total marriages as issued by the vital statistics office between late August and late November.