Emily Hays Photo
Murphy (center) at SAMA with state Housing Commissioner Seila Mosquera-Bruno and New Haven State Sen. Martin Looney.
Yesenia Rivera attended U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy’s visit to Fair Haven on Friday afternoon as a private citizen concerned about Puerto Rico. To her surprise, she found a chair for herself as the recently-elected president of the New Haven Board of Education.
Rivera represents a school district that has absorbed over 40 students fleeing Puerto Rico since earthquakes began on the island in early January.
Meanwhile, state funding to the schools has flatlined and a proposal to hire more bilingual teachers is off the table.
Murphy has authored one potential solution to this conundrum: count new Puerto Rican students like immigrant students in need of English language learning classes. Murphy, a Democrat, introduced the ELEVATE Act with Florida Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio to do just that.
“We have a fight on our hands in Washington,” Murphy said. “I’m trying to find as many bipartisan routes as I can.”
The Long Wait
Murphy made the stop at the Spanish American Merchants Association building on Grand Avenue on Friday to discuss that fight.
More than two years since Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, residents of the U.S. territory continue to wait for schools, hospitals and bridges to reopen. Another disaster struck in early January, with a 6.4 magnitude earthquake in the southern part of Puerto Rico. Many people are now sleeping in tents.
The disasters have hit home for New Haveners, who have lost family members or fled the conditions themselves.
Amidst the ongoing earthquakes this winter, around 91 Puerto Rican residents have moved to New Haven.
Murphy blamed the slow recovery in Puerto Rico on President Donald Trump’s administration.
“The president has sat on his hands,” Murphy said. “This is discrimination from beginning to end. This is the only explanation.”
The White House has argued that its opposition to aid comes from concern about Puerto Rico mismanaging the funds. Murphy said that recovery efforts have been more efficient in Puerto Rico than Florida and Texas, where the White House has responded more quickly and fully to hurricanes.
Democrats are pushing for another $4.7 billion to help Puerto Rico with the recent bout of earthquakes. Some of those dollars and dollars not yet released after Hurricane Maria would go to Connecticut to help with school and rehousing efforts, Murphy explained.
Murphy said that he hopes to incorporate the ELEVATE Act into this recent funding push. This would pay for more English-learning classes in Connecticut and Florida, since students migrating from Puerto Rico have different levels of English skills.
First Class Citizens
Waterbury resident and longtime state employee Efrain Escobar.
A room full of leaders and concerned citizens welcomed Murphy to SAMA. Questions split between specific unmet needs for new Puerto Rican New Haveners (employment opportunities, resources for the elderly) and bigger picture questions about the U.S. treatment of its citizens in Puerto Rico.
One Waterbury resident and longtime state employee, Efrain Escobar, said that he was disturbed by the White House’s approach to Puerto Rico as told by Murphy. Murphy called the reluctance to approve aid part of a war by the Trump administration on non-white people.
“I don’t want to believe this,” Escobar said.
Many voices around the room chimed together that the discrimination is real.
“I wish it weren’t the case,” Murphy responded.
Escobar grew up on the mainland; he told the Independent that he intends to retire in Puerto Rico. He feels more comfortable there, and he wants to reverse the pattern of moving away from the islands, he said.
“I think it’s important that we do go back – especially those of us who have lived here and are used to being treated as first class citizens,” he said.
Veteran and peace advocate Jim Pandaru asked Murphy whether discrimination would lessen if Puerto Rico becomes a state.
Murphy has spoken about Puerto Rico’s 100-year status as a territory as racism and asked Congress to restore voting rights and equal levels of education and infrastructure spending as other states.
Murphy said that Puerto Ricans have not reached consensus on whether they want to become a state, but it would give them built-in advocates in Congress.
“It’s not my job. Because Puerto Rico matters to Connecticut, I stand up and speak,” he said.
Connecticut has the highest percentage of Puerto Rican residents of all the states.
Yesenia Rivera.
Like many others in the room on Friday, Yesenia Rivera had personal connections to the conversation. The school board chair is often quiet in public, but she has been a passionate advocate for more Spanish-speaking staff in New Haven schools.
She was in Puerto Rico when the earthquakes began this winter break. All she experienced was a delayed flight, but her husband’s family felt the tremors directly. She described family members’ fears of staying in their homes should the roofs collapse at night.
Most of Rivera’s island-side family members are older, She guessed that many of those leaving Puerto Rico have been driven out by continued school closures. She lauded the school district for placing students, distributing security deposits and first months of rent and providing coats for cold children.
“I just want to make sure they are not feeling like they don’t belong,” she said.