GOV. DANNEL MALLOY: So, the offices necessary to process refugee status cases at the border were purposefully understaffed and frequently closed, so people who had legitimate claims could not make them. Given the option of death or coming across the border, having tried to file refugee status, and having heard hundreds of times that those claims were not being processed – in contravention of a 1951 treaty that the U.S. entered into sponsored by the U.N. and as a result of the failure to properly relocate people following the Second World War – we were in violation of that treaty. And quite frankly, if we were brought to an appropriate court, we would be found to be in violation of that. This is a government that has made it impossible, or nearly impossible, for thousands of individuals to seek that status and then blames them for not having that status. That’s a point that absolutely has to be understood, because coming out of this administration is the blaming of people who otherwise would qualify for legitimate refugee status. So you really need to understand that we’re the country that’s in violation of our 1951 treaty obligations, not someone else, and certainly not these thousands of individuals who have, over these last number of months, have been thwarted in their attempts to file those kinds of claims.
Listen, what’s going on as a matter of the U.S. policy, is nothing short of political sadism. It was designed to inflict pain on children and parents, to receive joy. The joy they thought they would get is that people would stop coming to our borders seeking refugee status or immigration status. That was the joy that caused this sadism to be part of our national policy. They have found out that the joy was short-lived. It backfired on them, tremendously, although I’m sure there are folks who think it makes sense to be cruel to children, but it was nothing less than political sadism.
BETWEEN THE LINES: Munir Ahmed is co-director of the Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic at Yale Law School, which, along with Connecticut Legal Services, filed the lawsuits.
MUNIR AHMED: We hope that what we’ve been able to do over the last two weeks, which is the duration of this litigation, is to establish a kind of Connecticut model: a coalition of lawyers, law schools, community legal services, community advocates and elected officials who stand and act in unison, make demands for justice inside the courtroom and outside the courtroom, and do that on behalf of children. We think we were successful here in Connecticut in that short period of time because there were people of good conscience who found ways to work togetherand we think that can be done across the country.
BETWEEN THE LINES: Another attorney injected a note of caution, saying that most public funding for legal aid excludes these types of cases, so privately funded groups in other states must step up so similar results can be achieved. Another speaker was Vanesa Suarez, with the immigrant rights groups Unidad Latina en Accion and Connecticut Immigrant Rights Alliance.
VANESA SUAREZ: On behalf of the immigrant community, I’d like to welcome these two families and separate their freedom. I’d like to thank everyone who has shown their support for these two families who arrived in New Haven just yesterday. It is beautiful to see everyone coming together to support these two families who have gone through so much. They can finally hold each other; they can finally breathe.
This is a tremendous victory for the community. We do not believe in cages and we do not believe in borders. We believe that every human being has the right to migrate without being detained or separated from their families. Our ancestors were transitory people who migrated throughout this continent long before borders existed. While we celebrate the reunification of these two children with their parents, we acknowledge that the fight is not over. Thousands of children are separated from their parents due to this administration’s inhumane and cruel zero tolerance policy. For decades our migrant brothers and sisters have experienced various forms of violence at the hands of this government. We must acknowledge the pain that has been inflicted, and the generational trauma that exists.
In his ruling the judge acknowledged that there was irreparable harm caused. And so I ask, How can our people begin to heal when the government continues to terrorize our communities? That is why we say, Abolish ICE! ICE violates human rights every day and is accountable to no one.
If this message reaches some of the families who are still detained, we want you to know that there is an entire community fighting for and with you. You are not alone. We will continue fighting every day until every family is free and reunited. We will not rest until we have justice and freedom. No more violence! We call for an end to the criminalization, caging and detention of our people. No more deportations!
As a community we must continue to support each other. We recognize that it takes a village to heal a generational trauma. We do this through solidarity, love, support and by lifting the voices of our brothers and sisters, because when we fight we win, and together we will create a world where our people are free and can live with dignity. Thank you. (Applause)
