History & Accomplishments
Combatting Racial Profiling |
In 2004, ULA initiated a campaign to stop police from racially profiling people based on their perceived immigrant status. ULA and Junta for Progressive Action convened the immigrant community to testify about racial profiling. The result was Police General Order 06-2, which prohibits New Haven police from questioning individuals about their immigrant status. At the same time, ULA and Junta worked with the City of New Haven to create a government-issued ID card for all city residents, regardless of immigration status. In 2007, New Haven became the first US city to issue such an ID card.
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Stopping Federal Raids |
After ICE raided homes and detained 29 New Haven residents in 2007, ULA organized a massive march to put a stop to further raids scheduled in New Haven. Through a lawsuit, ULA discovered that the raids had been an act of retaliation against the New Haven ID card. In 2012, victims of the raids won a large settlement against ICE for civil rights violations.
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Confronting Police Brutality |
Since 2008, when an immigrant was brutally beaten by New Haven police, ULA has organized direct actions with dozens of Latino and African American police brutality victims. In 2009, ULA worked with the community in East Haven to organize a large march against racial profiling and to meet with the mayor. After many residents sued the police with help from St. Rose of Lima Church, the US Department of Justice launched an investigation. When the DOJ indicted four police officers in 2012, ULA organized another massive march, calling for the mayor to step down.
In 2011, after a member of ULA was arrested and charged with interfering for filming the New Haven Police with his phone, we organized a series of marches until we won city- and state-level policies protecting the people’s right to record video and audio of the police. |
Protecting Workers' Rights |
ULA’s worker campaigns have resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation for victims of sexual harassment, accidents, and wage theft (the illegal underpayment of wages). In 2013, ULA initiated a year-long boycott at the Gourmet Heaven deli on Yale’s campus that was paying its workers $4 per hour, under the minimum wage. The pickets attracted so much attention that Yale administrators, the mayor’s office, the police department, and the Department of Labor met with ULA. As a result of these meetings, the DOL collaborated with the NHPD to arrest the owner and charge him with 40 counts of wage violations and larceny; and Yale decided not to renew the lease of the deli owner.
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Reducing Immigrant Incarceration
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Since 2012, ULA has organized in defense of immigrants detained under the “Secure Communities” program (S-Comm). Through sit-ins and direct actions targeting ICE and elected officials, ULA has gotten ICE to use prosecutorial discretion to free several immigrants from prison and deportation. In 2013, ULA enlisted the Connecticut Immigrant Rights Alliance (CIRA) to draft and pass a bill, the TRUST Act, to limit the participation of Connecticut law enforcement in S-Comm. However, the Connecticut Department of Corrections (DOC) continued to hold people illegally on ICE requests, so ULA held a series of protests leading to negotiations with Governor Malloy, who agreed to change DOC policy.
In 2014, Luis Piscil, one of the ULA leaders who was a victim of S-Comm, got together with other formerly incarcerated immigrants from around the country to sue Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to force changes in S-Comm and prosecutorial discretion. Piscil, a factory worker and father who is still in deportation proceedings, became a local and national spokesperson, telling his story to dozens of national and international news outlets. In November 2014, the Obama administration finally agreed to end S-Comm, citing protests by Connecticut and hundreds of counties and cities. Obama also reformed the prosecutorial discretion criteria and granted temporary relief from deportation to an estimate 4 million immigrants. |