Editorial: Connecticut cases show need for change in immigration policy – New Haven Register

Twice in July at least law-abiding Connecticut residents reported to federal immigration officials, as required, only to be slapped with electronic monitoring bracelets and told they had just weeks to buy one-way tickets to their native country and say goodbye to their families.

The crimes that led to such harsh treatment of Nury Chavarria, 43, of Norwalk and to Joel Colindrs, 33, of New Fairfield, who separately fled violence in Guatemala, were living in this country illegally. Since Chavarria left in 1993 and Colindrs in 2004, they established careers, created families and contributed to the local economies.

They have sought ways to become legal. They are not threats to anyone.

But, shamefully, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Hartford have no compunction about breaking up families and, in the case of Chavarria, leaving the children to become wards of the state. What good is accomplished?

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Colindrs married a U.S. citizen, Samantha Colindrs, and has a 6-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter who are citizens. He supports the family with his carpentry skills.

Chavarrias four children, aged 21 to 9, are U.S. citizens; the oldest has cerebral palsy. The mother has supported her family as a housekeeper.

There likely are more immigrants like them who face the same dire fate. An unintended consequence of ICEs sudden crackdown could be that illegal immigrants will hesitate to report annually for fear of deportation. Otherwise law-abiding people will be forced to live in the shadows.

Reaction to the treatment of the Norwalk mother and New Fairfield father is mostly a mixture of anger and compassion.

We agree with Gov. Dannel Malloy, who said the Trump administration is lying that it would focus on deporting only criminals. He was personally assured in meeting with top administration officials that those who obeyed the law would not be targets. The heartbreak of Chavarria and Colindrs and their families prove otherwise.

Compassion, while clearly on shortage in the Trump administration, has been abundant in Connecticut. Hundreds have rallied for Chavarria in New Haven and on Thursday for Colindrs in Hartford.

A New Haven church and its congregation gave sanctuary to Chavarria on July 20 when she was supposed to return to the country she escaped from long ago. Understandably, she could not leave her children.

Now Chavarria has a glimmer of hope. Based on a motion by student lawyers at the Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic at Yale Law School, a judge on Wednesday agreed to stay the deportation order temporarily and open her case. The eventual outcome is uncertain.

A similar opportunity should be given to Colindrs, who ICE ordered to leave on Aug. 17.

This is the time for people to show support for decency by contacting political leaders, by rallying, by speaking out.

This is not the time for silence while families are ripped apart and productive longtime residents are sent off to dubious fates. Silence indicates acceptance of the inhumane treatment by our government.

Hearst Connecticut Media Group

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Editorial: Connecticut cases show need for change in immigration policy - New Haven Register