John Lugo on ULA’s 4-times-a-week pandemic outreach radio show.
Spanish-language digital guides on emergency food pick-ups and renter protections. An undocumented worker relief fund. “Honkathons” outside of federal immigration buildings on behalf of crammed detainees.
A leading city immigrant and workers’ rights group has turned to efforts like these during the Covid-19 pandemic.
That group is Unidad Latina en Acción (ULA), which has been organizing for immigrant and labor rights in New Haven since 2002.
At a time when rallies and protests bringing together dense in-person gatherings of like-minded strangers are virtually impossible, ULA and local decarceration activists at the Connecticut Bail Fund have helped pioneer how best to pivot towards new forms of advocacy that illuminate the dangers faced by the incarcerated and undocumented immigrants during the coronavirus public health and economic crises.
All while maintaining a distance of six feet apart.
ULA’s work so far has included setting up a 24-hour hotline for immigrants in need of information about the coronavirus and for undocumented workers who still have their jobs and are looking for support in advocating for safer working conditions.
Its chief organizers, including John Lugo, host a Spanish-language radio program on WNHH FM and La Voz Hispana’s Facebook Live page four days a week in which they have interviewed everyone from Mayor Justin Elicker to doctors and social workers and immigration attorneys about the public health crisis.
They’re raising money for direct cash assistance for undocumented immigrants who are ineligible for many of the financial benefits included in state and federal relief packages so far.
And they have helped lead and participate in honkathons — dozens of cars traveling in unison to a prison or federal immigration building, with drivers laying into their horns outside the building and shouting “Free them all! Free them all!” — seeking to draw attention to the plight of undocumented immigrants currently detained in federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the region.
“We are trying to get those detained by ICE to be released and who have no bail money,” ULA organizer Carmen Lanche said on a recent Facebook Live roundtable hosted by Connecticut Workers Crisis Response (Lanche spoke in Spanish, while the organizers posted English-language translations in the sidebar comments section).
“They are in small spaces and it’s a matter of time before they are at risk of contracting the virus. Their situation is not ideal. They do not have medical care. They are suffering simultaneously from the illness from the virus, but also from being detained in facilities.”
“They Have Been Excluded”
In the roundtable with Connecticut Workers Crisis Response, ULA’s Lanche (pictured) highlighted the unique challenges faced by undocumented immigrants during this public health crisis.
“They have been excluded from many resources from the government due to being undocumented in the country,” she said.
“Even if they have been living here for many years and pay taxes, they are excluded from the government’s help.
“We are focusing on people that work taking care of children, cleaning houses, in factories. These people do not have work now and have financial needs, and receive no help from the government. So it is difficult.”
ULA’s Megan Fountain told the Independent in detail about the organization’s wide-ranging response to the Covid-19 crisis so far.
ULA has set up a 24-hour hotline immigrants can call for information about the coronavirus and for help advocating for safe working conditions.
ULA sends text message updates to nearly 300 members on a regular basis to provide them with information in Spanish about the crisis. It has also set up a new Facebook group to allow members to share Covid info.
And it has compiled a Spanish-language list of local resources with information on everything from where to get food to the latest renter protections.
ULA organizers have expanded their previous radio show broadcasts to four days a week on WNHH radio (103.5 FM) on and Facebook Live through La Voz Hispana.
And it has conducted a phone survey with members asking about what they need in terms of direct assistance and advocacy.
According to Fountain, the preliminary results of the survey showed that, of 129 adults who responded, 59 percent have lost their jobs and are receiving no relief from the government or their former employers, and those who continue working have little access to face masks, gloves, or physical distancing.
ULA and the Bail Fund have also been in close contact with Connecticut residents currently detained at ICE’s Bristol County detention center in Massachusetts. Lawyers from a Yale Law School clinic filed a class action lawsuit against ICE calling for the release of detainees from that facility and, so far, a federal judge has been ordering just that.
And ULA is partnering with local lawyers to disseminate legal information to the Spanish-speaking community and develop strategies for collective action and advocacy.
Undocumented Worker Relief Fund
One such partner, New Haven Legal Assistance Association (NHLAA) attorney James Bhandary-Alexander (pictured at right with ULA’s Lugo), helped write and submit a letter to the governor and state legislature on April 9 that was signed by 45 Connecticut community, labor, environmental and faith organizations.
ULA
A honkathon outside federal immigration offices.
The letter calls on the state to institute a temporary wage replacement program for workers who have paid taxes but are ineligible for federal funds due to their immigration status or to create a new disaster relief fund for residents suffering economically during this crisis but are excluded from state and federal relief. It calls on the state to put $20 million immediately towards such a fund.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has created a public health and economic crisis in Connecticut,” the letter reads. “Low-wage and immigrant workers are among the most vulnerable, particularly immigrants without authorized federal immigration status. Connecticut is home to approximately 100,000 undocumented immigrant workers. Tens of thousands of U.S. citizen children in Connecticut have an undocumented parent. Undocumented workers pay about $400 million in state and local taxes annually. Yet they are currently left out of every relief program.”
Workers without federal immigration status are not slated to receive federal stimulus payments, state unemployment benefits, federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, and most temporary leave and disability payments, according to the letter.
“In order to address our current economic crisis and effectively spur demand in our local communities, it is critical that Connecticut provide safety net support to all individuals, regardless of federal immigration status. Thousands of undocumented workers across Connecticut have lost their jobs and have no income to rely on or income support. Still, tens of thousands more continue to work in frontline work without access to health care or income support, although they are doing the very work that allows Connecticut residents to stay safe at home.”
Click here to read the full letter and here to read a related press advisory.
See below for other articles about organizing during the pandemic. Series logo by Amanda Valaitis.