March, ​“Die-In” Back Expanding HUSKY To Undocumented Immigrants

With singing, dancing, impassioned testimonies, and the support of multiple lawmakers, New Haven’s immigrant and workers’ rights group Semilla Collective hosted a rally supporting a state’s ​“HUSKY for Immigrants” bill.

The bill, SB956, aims to expand the HUSKY program in Connecticut, which gives low-income individuals access to Medicaid, to undocumented immigrants.

State legislators are currently considering expanding the program to minors. Speakers at Friday afternoon’s Semilla Collective demonstration outside New Haven City Hall called for making sure the bill covers adults as well.

“I say we fight for the whole thing, not crumbs,” Anne Hughes, co-chair of the Progressive Democratic Caucus in the Connecticut House of Representatives, told the crowd.

The rally, organized with the activist group New Haven Rising, immigrant community members, and health care providers, was preceded by a 1.5 mile march. The march started at C‑Town in Fair Haven and ended at City Hall.

Before the speeches began, attendees participated in a die-in. They lay motionless for one minute ​“to show and demonstrate all the deaths of undocumented folks.”

The rally featured a variety of youth who were either undocumented themselves or had undocumented family members, describing devastating ramifications caused by a lack of affordable healthcare.

Yenimar Cortes, an organizer with Connecticut Students for a Dream, was one such speaker. Cortes, who comes from a mixed-status family, told the audience that when she was younger, her mom got seriously injured while fishing. Going to the hospital would mean paying full price for healthcare and the hospital potentially finding out that she was undocumented. So she chose to remain bedridden at home and use home remedies.

“I could see the pain in her face,” Cortes said. ​“This happens in so many families, because our healthcare system is ridiculous.” She said that legislators have a ​“responsibility” to pass the bill unmodified, ​“no matter the cost.”

Sandra Trigueros, an organizer with the Semilla Collective, said she and her family caught the coronavirus. Without the ability to receive affordable healthcare, they struggled through it themselves.

“Healthcare is not a privilege, but a necessity,” Trigueros said.

In order to also demonstrate ​“the happiness and joy” that the undocumented community experiences, the speeches were broken up by a variety of poems, songs, and dances. One song was written a week earlier last week by a Mexican artist, Carlos Alonso Samudio Martinez, specifically for the rally.

Salud, salud, a todos por igual, Connecticut buscamos la solidaridad, the chorus went. (“Health, health, same for all — Connecticut, we look for solidarity.”)

Beyond personal testimonies, the rally featured healthcare advocates such as Matt Meilish, a physician in his last year at the Yale School of Medicine. He recounted the story of Armando, an undocumented patient he once treated who hurt his hand after falling off a ladder at work. Because Armando was undocumented and without insurance, the hospital did nothing more than put his arm in a splint and send him home. Months later, his hand function had deteriorated rapidly. As a result, he lost his job and therefore apartment.

“The system makes no sense,” Meilish said. ​“It is up to us to hold [the legislators] accountable.”

New Haven State Sen. Gary Winfield also made an appearance, reassuring rally goers that the bill as it is written has support from the New Haven delegation. ​“There’s a fight, but this delegation is good at fighting,” he said.

The rally closed out with the crowd dancing the capoeira, a Brazilian martial art developed by enslaved Africans as a form of resistance.

Anthony Barroso, an organizer with the Collective, urged people to continue calling and writing to their representatives in favor of the bill.

“People are dying,” Barroso said. ​“This is serious and needs to change. [The legislators] have the power to do that.”