Expected Refugee Ban Sparks Local Protest

A small but vocal crowd, many holding homemade signs and placards, gathered Wednesday night at the corner of Chapel and Church streets for an ​“emergency vigil” to protest President Donald Trump’s expected executive order barring and then indefinitely banning Syrian refugees from the U.S. and temporarily barring refugees from Iraq, Yemen, Iran, Sudan, Somalia or Libya.

Trump has promoted such a policy as protecting the country from terrorism. ​“In order to protect Americans, we must ensure that those admitted to this country do not bear hostile attitudes toward our country and our founding principles,” read a draft of the order published by the New York Times. Critics called the order a ​“backdoor Muslim ban.”

Organized late Wednesday afternoon by Grace Yukich and Scott Friedman of the Spring Glen Alliance for Refugee Resettlement and Jewish Community Alliance for Refugee Resettlement (JCARR), the vigil was planned to correspond with a larger one in New York’s Washington Square Park.

Both the Spring Glen Alliance and JCARR work closely with Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services (IRIS) in New Haven, which Wednesday sent out an email titled ​“URGENT: Action Needed” urging supporters to sign a pro-refugee petition, tweet their support of Syrian refugees to President Donald Trump, write on the White House’s official Facebook page, and join New Haveners in the annual ​“Run for Refugees” Feb. 5.

IRIS, a leader in resettling Syrian refugees, is part of a national network of around 350 small refugee advocacy organizations and nine large ones.

“We will all be working with elected officials, the press and grassroots community groups to make sure people are aware what’s happening and how it really shakes the moral foundation of this country,” said IRIS Executive Director Chris George. ​“If these executive orders are signed, it’s going to send a message that we’re a selfish and insular country that is going to turn its back on 25 million refugees. Whether we’re defending the rights of undocumented immigrants or documented refugees, we will lock our arms and fight.”

George added that he — and others at IRIS — now fear the ​“stroke of a pen could set off a global refugee crisis.” As the U.S. has historically been a leader in refugee resettlement, he said, a tightening of borders in this country could have devastating international ramifications.

“We were extremely concerned about President Trump’s plan to ban refugee admissions, and ban them indefinitely,” said Yukich, an associate professor of sociology at Quinnipiac University who has been working closely with volunteers and IRIS to raise funds for a family that is set to arrive in the next weeks. ​“Many of us have worked with and for refugees, and I think it’s a really important part of American tradition.”

“Everything came out of this morning’s news about executive action on refugees,” Friedman said after the event. ​“I have worked on refugee resettlement for over a year, but this is definitely the issue that I am most active on. I am reeling … it is too reminiscent of WWII, the Jewish experience. It’s an issue that we all care about.”

For members of the small crowd, which included community leaders like Rabbi Herbert Brockman of Congregation Mishkan Israel (one of the five synagogues to comprise JCARR), that message came up over and over again.

“All humans have a right to feel safe where they live,” said Nina Bender, who works in marketing in New Haven. ​“As a Jewish person, I feel … well, I learned about the Holocaust, and heard from my teachers that we could never let it happen again. I feel personally responsible to do the right thing by all people.”

“I feel so worried about political change,” added her friend Julia Giblin, an anthropology professor. Giblin stood beside Bender with a sign that read ​“Support Refugees.” She said she’d been inspired while marching in Washington, D.C., last weekend, but is worried that women would feel the symbolic gesture was sufficient. ​“We need to keep up momentum on the local level,” she said.

One person making sure that momentum remained — and spread to even the crowd’s youngest members — was Madeline Ravich, there with her daughter and son in tow. When the crowd began to disband around 6 p.m., Ravich’s daughter Lilo stepped forward with a rhinestone-studded sign that read ​“Could I please play with my Muslim friend?” and began to express her concerns for the future.

“I’m really worried because my friend is a refugee and she’s Muslim,” said Lilo, motioning to the night air as if to make room for the friend’s presence. 

On the street, participants were met with mixed response. While some of the drivers passing by honked their horns and pedestrians walking through the Green waved and cheered in support, not all were sympathetic.

“I lost a friend in San Bernardino!” shouted a passer-by, facing the crowd as he waited to cross Chapel Street, referencing the violent attacks last year in California. (He refused to give his name.) ​“You’re all satanists,” he said.