Despite rumors about feds lurking outside to catch undocumented workers, about 100 immigrants and the people who work with them in New Haven showed up in Fair Haven Thursday night to describe the dreams and needs of the city’s fastest-growing population.
Juan came to Fair Haven Middle School Thursday night to tell politicians about his children. He spoke of how his son graduated this year with good grades from Wilbur Cross High School and was accepted into college, but, because children of undocumented immigrants must pay out-of-state tuition, his son couldn’t afford to go. Juan’s 16-year-old daughter is a math wiz, but fears her college dreams will also be dashed unless the Connecticut legislature passes a law allowing such students to pay in-state tuition. Nine other states have such a law.
Juan said he didn’t mind testifying in public if it will help his kids. He joined about 100 others in the middle school auditorium for a public hearing on the problems immigrants face in New Haven— those with legal documents, and especially those without. The aldermanic Municipal Affairs Committee held the hearing at the request of the New Haven Peace Commission, which submitted a resolution in response to the rise of an anti-immigrant group that has held meetings around the state (but so far not in New Haven). The resolution concluded with a request that the city examine “ways the City of New Haven can ameliorate conditions creating such an atmosphere of fear and terror.”
The crowd didn’t include those who, unlike Juan, were scared away by a rumor that immigration officials would be waiting down the block at C‑Town for any undocumented folks who showed up at the hearing.
All the testimony was given in both Spanish and English, delivered by both immigrants and the people who work with them in New Haven. Police Sgt. Luis Casanova, whose beat is Fair Haven, the home to the largest concentration of the city’s burgeoning Latin American-born population, said many immigrants, especially the undocumented, don’t trust police officers. They fear any contact with police will result in deportation. That means they don’t report being victimized by crime, whether it’s being rolled in the street for the cash they carry (since they can’t open a bank account without a social security number) or being ripped off by an employer.
In order to build trust, Casanova said, “The New Haven Police Department is looking to develop a policy to make clear that the mission and role of local law enforcement does not include enforcing immigration laws.”
That very issue is being hotly debated nationwide between the U.S. Department of Justice and local police authorities. New Haven police have come down squarely on the side on no intervention.
Representatives of Junta for Progressive Action, Unidad Latina en Accion, and the police department all made similar proposals to protect the rights of immigrants and asked the Board of Aldermen to support them. These include backing for state laws allowing immigrants to obtain drivers’ licenses and higher education for their children; enforcement of criminal penalties against employers who underpay or refuse to pay immigrant workers; non-discrimination against immigrants in opening bank accounts, and creation of a city Office of Immigrant Affairs.
No one spoke up for more stringent enforcement of existing immigration laws. Perhaps the Connecticut Coalition for Immigration Control didn’t get the memo.
Alderwoman Rose Santana, who chaired the hearing, said she will take more testimony next month and then review all the proposals made to improve the lives of immigrants in the city. She may push for an aldermanic task force to implement some of the changes right away.