by | Feb 18, 2025 4:05 pm | Comments (3)
Paul Bass Photos
Fatima Rojas, Yenimar Cortes, Ambar Santiago-Rojas, and Jacqueline Gonzalez at WNHH FM.
Don’t freak out. Do pull out the red card.
Continue reading ‘New ICE Age Response Team: Prepare, Don't Panic’
by | Feb 10, 2025 9:31 am | Comments (6)
Abbey Kim photos
AG Tong (left): “Let us commit to each other as we run.”
Sasha Watson (center) and her family at Sunday's run.
Five-year-old Tristan Jones stood beside his dad and grandmother and held his rainbow-emblazoned sign high: “I am the descendant of immigrants! I love mom! Go moms!”
His mom, Sasha Watson, was one of more than 3,400 people who registered for Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services (IRIS)’s annual five-kilometer Run for Refugees, which raised more than $145,000. Around 2,500 runners took off from Wilbur Cross High School at noon on Sunday — undeterred by the four inches of snow from the storm the night before.
Continue reading ‘Thousands Run Thru East Rock For Refugees’
by | Jan 31, 2025 7:42 pm | Comments (17)
Laura Glesby photo
IRIS Director Maggie Mitchell Salem: Help halted for "the world's most vulnerable people."
IRIS (Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services) has laid off 20 percent of its staff — approximately 20 people — in the wake of President Donald Trump’s decisions to stop all new refugees from entering the country and halt federal funding to assist those who have recently arrived.
As the organization adjusts to a new era of federal hostility toward its mission, New Haven’s state and federal representatives are working to fight back.
by | Jan 29, 2025 4:54 pm | Comments (22)
Thomas Breen file photo
Supt. Negrón: "This is a stressful time for many in our community."
If U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers attempt to enter New Haven schools, the school district will require them to present a warrant — which will then be reviewed by a legal team and the superintendent’s office.
Then, the district will notify guardians if a warrant specifically mentions their child.
Supt. Madeline Negrón notified New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) parents of that immigration-related update in an email Tuesday afternoon.
by | Jan 29, 2025 9:05 am | Comments (14)
Paul Bass Photo
Former U.S. translator Serweri at WNHH: Brother's family stranded.
They risked their lives to help the U.S. They followed all the rules to win permission to come to the U.S. to escape death threats. They had their airplane tickets ready. Mohammad Daad Serweri was ready to welcome them to New Haven and help them start new lives.
Then the Trump administration slammed shut the door. What happens next to the Afghan families — and to the U.S.‘s ability to convince people in other countries to risk their lives to help us in the future — is suddenly in question.
Continue reading ‘Door Slammed On 20 Afghans Headed For New Haven’
by | Jan 25, 2025 9:30 pm | Comments (40)
IRIS
New Haven’s flagship refugee resettlement agency is hustling to raise millions of emergency dollars after the Trump administration suddenly canceled a contract to help up to 800 families start new lives here.
Continue reading ‘Trump Shuts Off $4M To IRIS; Emergency Appeal Goes Out’
by | Jan 23, 2025 3:14 pm | Comments (8)
Laura Glesby file photo
Inauguration Day protest outside City Hall.
(Opinion) Local government is at the center of a contentious national conversation about immigration.
Many cities across the United States, including New Haven, have adopted sanctuary policies, limiting the role of local law enforcement in federal immigration policy. These orders are not just acts of political defiance; they are deeply rooted in constitutional principles, practical governance and the need to build trust between local authorities and the communities they serve.
by | Jan 22, 2025 7:57 pm | Comments (20)
Elicker: “What world are we in right now where, because of a disagreement on policy, the Trump administration is threatening arresting local officials? That's something you see in Iran, that's something you see in Russia, and I guess that's something we see in America right now, but that's really sad.”
The Trump administration might try to criminally prosecute local officials who stand in the way of its mass deportation efforts — but Mayor Justin Elicker isn’t worried about being locked up.
After all, he stressed, there’s a big difference between not participating in federal immigration raids and actively trying to prevent them.
by | Jan 22, 2025 4:51 pm | Comments (19)
John Lugo and Kica Matos discussed the flyers on La Voz Del Migrante on WNHH FM radio.
Someone distributed dozens of anti-immigrant flyers around the East Rock neighborhood on Wednesday morning, in the wake of a blitz of immigration-restricting executive orders that newly inaugurated President Donald Trump set in motion.
by | Jan 21, 2025 4:19 pm | Comments (32)
Lucy Gellman file photo
Kica Matos: Trump's executive orders "should offend any American who believes in our Constitution and our democracy."
Connecticut has joined 17 states in suing President Donald Trump to challenge an executive order to end birthright citizenship — just one of a slate of executive orders signed by the new president that a national immigrant rights activist based in New Haven describes as “comprehensive, cruel and shocking in scope.”
by | Jan 20, 2025 10:15 pm | Comments (21)
Laura Glesby Photos
Protesters declare support for trans, immigrant, Palestinian rights and more on the Green...
Laura Glesby file photo
...and outside City Hall, on Trump Inauguration Day.
A Statue of Liberty drawn on fire, free toiletries for any who needed, and collective shouts of immigrant, transgender, and Palestinian resistance rang through the frigid cold at two parallel protests downtown.
Their message resounded on Monday afternoon as Donald Trump once again took an oath of office — with a flurry of executive orders cracking down on immigration and cementing anti-trans policies awaiting his signature.
by | Jan 17, 2025 7:19 pm | Comments (39)
Nathaniel Rosenberg photo
Chief Jacobson: "We want you to call the police no matter what your immigration status is."
New Haven will protect immigrants, regardless of legal status, during a second Trump administration.
More than two dozen city officials, alders and immigrant rights advocates gathered in Fair Haven Friday afternoon to send that message — as they highlighted the city’s newly updated resource guide for new residents, which includes sections on the legal rights available to undocumented New Haveners.
by | Dec 5, 2024 12:02 pm | Comments (13)
Paul Bass Photo
Be prepared, not scared: Damjan Denoble at WNHH FM.
New Haven immigration attorney Damjan Denoble is preparing for Trump II Administration sweeps — by ramping down his immigration practice.
What a difference from his experience during Trump I.
by | Dec 2, 2024 8:14 am | Comments (1)
Zachary Groz photo
Classmates Robina, Faryal, and Ghofran, at Troup's annual multicultural luncheon.
Sitting around a lunch table draped in an aquamarine cloth and topped with festive fall ornaments, Robina, 10, Faryal, 12, and Ghofran, 12, giggled and cracked jokes, translating them into English after the fact, in between bites of fried chicken, bread rolls, and rice.
by | Nov 26, 2024 10:40 am | Comments (59)
Zachary Groz photo
Naranjo at ULA's City Hall protest: "We're full of fear.”
Paula Naranjo fought back tears as she spoke on the front steps of City Hall about what Donald Trump’s second presidential administration could mean for New Haven-area immigrants like herself.
by | Nov 15, 2024 10:00 am | Comments (18)
Paul Bass Photo
Cabrera and Winfield at WNHH: Where would it end?
Gary Winfield and Jorge Cabrera are determined not to blink.
Continue reading ‘Winfield & Cabrera: Don’t Bend To Trump Blackmail’
by | Nov 14, 2024 2:10 pm | Comments (29)
Lucy Gellman File Photo
Matos (pictured): Getting the team ready.
New Haven’s Kica Matos is getting ready for Trump immigration raids. She needs New Haven’s help to pay the bill.
by | Nov 8, 2024 3:42 pm | Comments (12)
An Independent story about factory-line marriages involving out-of-state couples including Indian immigrants has sparked calls for investigation and reexamination of how municipalities process licenses.
Continue reading ‘Marriage Stampede Prompts Calls For Action’
by | Nov 7, 2024 4:03 pm | Comments (95)
Paul Bass Photo
Geter-Pataky completes paperwork for a client inside New Haven's vital statistics office.
Wanda Geter-Pataky found a way to supplement her income while on paid leave from her Bridgeport city job and facing criminal charges for ballot fraud: Bring crews of out-of-state non-citizens to marry as many as 100-plus Americans a month at New Haven City Hall.
by | Sep 30, 2024 9:45 am | Comments (28)
Paul Bass Photo
Tabitha Sookdeo at WNHH FM: "It's all connected."
Tabitha Sookdeo has a new job helping undocumented young people stay settled here — and addressing the conditions that lead some others to come here.
To her, the two issues, immigration reform and climate change, are related.
by | Sep 19, 2024 11:02 am | Comments (1)
John Curtis photos
Ibrahim Yusif: “I'm trying [to bring my family from Sudan to New Haven], but it's a difficult thing.”
Ibrahim Yusif grew up near the city of El Geneina in Darfur in western Sudan. One of five brothers and three sisters, he lived on the farm where his family grew mangoes, guavas, lemons, tomatoes, okra, sweet potatoes, millet, corn, and beans. “We harvest it over there and we take it to El Geneina to sell, before the war.”
Yusif is one of a growing number of Sudanese refugees who have relocated to New Haven — and are urging city residents and political leaders in their adopted home country to pay attention to, and to help stop, one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
by | Aug 23, 2024 1:14 pm | Comments (5)
Maya McFadden file photo
NHPS Supervisor of Foreign Languages Jessica Haxhi with teacher handbook she created for last school year.
New Haven’s two comprehensive high schools will introduce a “Pashto Native Heritage Speaker” course this school year for its increasing population of students who need to improve their writing and reading skills in a language native to Afghanistan and Pakistan before they move on to learning English.
by | Aug 21, 2024 1:29 pm | Comments (2)
Federal court filing
An excerpt from Kamash's sentencing memo, illustrated by a traumatic image of the violence that beset the part of Iraq he lived in during the Iraq War.
Mohamed Kamash was born in February of 1991 as American bombs fell upon his home town of Tal Afar, in northern Iraq. The six-week aerial bombing campaign known as Operation Desert Storm killed thousands of Iraqi civilians, and, unable to risk a hospital visit in what would be its final days, Kamash’s mother gave birth to her son at home.
Those details of a life upended by war and migration from the very start emerged in recently filed federal court papers in a yearslong case that has now reached its conclusion. They also put in painful biographical context a refugee’s decision to lie under oath in an effort to distance himself from his past, and try to stay in his adopted new home.
by | Aug 19, 2024 11:52 am | Comments (1)
Jabez Choi photos
Protestors walking down Church Street.
Protestors gathered outside City Hall.
Krisly Carreno teared up as she spotted dozens of yellow-blue-and-red flags on the backs of protesters while she walked down Church Street.
“It was so emotional,” Carreno said. “I had no idea how many Venezuelans [are] in Connecticut.”
by | Aug 8, 2024 5:45 pm | Comments (0)
Anais Nunec: "I wanted to cry, it was so amazing."
Junior Miss Puerto Rico Lysella Pujols and Miss Puerto Rico of Greater New Haven Alanna Herbert.
Dereen Shirnekhi Photos
As rain came down, this year’s Miss Puerto Rico of Greater New Haven, Alanna Herbert, stepped to the microphone and filled the Green with her voice as she sang the national anthem. Behind her was the Puerto Rican flag, grand and waving in the wind, ready to be raised.