CT Rallies Demand Justice for Migrants

Rallies across Connecticut, in response to cold blooded killings of immigrants by ICE in Texas and Maine, denounced the growing violence, demanding accountability, dignity, and due process for all.

Immigrant rights organizations Make the Road, Hartford Deportation Defense and Unidad Latina en Accion (ULA) are in the lead, joined by community, faith and union members.

In New Haven at the Federal Building ULA said, “It is time to speak out., stand together, reject fear, defend human rights, and affirm that every person deserves dignity, safety, and due process regardless of immigration status.”

“What was the "crime" committed by many of these victims? Simply driving while being immigrants,” said ULA. “Instead of due process, many people face racial profiling, aggressive enforcement, and a system that appears focused on hunting down anyone perceived to be an immigrant.”

On July 7 in Houston, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old Mexican citizen who lived in the U.S. for 35 years, was intercepted and killed by ICE en route to a construction job site.

Six days later, a 26-year-old Colombian man, Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, who worked as a delivery driver, was shot and killed by ICE agents in Biddeford, Maine.

In Connecticut in June, a member of ULA was violently apprehended by ICE agents. Without medical care he was taken with a broken wrist to an immigration detention center and not released for several days.

In West Hartford in June ICE agents kidnapped Seyo Cecunjanin, a restauranteur on his way to work. The community rallied immediately and with the support of Rep John Larson and Sen. Richard Blumenthal in several days he was released. In all these cases the person was not who ICE was looking for.

“Connecticut has stronger protections than many other states because of more than two decades of organizing and advocacy by immigrant rights organizations and their allies in labor and community. Those gains were not freely given—they were won through collective struggle. But those protections cannot be taken for granted. Remaining silent in the face of abuse only allows injustice to continue.” said ULA.