“Today I Am Proud To Call New Haven My Hometown”

Today I am proud to call New Haven my hometown. Why? Because Monday night the city’s Board of Aldermen passed the first municipal identification card ordinance in the country which truly provides identification for all residents, including undocumented immigrants.

We in New Haven often grumble at each other about petty differences — between wards, over political allegiances built up over the years, or whether to love or hate a certain local university. But when the big issues are squarely in front of us, New Haven has a unique ability to pull together and stand for the things that truly matter. 

And not just stand in words but stand up in actions. Even more impressively, we can stand against the political prevailing winds that encourage us not to know our newest neighbors or understand their plight.

Monday night, I came down to the Aldermanic chambers to support democracy and (objectivity alert) my wife Kica Matos, who is City Hall’s point person on municipal ID cards, as well as to see New Haven democracy in action. Aldermen who often do not agree on specific items in the city’s budget agreed that we must welcome and protect all New Haveners.

Let’s look at the diversity of the people involved in moving this item forward. The city staff leading the charge are African American, Latino, White and Asian. Mayor John DeStefano, who spoke so eloquently in support of this effort, is a Catholic and the grandson of Italian immigrants. The chair of the finance committee, which first heard this proposal, is Sergio Rodriguez, a Puerto Rican who rearranged meeting schedules to ensure that hundreds of New Haven residents would have the time to have their voices heard. And the president of the Board of Aldermen, Carl Goldfield, who is Jewish, worked behind the scenes to keep this moving along.

Alderman Jorge Perez, a Cuban immigrant who rallied his colleagues to this cause, spoke eloquently about how his family came to America to escape repression and that this opportunity is what makes America great. Yusuf Shah, an African American and a Muslim, who acknowledged that he had many questions when the ID card was first proposed, became one of its staunchest advocates as he learned more and was sent anti-immigrant flyers that he described as not dissimilar to those dropped when his family integrated a suburban all white town during his youth. 

Erin Sturgis-Pascale a white Fair Haven alderwoman with a sizable immigrant constituency, spoke briefly but movingly about her pride in what the new ID would say about New Haven. And Migdalia Castro, a Puerto Rican alderwoman with hundreds of immigrants living in her ward, spoke from the heart about giving everyone a voice in the city. 

During the debate, Andrea Jackson Brooks, a Christian African-American woman with Native American roots, drew on her time as an organizer for the Congress of Racial Equality during the civil rights movement and then linked her Christian faith and her oh so American bloodlines when calling on other alders to join her in supporting the ID. Then Katrina Jones, an African-American woman who is majority leader of the board, explained that she had run for office to advocate for the disenfranchised and had a simple but powerful test of whether something was just — whether she would want it for her own children. For her, the simple dignity of having an identity in your hometown meant the answer was an unequivocal yes.

Having once worked at city hall, I know a bit about New Haven politics, and let me assure you that this group of folks does not always agree. But Monday night they gave all New Haveners many reasons to be proud and showed that they do agree on the fundamental right for hard working families to belong to this great city.

But democracy seldom works well when it is only a story of elected officials and bureaucracies. For several years now, grassroots advocates fought for this and other issues relevant to the immigrant community and they have won important battles — including not only this ID but also a positive relationship with the police department and an order from the police chief that officers will not seek information regarding immigration status unless it is relevant to the investigation of a crime.

More fundamentally, these grassroots advocates have opened all of our eyes to the 10 percent of New Haven’s population which in many other cities is relegated to the shadows. These activists have also worked to convince immigrants to participate energetically in New Haven, reporting crime, coming to Board of Aldermen meetings, and making use of our cultural institutions. 

Thus organizations like Junta for Progressive Action and Unidad Latina en Acci√ɬ≥n have much to be proud of in Monday night’s vote. They have built coalitions, held marches, lobbied elected officials and shown up on unannounced visits to the Mayor’s office. They have also begun to figure out how to work with folks from different ethnic groups and build alliances for human rights. 

Equally important, they have convinced immigrants who often come from countries where political participation risks violence and sometimes death that they can have a voice in our city. These efforts develop new leadership, such as John Lugo, a Colombian who fled his country after being imprisoned for political activities and after the assassination of a family member. John crossed the border and entered the country ​“illegally,” only later being granted political asylum and a green card.

Throughout this effort St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Fair Haven stood up consistently for its parishioners, many of whom are immigrants. Father Manship provided buses to fill the public hearings on the ID and both he and Bishop Peter Rosazza gave testimony on the victimization of immigrants who carry large sums of cash because they cannot open bank accounts without identification. Reverend Jose Champagne, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic and pastor of the Pentecostal Church of God and Prophecy, testified to the rights of all people to an identity in our city.

St. Rose was joined by partners from the multi-denominational Elm City Congregations Organized whose other member churches often lack many recent immigrants in their pews but share a sense of the need for justice in our lives. Lay leaders at St. Rose such as Pedro Curbelo and Norma Francheschi, herself an immigrant with Argentine and Italian roots, have been an organizing force for a generation.

This is how social change is made — grassroots activism, political courage by elected officials, and hard working advocates in and out of government who share a willingness to listen to each other’s stories across the valleys that divide us.

From the outside, it might appear there was nothing too amazing about the vote Monday night. All that had to happen was that some elected officials had to accept some free money from a foundation to begin the process for the purchase of an ID printing machine. But we all knew it was something different. 

We saw millions march across the country for immigrant rights. We heard about the hate-filled flyers and emails seeking to expel our neighbors. And we have always known about without really acknowledging the hundreds of people who work in our laundries, daycares, and the kitchens of the restaurants for which New Haven is famous.

Monday night we welcomed our neighbors home. There was a lot of hard work required of organizers and politicians. But there was also a chance for each of us to reach into our own conscience to make a decision about where we stood. New Haven’s collective conscience did not fail us, nor did our democracy.

Henry Fernandez is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, where he works on state and municipal policy issues.