Thomas Breen photo
Nayeli Garcia (center) at Monday’s protest with Meg Fountain and Catherine John.
A mic held against her mask, Nayeli Garcia looked up through the rain at U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro’s office to let the New Haven Congresswoman — and everyone within earshot — know who she is.
I am a student at Gateway Community College, Garcia said. I am an essential worker who cleans houses. I am an undocumented immigrant from Mexico. And I deserve a path to citizenship.
Garcia offered that personal history and political demand Monday afternoon during a rain-soaked protest led by Unidad Latina en Accion outside of DeLauro’s office at 59 Elm St.
She was one of roughly two dozen protesters to brave the weather to hold banners, block the sidewalk and the street, and call on DeLauro to advocate for including a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants in the Congressional Democrats’ proposed $3.5 trillion American Families Plan.
In early September, the U.S. Senate’s parliamentarian ruled that the wide-reaching social policy bill could not include a path to citizenship for roughly eight million “Dreamers” (children of immigrants), Temporary Protected Status recipients, farmworkers, and essential workers if that bill were to be passed by the filibuster-busting method of “budget reconciliation.”
Blocking Elm Street.
Advocates like Garcia took to the sidewalk and street Monday to pressure New Haven’s federal delegation to keep fighting for the inclusion of such a policy in whatever bill ultimately gets voted on, regardless of the Senate parliamentarian’s recommendation.
“Like many of you, I put my body on the line during the pandemic,” said Nayeli, a 23-year-old West Haven resident and Hillhouse High School graduate who is originally from Tlaxcala.
She said she has kept working her house-cleaning job throughout the pandemic, even as she has started school at Gateway.
“This path to citizenship is not going to fall from the sky,” she said to cheers. “We have to demand it.”
Fountain and Tamara Nuñez del Prado.
Bolivian-born immigration and trans rights activist Tamara Nuñez Del Prado also spoke at the rally.
“Hear our voice,” she said to DeLauro’s office, her Spanish translated into English by ULA’s Meg Fountain. “We are not a public charge. We are not a burden on the state. No. We are essential for the economy of this nation.”
“We have earned this immigration reform,” she continued. “We have earned citizenship with our labor, with our contributions.”
Roselina Aquino.
Roselina Aquino said that she has kept working throughout the pandemic as a landscaper at a nearby farm.
“We never stopped working. Not one day,” she said. She said she came down with Covid last November, and is convinced that she got it while on the job.
“We have made sacrifices,” she said. When is this country going to recognize and properly value that work?
Shelley Roblero (right).
Wilbur Cross High School freshman Shelley Roblero said that it pains her how long her parents have gone without seeing their parents and siblings in their home country of Guatemala.
Roblero was born in the United States; her parents immigrated from Guatemala. Because they are undocumented, they have not been able to see their families in years.
“My parents made great sacrifices to come here,” she said. She argued that they should be free to travel and see their families and still be able to return to this country where they work and have built their lives and raised their children.
Lugo, leading the crown on Monday.
Before temporarily stopping traffic on Elm Street, ULA founder John Lugo led the protesters in a call and response, spoken in Spanish and translated into English by Fountain.
“Who sacrificed during Covid?” he asked.
“We did!” the group responded.
“Who got sick from Covid?”
“We did!”
“Who made it possible for the economy to function while everyone else stayed home?”
“We did!”
“Who died of Covid?”
“We did!”
“Who needs immigration reform?”
“We did!”
In an email comment sent to the Independent Monday night, DeLauro pledged her support for the protesters’ cause.
“In Connecticut and across the country, our immigrant communities make America stronger,” she said. “Providing a pathway to citizenship for the millions of Dreamers, TPS holders, farmworkers, and essential workers is important to our economic recovery.
“I strongly support including a pathway to citizenship in the budget reconciliation package.”
This country is currently experiencing labor shortages in trucking, dock workers, house painters and other lower pay level home contractor fields, landscaping and snow removal and leaf removal, restaurant workers like kitchen help and waitstaff and bussers, nursing staff and healthcare aides, and childcare and eldercare workers, retail workers, bank tellers, farming and harvesting and food processing and food production, and so on and so forth.
As our population gets older and the Baby Boomers start retiring on mass, (even the ones who had delayed retirement will probably retire now due to covid fears,) and the Millennials delay childbearing or skip it altogether, as will Generation Z, and many covid long haulers and post-covid syndrome people will be disabled and unable to work, and to replace all of the workers who have have lost their lives to covid, we need a pool of workers to do the jobs that can't be done remotely or done by robots, and are hard or dangerous or monotonous work and long hours and lower wages, that the majority of Americans won't want to fill. Immigrants traditionally have taken those jobs in our country, and often create new jobs and new businesses, and many of the immigrants bring with them new cuisines and new traditions that enrich the tapestry of our society with the newcomers that America has always been made up of.
We need common sense immigration reform with a path to citizenship for dreamers who came here as children and have no real ties to any other country and for the immigrants seeking asylum from war, famine, and political or social dangers in their homes countries.
If we don't welcome more immigrants to our country to fill all these jobs that are going begging for workers, expect that there will be more shortages of products and goods, that orders will take longer to fill, and some companies will close due to staffing shortages.