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.
The demonstrators gathered late Wednesday afternoon in reaction to a new law taking place today in Arizona, and a judge’s decision Wednesday to strike down part of the law.
The law engages Arizona in the handling of illegal immigration, otherwise a federal matter. It forbids so-called “sanctuary cities” (like New Haven) and the hiring of illegal immigrants. However the federal judge Wednesday struck down the most controversial aspects of the law, which required local cops to stop anyone they suspect of being in the country without permission and checking their papers; and required legal immigrants to carry documentation at all times. The law has become a flashpoint for national debate. Supporters said it enabled a state to handle a problem the feds have abandoned dealing with. Opponents said it would lead to racial profiling of immigrants and all Latinos alike, and that it’s up to the feds, not local governments, to come up with an immigration fix.
In New Haven Wednesday, Mendieta (at center in top photo) spoke through a bullhorn in Spanish, her words translated into English by a colleague. “We’re here to support all of our people who are crossing the desert now. We want solutions now. We want papers for all our sons and daughters,” she said.
Mendieta participates in a traveling group of mothers of Mexican immigrants who use art to address the whole debate and push for rules to make it easier for them to visit their children. Read a previous story about them here. In September, Mendieta and her fellow activists will see an original play they have co-written staged at the Co-Op High School and other locations in Connecticut.
A few minutes later as the demonstration started winding down, Mayor John DeStefano Jr. appeared on the fringes. He made a bee-line to Mendieta.
Activists had written to DeStefano last year asking him to help in the fight to secure travel visas for Mendieta and her group, according to activist Stephanie Bifolco. DeStefano complied, in turn writing a letter to the U.S. Customs Service to vouch for Mendieta’s integrity.
“New Haven is one of the cities that has joined the fight against the Arizona law. We do it because it’s in our self-interest, because immigration grows the economy, because we support immigrants, and because it creates jobs,” DeStefano told the small group of Mexican nationals and local activists crowded together on the courthouse steps.
Beforehand, several other speakers addressed the crowd, including Chris Hutchinson, who is running for U.S. Congress in Connecticut’s First District as the Socialist Action Party candidate, and Naveen Jagan of the International Socialist Organization. “There’s still a lot to be fought for with SV 1070, stopping the deportations,” said Jagan. “There have been more deportations under Obama than there have been under Bush.”
As he spoke, a nearby speaker was saying into a megaphone: “This government will happily offer you citizenship if you go and kill other poor and oppressed people in Afghanistan and Iraq!” The crowd cheered as activist Priscilla Lounds called for “full legalization for all immigrants.” “Everyone who comes to this country to work is our brother and sister,” she said.
Down the street, a lone man waved the Arizona flag and offered a different chant: “Jan Brewer for President!”
