Connecticut experienced more than 100 ICE arrests in August alone. They included a father who took his son to a school bus stop, only to have the boy and the rest of the bus full of children watch as masked men zip tied him and took him away in a car.
ICE swarmed Danbury. The videos were shocking and devastating.
“The headlines just scratch the surface of the inhumanity and racism of federal immigration policies and enforcement actions. This is devastating families and communities across the country including here,” notes Connecticut’s Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS) via LinkedIn.
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But this community is not one to stand by and do nothing. IRIS and other local groups were immediately on the ground putting families together with legal help, organizing meals, walking children to school, helping families to be prepared for a violent disruption of life.
Some of the people now under threat have been here for decades; they have lives, jobs, 401Ks, IRIS’ Executive Director Maggie Mitchell Salem noted on a recent episode of CT Public Radio’s “Where We Live.”
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Salem will be the featured guest speaker September 24 at 7 PM, at a Democracy Women in Action gathering at the Henry Carter Hull Library in Clinton. Registration required to attend.
It’s important for people to know, she says, that the number of undocumented immigrants has actually increased under the current administration due to the lifting of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for people from Haiti and a dozen other countries.
Meanwhile, what is happening in immigration courts is alarming – with “mega master” judges having “a hundred cases brought before them at a time…the negative outcomes are skyrocketing.”
On top of that, some families have fallen prey to scam artists who pretend to be able to offer legal help, take thousands of dollars, and do nothing.
“It is a multi-front battle,” she says. Whether in court, in food pantries (IRIS has been operating food pantries for decades), on the streets or elsewhere. Sometimes the most important thing is simply holding someone’s hand and listening.
Speaking alongside several other community leaders, Salem said, the vital thing underpinning all the efforts, “for all of us, is that sense of being there, of caring, of showing this not being the norm.”
