A local immigrant advocacy group is kicking off its latest canvassing effort this Saturday in one of the state’s most diverse communities.
One-third of Danbury’s population is Latino, according to the latest U.S. Census data, and Danbury Unites for Immigrants is trying to make sure everybody knows their rights.
The group is handing out red cards in English, Spanish and Portuguese, given the area’s large Brazilian population. The wallet-sized cards guide people through what to do during interactions with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.
But that’s not the only service the organization offers.
“The fact that there's a helpline, the fact that you can have accompaniment to an immigration appointment, that is something that a lot of people don't know,” said Seth Garben, one of the organizers in the group’s door-to-door education campaign.
The first “Families Belong Together” action last October and November focused on getting the word out about the group’s daytime helpline to report ICE activity in local neighborhoods and trigger rapid response from trained volunteers.
It’s a service Garben wishes didn’t have to exist.
“We don't want there to be emergencies,” Garben said. “At the same time, we want to know that, if there is [an emergency], people feel comfortable calling us. And they have.”
He said the door knocking campaign last fall got people to use the helpline “for a variety of reasons.”
Who’s at the door?
Danbury Unites for Immigrants is led by BIPOC immigrants, but many volunteers, like Garben, are white non-immigrants who feel compelled to help their neighbors and sign up to knock on doors in pairs. Garben said whoever is opening their door is part of his “village.”
“This person is not my literal neighbor, but they are in the sense that we're sharing space, we're sharing public transportation, we're sharing an environment, and they're under threat,” he said. “I'm not personally under threat right now, and I have a responsibility.”
That perceived threat presents a unique issue for white volunteers when door knocking in a community that’s fearful, after multiple ICE incidents last year.
“There's a lot of hesitation and a lot of apprehension, all of which is understandable,” he said. “So part of the training that we do is in how to be personable, how to keep a distance, and how to preemptively diffuse any tensions.”
It helps that Garben speaks Spanish, and often at least one of the canvassing duo does, he said. Volunteers head out in pairs, holding clipboards and wearing DUFI shirts or pins, featuring the group’s colorful logo of protesters holding posters and a megaphone on the backdrop of yellow flowers and butterflies.
Learn more
Organizers are going door to door in Danbury every other Saturday through mid-September. The effort begins with the group’s kickoff event at 9:00 a.m. Saturday, May 16, in Danbury’s Kennedy Park.
And the action will continue after the summer, Garben assured.
“I think for a lot of white folks, we can see this as sort of being just ‘We need to get through Trump. We just need to get through to the midterms’ or whatever and that this work stops,” he said. “But why would it stop?”
Volunteers anywhere in the state can sign up to help the Families Belong Together Canvassing Campaign here.
The Danbury Unites for Immigrants helpline is available 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily at 475-237-7351.
