Close to 80 immigrant families attended a "Know Your Rights" panel this week, hosted by The New Haven Legal Assistance Association and Colectivo de Defensa de Hartford.
Families in the area went seeking advice to get their immigration papers in order.
Deacon Roxana Vidales is with the Christ Church Cathedral. She said the church is helping about 10 immigrant families. Most of them are from Peru, Ecuador and the Dominican Republic.
"We help by giving spiritual support and informing them about places that provide food, and today we are helping with the immigration panel,” Vidales said.
Some immigrants said they had escaped violence and poverty in their countries.
Lindisia Barreras is originally from Mexico and has been in Connecticut for 30 years. Barreras has three children born and raised in the state. She attended the event with hopes of getting immigration advice.
"Right now, I don't have a job because I don't have papers. I don't think it is fair that I still have no opportunities after so many years of working in this country,” Barreras said, speaking in Spanish. “Sometimes people treat Hispanics badly; they put us down, and it is worse if you don't speak English as well."
According to the 2020 census, over 240,000 non-citizen immigrants live in Connecticut.
A study by the American Immigration Council said that undocumented immigrants in Connecticut pay $313.5 million in federal taxes and $187.5 million in state and local taxes with their ITIN number.
John Ascencio, who also attended the panel, is originally from Peru and came to the U.S. by crossing the Rio Grande, the Mexican river that separates the U.S. from Mexico. Ascencio made his journey with his 10-year-old daughter escaping threats of violence.
In his country, Ascencio said he used to be a taxi driver. But after a group of foreigners arrived in his town, criminal activities started to happen. He was threatened to give up his car in exchange for his life.
"I would like to contribute to this country with all my skills. I know construction, I can do maintenance, and I also know how to work with machinery. I know how to do a lot of things,” Ascencio said, speaking in Spanish. “In the future, I would like to have my own company, too.”
Attorney Maureen Abell from The New Haven Legal Assistance Association said the outdated immigration systems need to change, in order to give job opportunities to today’s immigrants the same way it did for European immigrants before the 1950s.
"The way that my family came – and that a lot of Anglo families who have been here for more than a century came – [they] just showed up, prepared to work,” Abell said of previous immigration policies. “That hasn't existed in a long time.”
