The week President Trump was inaugurated, Connecticut’s Black and Puerto Rican Caucus spoke out against what they say is racial profiling of Latino communities by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Over the summer, reggaeton artist Bad Bunny publicly shamed ICE after witnessing a detainment on the island. And Wesleyan alum and legendary Nuyorican Lin Manuel Miranda recently turned the 10th anniversary of his Broadway hit “Hamilton” into a fundraiser for immigrants.
Here in Connecticut, Puerto Ricans are increasingly standing with their fellow Latinos against the immigration crackdown.
When a New Haven high schooler from Guatemala was detained by ICE in July, it wasn’t just Latinos who came out to the rally for his return.
Rev. Nathan Empsall is the priest-in-charge at St. Paul and St. James Episcopal Church in Wooster Square. He says attendance at the food pantry and clothing closet the church partners with is down in recent weeks, and volunteers say it’s because of fears of ICE.
“If this was about enforcing justice and laws like the authoritarians tell us,” he told rallygoers, “they wouldn't arrest people outside courthouses, they wouldn't target Puerto Rican neighborhoods, and they wouldn't be arresting our 11th graders.”
Empsall says he was referring to cases reported in similar communities, like the detainment of a Puerto Rican veteran in Newark in January and the presence of a dozen ICE agents outside of a Puerto Rican museum in Chicago in July.
In a statement to Connecticut Public, ICE Boston spokesperson James Covington said “these rumors only serve to cause fear and incite violence toward our brave officers.” He said the idea that ICE is targeting Puerto Rican neighborhoods in the state is “not only ludicrous and dangerous, but completely false.”
“What I find as ludicrous and dangerous is the racial profiling that is happening right now and that is being advanced by ICE,” said Kica Matos, president of the National Immigration Law Center.
Matos is Puerto Rican and has lived and worked as an advocate in Connecticut for over two decades.
“I will tell you personally that I have fielded a number of phone calls from Puerto Ricans asking me if they should carry their passports because they're planning to head to Puerto Rico, and they're afraid of the experience that they will have and the possibility that they will be stopped by Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” she said.
Why? Because of Newark, Chicago, the Puerto Rican restaurant that was raided in Philadelphia, the Puerto Rican family that was detained while out shopping in Milwaukee.
“There are examples throughout the entire country of Puerto Ricans being detained. That is why Puerto Ricans, Latinos, brown and Black people are afraid,” Matos said. “Even when they benefit from US citizenship, that does not stop the level of fear.”
Concerns spread at celebrations
Fear was a real concern for Elba and Carmelo Valle at the Salsa Meets Jazz Festival in downtown Hartford. Half of their Puerto Rican friend group headed to Parkville Market afterward to keep the party going. But that day, during a Peruvian festival at the market, a rumor started to spread that ICE was there and arresting folks.
“Who knows where it can happen?” Elba said. “And then, if we see that, it's just the anger. It's really anger. It's not right. It's not right the way they're going about it, I don't think.”
Carmelo brought up a common argument against the recent deportations: ICE is separating families.
“Yeah,” Elba agreed, “they're separating families. It's heartbreaking.”
At Parkville Market, it turns out EMS was just responding to a medical emergency that day. But the fear that any official in uniform could be ICE increasingly keeps many Latinos home — and some Puerto Ricans questioning what their role is in all this.
“What can we do?” Elba said. “What can we do but get closer together? You know what I'm saying? Come as a community and as a family to, you know, at least try to help out.”
Officials ‘call out’ the targeting of Latinos
The National Puerto Rican Agenda released a statement that reads, in part, “As a national organization rooted in the Puerto Rican diaspora, we know firsthand the importance of family unity, community stability, and the struggle for dignity and inclusion. Although Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, we will not remain silent while our immigrant brothers and sisters are dehumanized.”
Connecticut State Rep. Christopher Rosario echoes that sentiment. He’s a member of the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus and represents many Puerto Ricans in Bridgeport.
“Even though we — quote, unquote — shouldn't have anything to worry about, as we are citizens, Puerto Rico always gets second class treatment from the federal government, so it's just no different,” Rosario said.
Rosario says he’s heard the reports, too, of U.S Citizens being detained, even if briefly, in other states.
“And anytime there's an incident where there's a Puerto Rican, or anyone, for that matter, that's detained or held by ICE, we must call it out and work with our federal authorities to make sure this doesn't happen,” he said.
Festivals take a stand
Another way Connecticut Puerto Ricans have spoken out against ICE is with their dollars.
Avelo Airlines is one of the cheapest ways to fly direct from New Haven to San Juan to visit loved ones on the island. But after Avelo signed up to run deportation flights for the Trump administration, pro-immigrant protesters and the group Puerto Ricans United came out against the decision. Joe Rodriguez is the president of PRU and a vice president at the National Puerto Rican Agenda.
“We're community first. And when we say community, it's not just a Puerto Rican community, it's the New Haven community,” Rodriguez said. “And when our brothers and sisters are reaching out to us for support, we need to be there, because they have been there for us in our time of need: be it Hurricane Maria and other natural disasters where our community has partnered with us.”
PRU puts on New Haven’s Puerto Rican festival each year, and for the last two, Avelo has been a sponsor of the event. This year PRU’s board voted unanimously to cut ties.
“We felt it only right, given who we are as an organization, our values and what we stand for, to stand with our immigrant brothers and sisters and say before we even engage in conversations, we're going to just nip it in the bud now and say, ‘No, we're not going to do it,’” he said.
In an emailed statement to NPR, Avelo founder and CEO Andrew Levy called the decision to run deportation flights “a sensitive and complicated topic.”
"After significant deliberations, we determined this charter flying will provide us with the stability to continue expanding our core scheduled passenger service and keep our more than 1,100 Crewmembers employed for years to come,” he said.
Rodriguez says he knows many Puerto Ricans are now willing to go out of their way — driving to other airports and spending more money — to avoid supporting a contractor for deportation flights.
