Category: Civil Rights

Board of Alders Presses Yale Not to Settle with Trump Administration

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by Nellie Kenney, Oct. 20, 2026, Yale Daily News

City leaders voted to urge Yale not to settle with the Trump administration at a Monday evening meeting. Following impassioned public testimony at a committee meeting last month, the Board of Alders unanimously approved a resolution that calls on Yale to mirror New Haven’s more aggressive posture towards the Trump administration.

The University is engaged in negotiations with the federal government related to allegations that the Yale School of Medicine discriminates against white and Asian applicants. The Department of Justice is also investigating the admissions practices of Yale College and Yale Law School but has not released findings related to those investigations.

The resolution claims that Yale’s decisions have “significant consequences” for the city and asserts alders’ allegiance with “students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members who have called upon Yale University to reject a settlement with the federal government and defend its institutional autonomy.”

“The settlement could not only change Yale’s admissions policies, but further embolden political attacks on Yale, other universities and other democratic institutions,” Ward 1 Alder Elias Theodore ’27, who introduced the resolution, said in a speech at Monday’s meeting. Theodore’s ward includes much of Yale’s campus.

According to the resolution, a copy of its text is set to be shared with University President Maurie McInnis and the Yale Corporation. In a statement after the introduction of the resolution last month, University spokesperson Karen Peart said it is Yale’s “longstanding practice not to discuss the specifics of any ongoing legal matter. That said, we stand firm in the university’s commitment to students’ free expression, academic freedom, and Yale’s ability to determine who is admitted in accordance with the law.”

Theodore called the resolution symbolic in a September interview. Still, it drew widespread enthusiasm at a public hearing before a Board of Alders committee last month. Around 40 students, professors, Yale union members and city residents decried what they described as opacity in Yale’s negotiating process and criticized Yale’s posture towards New Haven. Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Sen. Richard Blumenthal LAW ’73, both of whom have been outspoken against a potential settlement, submitted written testimony backing the resolution.

“The message for our constituents in our city is resounding: ‘Yale, don’t cut a deal with Trump,’” Theodore said.

In an interview with the News, Theodore called Yale’s position “tough” and said he hopes the University can “lean on this outpouring of community support as it makes its decision” regarding the federal government.

[Read the full Yale Daily News article here https://bit.ly/4yVMDFk.]

No Illegal ICE Detentions at Tweed New Haven Airport!

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By New Haven Immigrants Coalition

The New Haven Immigrants Coalition, Singing Resistance, New Haven Rising, New Haven Federation of Teachers and others held a press conference on Oct. 21 at Tweed New Haven Airport Authority with the demand that Tweed follow federal and state laws and take every step within its power to stand against ICE and support immigrants.

Following are excerpts of the NHIC press release:

The New Haven Immigrants Coalition (NHIC) calls upon Tweed New Haven Airport Authority (TNHAA) to follow federal regulations and state law.

“Tweed New Haven Airport Authority should follow the law and stand firmly in support of its undocumented neighbors,” the coalition said. “ICE is constrained by CT law and may not detain a member of the public in municipal spaces without a judicial warrant. No human being should be subjected to the dehumanizing and violent tactics such as we have seen at Tweed in the past months. Furthermore, federal regulations require TNHAA to verify that ICE agents go through rigorous background checks and training before they are granted access to the airport. It is incumbent upon TNHAA to ensure these background checks have taken place and are accurate.”

In the past few months two students were detained at Tweed. Instead of studying, sports practice and spending time with friends, these students found themselves far from their friends and family, sleeping on cold concrete floors and struggling to navigate a system of detention camps designed to humiliate and dehumanize them. Additionally, two other members of our community were similarly detained and separated from their families, friends and work. These tactics harm our communities in every way.

The coalition outlined its specific demands that Tweed comply with state and federal law, including that Tweed:

  1. Ensure every ICE officer granted unrestricted access at Tweed has undergone a full background check;
  2. Maintain a comprehensive identification system for ICE agents;
  3. Administer training, including on Public Act 26-14 which prohibits civil arrests without a judicial warrant, before granting ICE access to secured areas;
  4. Maintain records of all ICE arrests at Tweed.

The New Haven Immigrants Coalition is a grassroots coalition of individuals and organizations dedicated to building power among immigrants in the Greater New Haven Area to get organized and stay safe in the face of ongoing ICE brutality. No human being is illegal!

ULA Rallies Against ICE Surge

by Brandon Cortes Sept. 3, 2026, New Haven Independent

In response to a recent statewide surge in federal immigration enforcement, roughly 70 people rallied outside City Hall on Wednesday evening [Sept. 2] to demand that ICE leave Connecticut.

The rally was organized by the City of New Haven Peace Commission and Unidad Latina en Acción (ULA).

It took place on the same night that nearly 2,000 people marched in Danbury, which has become the center of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity in the state.
“Today we are here in solidarity and we are doing a parallel act to what’s going on in Danbury, which is now suffering from ICE raids, but it’s an attack the whole country is suffering,” said John Jairo Lugo, a founding member of ULA. “More than 100 people were being detained, and I feel that it’s time for the people in Connecticut to rise up and do something.”

Brandon Cortes photo

Brandon Cortes photo

In his remarks, Lugo laid out a set of demands aimed at Hartford. Chief among them: a $50 million state fund for immigrant legal defense and family protection.

“We are not asking for charity,” Lugo said. “We’re demanding an investment in the families that for decades have helped build Connecticut’s economy.”

[Read the article in its entirety at https://bit.ly/4ApYJHX]

US-Mexico Border and Race Symposium

by Michelle Zacks, Associate Director, Gilder Lehrman Center

Scheduled for Saturday, May 2, this is a one-day symposium at Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Ave., free and open to the public, called The US-Mexico Border and Race, Past and Present. It is organized by the Gilder Lehrman Center in close collaboration with GLC Associate Research Scholar, Dr. Melissa Torres (Assistant Professor, School of Social Work, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley). The symposium features a keynote address by Prof. Sonia Hernandez (Texas A&M), followed by two panel discussions and a break-out Q&A session for K-12 teachers. Continental breakfast and lunch will be served, as well as afternoon snacks and beverages.

The program was conceived as a follow-up to the Yale and Slavery project, and the various projects at Yale focusing on the university’s and New Haven’s key roles in the eugenics movement of the early twentieth century. This program will follow that thread by focusing on the xenophobia and white supremacist ideas that have long been embedded in U.S. immigration policy broadly and in the construction and policing of the US-Mexico border in particular. Speakers will connect the histories of violent, racialized border control policies with the contemporary violence of ICE raids, warrantless detention, family separation, concentration camps, deportation, and foreign imprisonment. They also will address how communities within the borderlands continue to develop creative modes to survive and resist these exclusionary forces.

We hope you can join us for this important conversation. For more information, for the full schedule for the day, and to register, please go to bit.ly/4tZBkcu.

SCSU Rally Calls For ICE-Detained Student’s Release

Thomas Breen, April 6, 2026, New Haven Independent

More than 100 students, teachers, and immigrant rights advocates gathered outside of Southern Connecticut State University’s (SCSU) Buley Library Monday [April 6] to speak up for a classmate who was detained by federal immigration agents off campus last week.

photo: Thomas Breen

photo: Thomas Breen

Speaker after speaker on Monday — including co-emcees Justin Farmer and Sam Morrison, students and faculty from SCSU, and organizers from UNITE HERE 217, the New Haven Immigrants Coalition, and Unidad Latina en Acción, among other groups — called for the detained student to be released, for the university to support undocumented students, and for a mass mobilization against the Trump administration in response to the federal government’s immigration crackdown.

[More at https://bit.ly/4tpkTpM.]

 

 

Mark Colville’s reflections on his trip to Minneapolis

Friends,

I’ve just returned from two days of street actions in Minneapolis, including a solemn procession from George Floyd Square to the site of Renee Good’s murder, the general strike and massive ICE OUT march on Friday, which shut down the city. This email is a brief report-back, and comes with special thanks to everyone who kicked in donations to make the voyage possible. It changed me. I’m deeply grateful.

Arriving in the wee hours on Wednesday, I was able to make it to the federal building by noon Thursday, where an ongoing protest vigil established at the beginning of the ICE occupation has continued every day. (To put the occupation in perspective, at present there are, on average, maybe 12-14 ICE agents assigned to most cities in the country; in Minneapolis, there are now over two thousand.) Resisters at the federal building spend the time yelling at ICE personnel as they hastily pass through the gate in their cars, most hiding their faces under masks even while driving.The anger among the people here is widespread, focused and relentless. Words like “coward”, “traitor”, “fascist”, and “FUCK ICE” are hurled perpetually. Pictured on the lower left is my new friend, Bill Breeden, a retired UU minister from Indiana with whom I was connected by Barb Cass and Mike Miles from the nearby Anatoth CW farm. (They’ve graciously offered hospitality to any of us who wish to return in the coming weeks/months.) Bill and I ended up accompanying one another for the next two days of robust resistance.

On Friday morning, upwards of fifty faith-based resisters gathered at St. Paul’s Lutheran church, located in the neighborhood where George Floyd was murdered.

A solemn pilgrimage began at that very spot, now known as George Floyd Square and occupied by a variety of neighborhood people’s organizations. Each corner of G.F. Square is marked by a large statue of a raised fist, with a platform for public speaking-out. A gas station across the street has been converted to a community gathering place. The coalition of people’s organizations here has come up with a list of 24 specific demands, and they’re committed to action and occupation of this public space until each one is met.

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The First Amendment and Me: A Love Story

by Katherine Hinds, Visibility Brigade

When I woke up on Valentine’s Day this year, I had no expectation I’d be meeting the man who would arrest me a few months later, handcuff me, and drive me down I-95 to CT State Trooper headquarters to process me for criminal behavior. It’s been that kind of year. My “crimes”? Using my First Amendment rights to speak out about the corrupt actions of the current administration. As it turns out, exercising my right to freedom of expression is my love language.

The letters were backwards but folks still honked!

Soon after the inauguration in January, two friends and I created one large banner and started protesting on bridges over I-95 around New Haven, pointing out the egregious actions of our current administration. On Feb. 14, we walked out onto a cold, snowy bridge, on a public sidewalk, and revealed a sign to drivers heading into New Haven: “DEPORT MUSK.” We were there for an hour, waving and hearing honks of approval from hundreds of drivers. These were the early days of the nation-wide movement known now as Visibility Brigades—small teams of folks who are fed up and need to share our outrage with others. This is a sign of social force where people try to influence others with an action. This public action is informational and educational and reaches a wide audience. Why was being on a bridge better than joining a No Kings Rally (we’ve done that too) or other off-bridge, in-person protests? Because we were literally communicating to both sides of the divide in this country—right and left lanes.

Before going out on that first bridge, we had cleared our actions with town police, but we had not anticipated that the CT State Troopers would be an issue. After an hour of waving next to our banner, we were stopped by one trooper who told us to take down our signs. Why? Unclear. At first, he told us we could not attach our signs to the fencing protecting the sides of the bridge. “Would it be okay if we held them?” The trooper said yes, and when we asked what regulation we were violating, he told us to check with the Department of Transportation ourselves.

We had learned from Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny: “DO NOT OBEY IN ADVANCE,” so we determined we would continue protesting while we did our due diligence around the legality of our actions. We checked with the DOT, our state reps, the ACLU, billboard law experts, and we could find no specific rule or law that we were violating. Many regulations and laws are vague—open to interpretation, and we understand that police require a degree of autonomy to enforce laws. The troopers visited us repeatedly, telling us we were a distraction (not illegal), that we needed a permit (not true), we were trespassing (public property? I don’t think so) and we were taking them away from the real business of patrolling the highways (So go away!).

On the fourth visit, the troopers arrested me for criminal trespassing, criminal breach of peace, and “unlawful display of a sign near a highway.” While that arraignment was working its way through the system, the “Valentine’s Day trooper” came to my house at 6 a.m. and arrested me again based on photos he had found while scrolling through my social media. He handcuffed me, put me in his cruiser, and drove me 30 miles to Bridgeport.

Three months later, the State has dropped both sets of charges in court. My team and I are back on the bridges exercising our First Amendment rights weekly. Do we anticipate being stopped again by troopers? Yes. Although we may feel anxious about that, we are not afraid. We are privileged and we have strong support—and each other. As Heather Cox Richardson says, “What are we waiting for, folks?” Wake up and DO SOMETHING. You’re not alone. And you may fall in love with your rights.

Katherine Hinds is a writer, activist, and baker living in Hamden.

ICE Raids Dixwell Avenue Car Wash

ICE and Homeland Security Have Kidnapped Immigrants in the Greater New Haven Area

In the past month, employees at a car wash in Hamden have been taken by ICE, and a man on the New Haven Green was grabbed by Homeland Security. Below are excerpts from articles about these cases

 

by Mona Mahadevan and Thomas Breen Oct. 15, 2025, New Haven Independent

Hamden’s mayor, town council president, and two dozen immigrant rights activists and fellow politicians gathered on Dixwell Avenue Wednesday afternoon [Oct. 15] to denounce an ICE raid that took place at a nearby car wash Wednesday morning.

Still looking for answers as to what exactly happened, the elected officials said that federal agents seized a total of eight people.

An eyewitness to the raid, meanwhile, said she saw at least 10 agents show up — some wearing masks and tactical gear — and described a man being slammed to the ground and a woman being hauled away into an unmarked van.

Hamden Mayor Lauren Garrett said at Wednesday’s press conference at the Keefe Community Center that the raid happened at the Optimo Car Wash, located at 1126 Dixwell Ave., at approximately 10:20 a.m.

She said that, as part of this raid, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained a mother and father while their kids were in school.

“The acts from the administration and ICE are deplorable, they are disgusting, they are not what we represent in Hamden,” Garrett said. “People are living in fear because of an inhumane presidency.”

[See entire article at bit.ly/4qxO2hG]

Feds Seize Immigrant On Green; Girlfriend Shaken

Laura Glesby, Oct. 21, 2025, New Haven Independent

A Fair Haven woman watched from a distance on the New Haven Green as a group of federal immigration agents arrested her boyfriend of 10 years on Tuesday.

She was too afraid to come closer, as she too is undocumented.

She watched late Tuesday morning as three agents surrounded her boyfriend on the southeast corner of the New Haven Green, across the street from CVS. They handcuffed him and took him inside an unmarked black van, where a fourth agent waited with the door open.

One of the agents wore a jacket identifying him as “Police HSI,” short for Homeland Security Investigations. Another covered the bottom half of his face with a black mask.

The woman, who spoke with the Independent on Tuesday afternoon, had reported an incident of domestic violence from her boyfriend to the police over a year ago.

He was charged at the time with breach of peace in the second degree, assault in the third degree, and interfering with an emergency call. She said that he completed a domestic violence rehabilitation program.

Following his successful completion of the program, he appeared in court on Tuesday morning for a dismissal of the case.

Norma Rodriguez-Reyes contributed reporting and interpretation. Paul Bass contributed reporting.

[See entire article at bit.ly/4oCWQkz]

Appeal for Help for Cristian Carias and Family

Unidad Latina en Acción hopes to raise funds for Cristian Carias, who was detained by ICE in New Haven, on Sunday, Sept. 21.

He was detained on Dixwell Avenue in front of the Q house at 9 in the morning, after he was followed a few blocks from his house. ICE detained him by smashing his window and pulling him out of the vehicle. The link at the bottom is an article detailing the kidnapping.

He was here in the country for several years, and he was a leader in his church. These funds are to help his family obtain and pay a lawyer. They are also to assist the family as they lost the sole monetary provider for the household, and there are still two daughters who need care, not to mention rent and food.

All and any monetary assistance are greatly appreciated in these difficult times. Sharing this GoFundMe campaign is also greatly appreciated. Only the people can save the people!

To read the article in the Yale Daily News about Cristian, please go to bit.ly/4ojTd2Y.

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