Immigrants often “live in the shadows,” Kica Matos (pictured) told a gathering of government and not-for-profit leaders. In New Haven, at least, the city government she works for is trying to help them emerge — and contribute to building the economy.
Over melon and muffins at the Graduate Club on Tuesday, Matos, the point person for City Hall’s nationally watched immigration reform, laid out the challenges facing New Haven’s estimated 10,000 to 15,000 undocumented immigrants. Her talk was part of a monthly breakfast discussion series organized by the Greater New Haven Community Loan Fund, and drew about 30 people.
Matos has been on the front lines of the issue. Before putting into place New Haven’s immigrant-friendly municipal ID plan, Matos ran Junta for Progressive Action, the community group working with Latino immigrants in New haven.
Speaking at a podium in the wood-paneled dining room, Matos related many of the challenges that new immigrants face, such as language barriers, low levels of education, illiteracy, difficulty accessing health care, and basic culture shock. She told the story of one immigrant who was confused about the roles of the many uniformed men in the United States. He used to run and hide when he saw a UPS delivery truck, thinking that the brown-uniformed men were members of law enforcement.
Confronted with this constellation of challenges, immigrants are easily susceptible to exploitation. As an example, Matos told of a group of 10 immigrants that had been living in a one bedroom apartment. Their landlord, while charging them a monthly rate of $400 per person, was threatening to shut off their heat. “People with [legal] status wouldn’t put up with these conditions,” said Matos, “and they wouldn’t be subject to them.” She said that the landlord was able to take advantage the tenants because of their fear of being deported.
Undocumented immigrants also face exploitation in the workplace, according to Matos. She talked about a North Haven factory where immigrant workers did not have access to a bathroom and lacked protective equipment. In such situations, immigrants will often avoid going to the authorities. Many immigrants assume that the police in this country are corrupt, explained Matos, since that has been their experience in their countries of origin,
New Haven’s immigrant-friendly municipal ID card program came about in response to such stories from immigrants in town. Answering questions from the audience, Matos said that the program, which has issued roughly 3,700 cards since it was implemented in July, had been surprisingly popular. “The numbers are astounding,” she said. “I thought that after the raids, to issue 1,000 cards in a year would be amazing.”
Matos also outlined the contributions that immigrants make to the city’s economy. The most obvious input is to the labor force, but Matos explained that immigrants also contribute significantly to New Haven’s tax base, through paying rent. Matos spoke specifically of Fair Haven. “The economy of Grand Avenue is driven by immigrants,” she said.
The next challenge, according to Matos, is to expand the reach of the ID card program out into the community. She said that the city has started to send out a mobile unit to help to distribute the cards to more people.
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