Hosted at North Haven’s Clarion Inn, the convention drew all kinds of toy seekers — from parents and children lugging boxes filled to the brim with new toys, to adults scouring for childhood favorites.

“I love the atmosphere, the vibes,” Carlos Solis, a comic book collector and vendor from Boston, said. “Everybody’s hunting down stuff they used to have as a kid. In the morning, it was packed. You could barely walk.”

According to Solis, Connecticut shows always have a great turnout.

Organizer Andrew King said the convention was held in honor of the late John Kozin, the New England convention’s former organizer and a “huge” GI Joe and Transformers fan. Bob Budiansky, who wrote 58 of the original Transformers comics, Ron Rudat, the figure designer behind G.I. Joe, and Kirk Bozigian, former Vice President of Marketing at Hasbro, were all present on Sunday.

“I wanted to do the best GI Joe and Transformers show possible,” King said. 

Matt Ryan, creator of the “Brenda Steelhammer” comics and art director at Bad Elf, was also selling comics at the convention. He recounted fond memories of his grandparents sending him comic books in care packages from Florida. Now, he writes light-hearted fantasy adventure comics inspired by his daughters. 

Ryan wants his young readers to “forget about the outside world for a little bit and just have a little joy ride with [him].”

For Cliff Saccoccio, English teacher, aspiring author, and comic book vendor, walking through the packed aisles was a bit like walking through memory lane. 

“When I was little, my mom dropped me off at the comic book store when she went grocery shopping. It was more or less like a second home,” Saccoccio recalled. 

Ryan Lewis, a vendor of hand-painted and 3D-printed toys, first started making toys for his daughter to play with.

“I never had a printer until I brought my daughter to something like this, and I noticed I couldn’t afford anything that was at one of the events that was going on,” he said. 

Since acquiring his own printer, Lewis has not only been making custom toys for his daughter but also making sure that other kids can walk away with something, too. 

At his vendor stand, he had a $1 bin, and shoppers could roll a dice for the chance to win something. 

“I like having kids be able to get stuff that’s easier, accessible,” he said. 

Dan Ungar, vintage video game seller and full-time teacher, recalls an experience as a vendor where a man who lost everything in a fire picked up a few games that he had as a kid and started crying. 

“I ended up just giving him the games,” Ungar said. “It touched me… the fact that he had so many awesome memories of it”.

King also mentioned giving away toys at conventions, including Matchbox cars, Hot Wheels and Squishmallows.

“It’s seeing a little kid, and giving them a toy, and changing their day, and putting a smile on their face. That’s the best part,” King said.

The Clarion Inn is located at 201 Washington Ave.

The post Toy & Comic Convention bridges generations of fun appeared first on Yale Daily News.

“I believed him until the last moment,” Vazquez confessed in Spanish. “The expression he had, the way he spoke — I said to myself, ‘I have also suffered hardships, so why don’t I support him? I know that, in the end, he will repay me.’”

The employer was a New Haven-based contractor who hired Vazquez and two dozen other construction workers to renovate a building in September 2021. Vazquez noted that most of the contractor’s employees, herself included, were undocumented immigrants struggling to stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic. Though the contractor did not compensate them for working overtime and occasionally paid their salaries late, she described him as a kind employer who always offered his workers a smile and a free coffee. “There was no work [during the pandemic],” Vazquez said in Spanish. “So, the people put up with it.”

Work on the construction project concluded in April 2022, leaving Vasquez without a job. Neither she nor the other workers received a salary for their last month of work. It wasn’t until months later — facing radio silence from her former employer — that Vazquez realized she would never be fully compensated for her work.

She estimates that the contractor withheld about $5,000 of her wages, including the unpaid overtime and salary during the final month of the project.

Spurred on by other stories like Vazquez’s, Eamon Coburn LAW ’25 proposed in June 2023 a city ordinance that would punish wage theft. In Connecticut, wage theft cases fall under the jurisdiction of the state Department of Labor, rather than city police departments. If implemented, Coburn’s proposed ordinance would allow city enforcement of labor laws in wage theft cases.

Coburn said city alders were “pretty receptive” to his idea. Yet almost two years later, no progress has been made on the proposal.

At the forefront of the fight to address wage theft in New Haven is immigrants’ rights organization Unidad Latina en Acción, or ULA, which assists victims of labor exploitation.

“If I go to a Stop and Shop and I steal a salsa or a gallon of milk… they will call the police on me and I can be detained for larceny,” John Jairo Lugo, ULA’s community organizing director, said in Spanish. “But if my boss makes me work the whole week on a roof — with the risk that I fall, that I get sick, that I die at my workplace — and he steals $1,000 of my salary, I can’t go to the police to denounce him because the police of New Haven will tell me that this is a civil offense and I need to go to the Department of Labor.”

The proposed ordinance — drafted by Coburn and other members of Yale Law School’s HAVEN medical-legal partnership — suggests granting the city Department of Health the authority to suspend or even revoke the licenses of businesses that violate labor laws, something Lugo has advocated for since 2013.

The ordinance is the latest in a string of community-based efforts over the past two decades to combat wage theft on the local level. But stalled progress on the proposed reforms has left victims of wage theft to navigate a convoluted Department of Labor system alone.

Case backlog in Connecticut Department of Labor

For Coburn, the recent understaffing of the state Department of Labor, or DOL, makes the proposed New Haven ordinance even more imperative. With a slashed budget and a reduced number of investigators, Connecticut’s DOL faces a growing backlog of cases — and a 63 percent drop in wages recovered in 2024 compared to fiscal year 2014.

Last year’s audit found that as of May 2023, the Connecticut DOL had not begun to investigate 843 of 2,000 workplace complaints since 2021, including a case that took nearly a year to be assigned to a state wage inspector. The audit’s findings sparked outrage among Lugo and other ULA members, who rallied outside the DOL on Aug. 1, 2024.

Lugo condemned the DOL’s delayed response to workplace complaints, which he believes discourages people from reporting future instances of wage theft to the state. 

“A year [after submitting the complaint], it’s possible that I changed my job, I changed my phone number, I’m not living in the same house,” Lugo said in Spanish. “Or the DOL is asking me for documentation that I already lost because a ton of time has passed and I got tired of waiting for them to call me.”

Juliet Manalan, a spokesperson for the DOL, acknowledged the “well-documented” case backlog and limited staff in the DOL unit that oversees workplace complaints. Still, she encouraged victims of wage theft to file a complaint with the department and affirmed that all complaints are reviewed. 

Modeled after similar programs in San Francisco and Santa Clara County, New Haven’s proposed ordinance is grounded in the argument that wage theft is a public health issue — justifying the involvement of the city Department of Health. A 2014 American Journal of Public Health study found that because wage theft contributes to income insecurity, it is linked to hunger, homelessness and other public health issues.

Coburn and Terri Gerstein, founder and director of New York University’s Wagner Labor Initiative, see suspending business licenses as a far bigger disincentive from breaking labor laws than simply requiring employers to pay back the stolen wages. 

“If [employers] have their license suspended for five days, that’s real, that’s reputational harm, that’s income,” Gerstein said. “And also, why should businesses be able to get licenses … if they’re just repeatedly not paying their workers?”

Proposed city ordinance faces legal barriers

After Coburn proposed the ordinance, attorney Patricia King, who represents the city of New Haven, wrote that state law does not permit municipal departments of health to suspend or revoke business licenses in wage theft cases. She added that, unlike San Francisco, New Haven does not have a city labor standards enforcement office that could inform the Department of Health if businesses violated labor laws.

Gerstein, who previously served as Labor Bureau Chief in the New York Attorney General’s Office, argues that attorneys can choose to interpret the law liberally. She noted that California also did not have a law explicitly allowing its city departments of health to revoke licenses because of wage theft.

“As someone who worked in government for a long time, when people say that something can’t be done… another lawyer reviewing the same information might have come to a different conclusion,” Gerstein said. 

Still, California attorneys highlighted a statute requiring all licensees to follow state and federal laws, allowing San Francisco and Santa Clara County to implement license revocation programs.

King questioned the legality of the proposed city ordinance. In her opinion, there are two possible legal alternatives to the proposed ordinance. 

First, she recommended assigning a New Haven police officer as a liaison between the DOL and local community members with pending workplace complaints. She later wrote to the News that the officer would not have the authority to aid the DOL’s investigations, so this would not reduce the DOL’s case backlog. And New Haven Police Department Officer Christian Bruckhart questioned the feasibility of this recommendation, noting that the NHPD has faced an officer shortage for several years. 

Another alternative, King said, would be a city ordinance requiring businesses applying for new or renewed licenses to comply with state and federal employment laws. Similar ordinances have been adopted in Jersey City, NJ, Somerville, MA and Northampton, MA.

Since HAVEN, the Yale clinic where Coburn volunteers, is focused on a public health approach to wage theft, its members have zeroed in on King’s licensing suggestion, he said. Coburn described it as a “very promising option” that captured the spirit of the original proposal, and said he is optimistic that the ordinance will eventually be implemented.

Yet in the past year, the Yale clinic has not completed a new proposed ordinance based on the city’s feedback, nor have they met with city alders about a tweaked proposal. 

Both James Bhandary-Alexander, director of the HAVEN medical-legal partnership, and city alder Sarah Miller, who was involved in early conversations about the ordinance, declined the News’ requests for an interview. Miller explained that “no further progress” has been made so far on the proposal, and Bhandary-Alexander wrote that “it is being held up a bit by the current total chaos,” alluding to the second Trump administration’s impact on New Haven.

John DeStefano — who served as mayor of New Haven from 1994 to 2014, when immigrant community organizers first began raising the question of how the city could enforce state wage claim laws — put it more bluntly. “The fact that nothing happened is, in fact, a decision,” he said.

20 years of city inaction: advocates struggle to secure protection from wage theft 

Since its formation in 2002, ULA has advocated on behalf of immigrants who have experienced wage theft. Undocumented immigrants are especially vulnerable to labor exploitation, as they are overrepresented as workers in industries plagued by wage theft, like agriculture, food services and hotel work. Immigrants also tend to be reluctant to report wage theft because of language barriers and fears of interacting with federal immigration authorities.

ULA has also unsuccessfully spearheaded multiple efforts for the local enforcement of state wage laws.

The first of those efforts began in 2004, amid calls for city immigration reform from ULA, St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church and immigrant advocacy group Junta for Progressive Action. In conversations with DeStefano and other city officials, the organizations identified seven policy recommendations, including the enforcement of criminal wage laws by the NHPD.

DeStefano oversaw the implementation of three of the groups’ recommendations, although no progress was made on the proposed police enforcement of wage laws.

In 2014, ULA organizers submitted a letter outlining recommended wage theft programs to Toni Harp, then-mayor of New Haven. The organization proposed license revocations, quicker criminal prosecution of employers that committed wage theft and a database rendering employers that violated labor laws ineligible for city contracts and tax incentives. None of ULA’s three proposals got off the ground, according to Lugo.

In conversations with the News, DeStefano and Harp struggled to recall the details of the wage theft programs proposed during their respective terms. While none of ULA’s ideas faced strong opposition when they were introduced, the former mayors were skeptical about the feasibility of the proposed programs. DeStefano doubted the city’s ability to staff the programs, and Harp was unsure if undocumented immigrants trusted the police enough to report labor law violations.

Lugo highlighted a minor success in 2010, when the NHPD agreed to assist ULA’s efforts to recover stolen wages from employers. After ULA organizers attempted to contact an employer accused of wage theft, calling for the employer to repay the wronged employee upfront, rather than undergoing a lengthy DOL case, an NHPD officer would support those efforts by sending the employer a message urging them to meet with ULA. 

But since these efforts were a “formality” without any real enforcement power, Lugo said, they were not successful in convincing employers to negotiate with ULA and soon ceased. NHPD Chief Karl Jacobson, who joined the NHPD in 2007, was unaware of the initiative described by Lugo. He thinks these were likely efforts by an individual officer, rather than a department-wide policy.

Lugo, city officials grapple with lack of local progress on wage theft

Several former and current city officials flagged the unknown scope of the issue as a factor in the city’s lack of action in tackling wage theft. 

Between 2018 and April 2023, the Connecticut DOL received over 13,000 worker complaints, averaging over 2,700 cases each year. Specifically in New Haven, Lugo said ULA assists victims in 20 to 30 wage theft cases annually, though he called this the “tip of the iceberg.”

“With wage theft, there are so many workers whose rights are being violated who do not come forward, either because they don’t know their rights or because of fear of retaliation, fear of losing their job,” Gerstein, the NYU labor law expert, told the News.

Bruckhart, the NHPD’s public information officer, echoed former Mayor Harp’s point about undocumented immigrants being reluctant to contact the police if they experience wage theft and other labor exploitation, despite New Haven’s status as a sanctuary city — a municipality that discourages local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. Current Mayor Justin Elicker estimates that only one or two wage theft cases make their way to the NHPD each year, contributing to the uncertainty around the issue’s prevalence.

Lugo expressed frustration about the lack of local change to address wage theft, despite over two decades of advocacy. Past ULA efforts around wage theft have been met by city resistance, he noted. Lugo has been arrested multiple times in connection with ULA’s protests of businesses that allegedly committed wage theft.

He was especially incensed by a January 2023 Board of Alders public hearing about proposed revisions to the city charter, during which an alder cut off a ULA member testifying about facing wage theft and sexual harassment from her employer. This prompted Lugo, the woman providing testimony and two dozen other ULA members to walk out of the meeting.

Lugo believes the alders’ refusal to hear immigrant testimony reflects the larger disinterest among city officials and a lack of political will to address wage theft.

Elicker disagreed with Lugo’s view that the city has not done enough to address wage theft. He emphasized the legal challenges that King, the city’s attorney, raised in connection with HAVEN’s initial proposal.

“We would, of course, want to do more to help address wage theft if we have those tools,” he said. “But I wouldn’t frame this as, ‘if only the city cared about this issue, we could do something more.’ Our assessment is we can’t do anything more under state statute.”

Challenges to address wage theft at the state level

King, Elicker and other city officials also pointed to insufficient funding for the state DOL. The DOL currently employs 12 wage enforcement agents, according to Manalan, compared to 18 in November 2022. The department’s budget and staff cuts have coincided with its growing case backlog.

“The proper place to direct advocacy energy is towards more resources for the Department of Labor at the state, because that’s the main mechanism, the primary mechanism, to enforce wage theft violations, and it’s very clear they don’t have enough resources,” Elicker said. 

Yet state legislators have failed to pass bills that would have increased the state’s number of wage and hour inspectors, who ensure that employers are complying with labor laws, in the two most recent legislative sessions. A similar bill, introduced in the current legislative session, was added to the calendar for the state House of Representatives on March 27 but has not advanced since then.

Local 269 President Xavier Gordon, who heads the union that represents the DOL’s wage and hour inspectors, attributed the previous two bills’ failure to the “powerful corporate lobby” that discourages lawmakers from increasing state spending.

Brian Anderson — legislative and political director for Council 4, which encapsulates Local 269 and other unions for Connecticut’s public employees — echoed Gordon’s argument, pointing to two major lobbyist groups: the Connecticut Business Industry Association and the Connecticut Yankee Institute.

“Their mission is to cut the state budget so that corporate executives pay as little in taxes as possible,” Anderson wrote to the News, referring to the fact that tax revenue partially funds the state budget. “By attempting to suppress the budget and eliminate revenue that could hire more DOL wage and hour inspectors, they aim to ensure that laws designed to protect workers are unenforceable so that the balance of power remains on the side of corporations and the rich.”

Both groups have lobbied against loosening the state’s fiscal guardrails — a strict state spending cap instated in 2017 — in the past. Yet spokespeople for the groups emphasized that they did not directly oppose either of the bills that would have increased DOL funding. Indeed, the public hearing testimony for both bills is solely composed of supportive statements from activists and victims of wage theft.

Like Elicker, DeStefano thinks the unclear scope of wage theft on a statewide level was likely the main factor behind the bills’ failure.

“There are hundreds and hundreds of issues that meaningfully affect people and their lives and their families that don’t come to resolution in legislative sessions,” he said. “Sometimes things don’t move because they’re not big matters to other folks.”

City officials, activists double down on immigrant protections 

The challenges to address wage theft on the state level again raise the question of how New Haven officials can fight the issue on the local level. 

Although the HAVEN clinic’s proposed ordinance is still at a standstill, labor law expert Gerstein outlined a host of alternative ways municipalities can fight wage theft. Other cities have established worker protection units to streamline the criminal prosecutions of employers that violate labor laws, have carried out stop-work orders against offending businesses and have formed municipal labor standards offices to directly enforce labor laws.

Coburn and Ward 15 Alder Frank Redente, who represents part of Fair Haven, the city’s immigrant enclave, pointed to the actions of the second Trump administration as a potential influence on the fate of the ordinance. With President Donald Trump promising to nix federal funding for sanctuary cities like New Haven, Redente said he and other city officials are especially focused on protecting the city’s immigrant community.

“Issues around the dignity of workers — workers generally, and also around the workers who are most affected by the misconduct that we’re targeting, who are immigrant workers — will be really central the next four years,” Coburn said.

Lugo remains skeptical about the city’s willingness to address wage theft. Right now, his priority is getting city officials to understand the wide-reaching impact of the issue.

Though former and current city officials expressed uncertainty about the issue’s scope in the city, several of them cited New Haven’s most notorious examples of wage theft: Gourmet Heaven, a 24-hour deli often frequented by Yale students, shut down in 2015 after its owner was charged with withholding over $250,000 in wages. Another infamous example is that of Italian pastry shop Rocco’s Bakery, whose owner was found to have underpaid and physically and sexually abused his undocumented immigrant employees between 2007 and 2008.

Lugo hopes to keep holding protests outside of offending storefronts to boost awareness of the city’s wage theft problem. He continues to turn over one question in his head: “How can we create these scandals so they can no longer be blind to the reality that we are experiencing downtown?”

As for Vazquez, the construction worker who has yet to receive $5,000 in owed compensation, she and a dozen former coworkers submitted their pay stubs and other documentation of the wage theft experienced to the state DOL in mid-2022. Three years later, they’re still waiting for justice to be served — and so Bella Vazquez continues to tell her story.

“What are they waiting for?” Vazquez asked in Spanish, referring to the DOL’s wage enforcement agents. “Others don’t dare to denounce [their employers] because they see that we still haven’t accomplished anything. So, what are [the DOL] doing? They’re wasting time.”
In Governor Ned Lamont’s biennial budget proposal, he allocated $83.3 million to the DOL’s budget for the 2025 to 2026 fiscal year, a nearly 7 percent increase from the previous fiscal year.

The post Unsettled scores: 20 years of stalled wage theft solutions in New Haven appeared first on Yale Daily News.

On a Sunday morning earlier this month, people of all ages gathered at First and Summerfield Church, where a sign at the entrance reads “You are welcome here.” The church’s promise to welcome is multifaceted: it serves as a spiritual sanctuary for seekers of faith and also as a physical sanctuary for immigrants who may be at risk of deportation.

This February, the United Methodist Church — with which First and Summerfield is affiliated — along with many faith denominations across the country, joined a lawsuit to ensure that houses of worship are protected against raids by Immigration Customs Enforcement, or ICE. 

A 2011 Department of Homeland Security memo had prohibited authorities from entering “sensitive locations” like churches for years — yet Trump is challenging past precedent.

For decades, the sanctuary movement in New Haven and the surrounding areas has been led by Yale Divinity School alumni who are leaders at several of these churches. The movement focuses on supporting immigrants, whether it be through housing them or providing legal or health services.

“What we do in this world matters, the lives that we live, the way that we treat ourselves and other people, matters,” said Vicki Flippin DIV ’08, who served as the pastor at the First and Summerfield Church amid increased deportation raids in 2017. “If somebody is terrified that they’re gonna be separated [from] their children, it is obvious to me what faith has called me to do.”

As the second Trump administration ramps up deportations and anti-immigrant rhetoric, often fueled by Christian nationalism, sanctuary churches embrace faith to “welcome the stranger,” New Haven faith leaders told the News.

Taking a risk in opening up their church

The sanctuary movement is not new. American churches began sheltering immigrants in the 1980s, during the Reagan administration, Karla Cornejo Villavicencio GRD ’19 writes in her book “The Undocumented Americans.” Then, a group of churches took in nearly 500,000 refugees fleeing Central America. 

But offering sanctuary has carried legal risks. In 1985, the federal government indicted 16 people, including a Protestant minister, two Roman Catholic priests and three nuns, with “conspiracy” to smuggle undocumented immigrants into the United States.

More than 30 years later, during the first Trump administration, Gini King DIV ’84, a retired leader of First Congregational Church in Old Lyme, talked to her congregation to become a sanctuary church.

“I believe that my faith tells me that Jesus was a community organizer,” King said. “He broke the law time and time again, and he was non-violent. That’s what I want to be. That’s who I want to be.”

Jamie Michaels, who took over as lead pastor at First and Summerfield in 2022, also admitted that there has been some fear in the church about the consequences that might befall churches that take in undocumented immigrants. However, she thinks that these concerns pale in comparison to the risks and dangers that immigrants face.

“We have a heritage to lean on, of communities and people who have stood firm in their faith even in the face of those kinds of threats,” Michaels said. “We were never promised that following the love of God and walking on that path would be easy or safe. So we trust.”

For Michaels, taking risks to help those in need is not a political stance but rather a central aspect of her faith.

After taking the job in 2018, Flippin similarly learned that her role as pastor would come to encompass much more than the job description of a conventional faith leader. 

Flippin, Michael’s predecessor who led First and Summerfield during the first Trump administration, recalled feeling concerned by the president’s rhetoric against immigrants as ICE ramped up deportations across the country. For Flippin, housing immigrants, who she felt were labeled as “throwaway people,” in the church where she served as a spiritual leader felt essential to oppose this rhetoric.

“It was a declaration in opposition to rhetoric that treated people like they were not important to their community and not important to our country,” she told the News in February. Yet, the movement to house people in churches to prevent their deportation was not an easy feat. “It was a really labor-intensive move,” she said.

Flippin detailed the congregants’ efforts to donate funds for the immigrants’ mortgages, do their laundry, provide showers, offer food and care for their children. She said it was a “hugely intense community effort” to show that these people were important — regardless of Trump’s rhetoric.

The sanctuary space at First and Summerfield is currently open, although church leaders do not publicize whether anyone is currently residing there due to safety concerns.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, ICE officials would have to receive a warrant signed by a federal judge to enter a private space within a house of worship.

Glenn Formica, a New Haven attorney who has worked on legal cases involving sanctuary in churches, said that the lawsuit involving New Haven congregations — which opposes Trump’s recall of place of worship protection in immigration crackdown — challenges the “fear narrative” that he believes the current presidential administration is “aggressively” advancing.

The Biblical basis of sanctuary 

Rabbi Herb Brockman of Congregation Mishkan Israel in Hamden, part of the sanctuary movement, compared the current deportation to that of the Nazi persecution of Jews.

“We were hunted down in the 1930s,” said Brockman, referring to the Nazis’ method of deporting Jews in Europe to concentration camps. “As Jews, we are to remember that.” 

He emphasized that while the Nazis committed many atrocities, there were also 24,000 “righteous gentiles” who risked their lives to hide Jews and protect them. When he teaches about the Holocaust, he wants people to know that there are people who resisted the Nazis.

Besides his historical motivations for joining the sanctuary movement, Brockman also cited its biblical basis: the Torah mentions welcoming the stranger 36 times. 

He also spoke of the idea of “cities of refuge,” which were six cities that were set aside for an individual who accidentally killed someone to reside in and be protected from revenge-seekers before a legal trial. 

“This isn’t new,” he said.

Flippin spoke about Matthew 25 as a part of the New Testament that she has always clung to when thinking about the sanctuary movement. At a panel at St. Thomas Moore in February about immigration, panelists also spoke about this verse. The verse asks: “When I was a stranger, did you welcome me?”

“If I see somebody suffering, like somebody is terrified that they’re going to be separated from their children, it is obvious to me what faith calls me to do,” said Flippin.

Shaping a progressive movement to counter Christian Nationalism 

Flippin also spoke of the varied political conclusions that believers might reach based on their reading of certain sections of the Bible.

“People are complex, which you learn when you get to know folks who have different views from yourself,” she said.“We believe in Matthew 25, but we just kind of interpret it a little differently in different arenas.”

In the United States, conservatives and liberals alike have set out to define what role religion should play in politics. Many Christians on the political right subscribe to strands of Christian nationalism — an ideology that is based around the idea that the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation and should therefore be a Christian nation into the future.

Vice President JD Vance LAW ’13 spoke publicly on his views on immigration as a Catholic at a town hall in September prior to the election. He said that there is a “Christian idea that you owe the strongest duty to your family.” As such, he argued, American leaders should not be overwhelmingly concerned with protecting citizens of other nations. 

“It doesn’t mean that you have to be mean to other people, but it means that your first duty as an American leader is to the people of your own country,” the Vice President said. The town hall was part of Christian nationalist preacher Lance Wallnau’s election-season revival tour, which aimed to make a theological defense of many of the Trump-Vance immigration policies.

Many who have opened up their churches to undocumented immigrants view their interpretation of Christianity as counter to interpretations like Vance’s that are often used to defend deportations. 

“Christian nationalism and other movements like that take the concept of the Kingdom of God and just write it onto a really coercive, oppressive idealism,” said Michaels. “For me, the kingdom of God is a world in which all people can be whole, and all people can be well.”

Michaels said she believes that using scripture to defend agendas of oppression and hate is antithetical to what her faith calls her to do. She views the Bible as a collection of sacred words rooted in love and self-sacrifice for all of creation. This biblical interpretation drives her in her work to provide sanctuary to immigrants. 

Flippin echoed Michaels in that she views Christian nationalism as not in line with her interpretation of scripture.

“I don’t see anything scriptural about it. I feel that it is nationalism, patriotism, and nativism using scripture and the intense emotionality of religion and ritual for its own end, which I find to be blasphemous and offensive,” said Flippin.

Bishop Thomas Bickerton, who serves as area resident bishop for the United Methodist Church in the New England and New York areas, believes that right-wing Christianity is not a “biblical” Christianity, but a secular one. 

“I do not believe that the Bible equates itself with secular society, nor does it equate itself with policies and procedures that are contrary to biblical truth,” Bickerton said. “Biblical truth is not necessarily trying to find a passage in scripture that meets what you believe. It’s quite the opposite.”

Flippin, who left First and Summerfield to become the Associate Dean for Student Affairs at Yale Divinity School in 2022, believes it is important to raise the next generation of faith leaders as competent in “alleviating suffering in the world.” 

She encouraged Yale students to open their minds to this mission.

“It’s really important to notice the incredible long-term efforts that are going on in this city,” said Flippin. “As much as you can emotionally manage it, step into those spaces that are not made for Yale students, but where you have to be there for other people.”

First and Summerfield Church is located at 425 College St. 

The post “You are welcome here”: New Haven’s sanctuary church movement protects immigrants targeted by ICE appeared first on Yale Daily News.

On April 14, 1997, 21-year-old Malik Jones was shot and killed by an East Haven police officer at close range after the officer pursued Malik’s car, and Jones did not pull over. In the years following Malik’s death, Emma Jones sued the town of East Haven and embarked on years of advocacy work and demonstrations against police misconduct. Among the fruits of her efforts was the 2020 revamping of New Haven’s Civilian Review Board.

At the Monday evening gathering, located at the corner where Malik was killed, Jones unveiled plans to purchase a small plot of land at that intersection to house the Malik Jones Social Justice Organization.

“This is going to be the future home of nothing but pure joy for the community,” Jones said. “It’s going to be the opportunity for people to come and to learn some things about what happened here on that particularly awful day … We are not here to talk about all of the specifics around what we’re going to do, but we are definitely kicking off, starting today, a fundraiser to purchase this property.”

A banner hung on the fence separating the sidewalk from the vacant lot behind Jones as she addressed the dozens gathered. The banner featured a projected image of the organization’s prospective building and advertised the organization’s website, calling on passersby to support the cause.

According to Jones’ website, the organization, also called the M.A.L.I.K Organization, aims to create a community space to honor stories of fighting for justice in the face of adversity, as well as offer “essential resources and support to those in need.” At the gathering, Jones acknowledged that she has not yet figured out the organization’s title acronym.

“Never before in the history of police brutality in America has a mother had the opportunity to purchase the property where her son was killed by law enforcement and transform it into a space that supports, acknowledges, and empowers families and community members who have endured similar tragedies,” the site reads.

A handful of Jones’s friends and family also spoke at Monday’s event, sharing anecdotes and poems about Malik. Reggie Hoffler, a longtime friend of Jones who said he had attended the annual memorial for the past two decades, emphasized the diversity and youth of the crowd.

Cars and motorcycles whizzed by, frequently honking their horns and revving their engines in support of Malik.

In October, the Board of Alders voted to rename the corner of Grand Avenue and Murphy Drive, where Malik Jones was killed, the “Emma Jones Justice for Malik Corner.”

The post At “Justice for Malik” corner, an anniversary and a fundraising kickoff appeared first on Yale Daily News.

On April 8, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong suggested that Avelo was freely choosing to “profit from” and facilitate “atrocities” that are “cruel by design,” in a letter addressed to Avelo CEO Andrew Levy. That same night, 28 of 30 New Haven alders signed a letter condemning Avelo’s decision to carry out deportation flights.

The following day, on Wednesday evening, over 60 residents protested the deportations at Tweed Airport. As of Monday night, a petition calling for an Avelo boycott had amassed over 32,000 signatures in one week.

“These cruel policies go against everything we stand for,” said John Lugo, executive director of Unidad Latina en Acción, an organization that attended the Wednesday protest. “[The policies] transport vulnerable people, including children and women, under inhumane, dangerous conditions out of the country, often without due process.”

Last Tuesday, Tong issued a series of questions to verify that Avelo will operate legal and humane flights, requesting a response from Levy by April 15.

Tong requested the company confirm that it will not operate deportation flights on which passengers are physically restrained without safe evacuation mechanisms, or for whom there is no valid order of removal. He made reference to a ProPublica investigation that revealed improper evacuation protocols and shackled passengers aboard ICE deportation flights.

“None of these abusive practices are required to secure our borders, promote public safety, or effectively enforce our immigration laws,” Tong wrote. “These flights are cruel by design and enormously wasteful of taxpayer resources, and no business should be complicit.”

He suggested that Connecticut’s continued support for the airline — including through its moratorium on aviation fuel taxes — would depend on its compliance with these demands.

Members of the state legislature’s Judiciary Committee said in an April 8 hearing that this could potentially be accomplished by way of modifying the Trust Act, a law that limits how state and local governments share information with ICE. The proposed modifications would additionally apply these restrictions to corporations, punishing companies in violation by revoking their contracts.

Additionally, 28 of the 30 alders of New Haven denounced the airline’s decision to operate deportation flights in a letter last Tuesday, condemning the decision as “profoundly out of step with the spirit and character of our city.” The letter urged Avelo to “unequivocally terminate any existing or planned contracts with DHS or ICE related to deportation operations.”

Of the two alders who did not sign the letter, Alder Gary Hogan said he is supportive of the letter’s contents and did not sign it due to a miscommunication. Alder Sal DeCola of Ward 18, a jurisdiction that includes parts of Tweed Airport, did not respond to requests for comment.

“We acknowledge the weight of these concerns and have received the feedback. We will be discussing these concerns with Connecticut leaders. We will have no further comment on the matter,” Avelo wrote to the News.

Carrying signs that read “New Haven won’t fly on fascist airlines” and “Bon voyage Avelo”,  dozens of members of Unidad Latina en Acción, Connecticut Climate Crisis Mobilization and Connecticut Shoreline Indivisible protested in front of Tweed Airport on Wednesday evening.

Organizers from the New Haven Immigrants Coalition, a group of local advocacy organizations, are planning a second protest at Tweed this Thursday and will give public comment at the HVN Airport Authority meeting this week.

“We know that people are being deported without due process,” Anne Watkins, an organizer with the coalition, told the News. “We know people are being deported to jails and other countries where the countries themselves are known for their human rights abuses. We know that there are deportations taking place for people who should have protected status in this country. I think people are responding to these horrific things that are happening.”

The protesters are just a fraction of those who have pledged to boycott Avelo. Tens of thousands of people nationwide have signed an online petition launched by the New Haven Immigrants Coalition, demanding that Avelo CEO Levy cancel the contract.

The petition, titled “We won’t fly Avelo until they stop ICE flights!” is currently one of the most popular petitions on Change.org. 

“It is truly amazing to see the outpouring of support across the nation,” wrote Tabitha Sookdeo,  executive director of CT Students for a Dream, a coalition member organization, to the News. “There is a swelling movement of community organizers in other states that want to participate. Across the nation, we hear a resounding call to treat immigrants with dignity.”

Avelo accounted for over 98 percent of passenger traffic at Tweed through 2024.

The post “Bon voyage Avelo!”: New Haven residents, politicians condemn Avelo’s move to operate deportation flights appeared first on Yale Daily News.

On March 5, the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services plastered a yellow “Suspended” sign on the York Street storefront’s glass doors, barring the eclectic donut cafe from continuing sales out of that address. The sign specifies that Donut Crazy’s New Haven location’s sales permit was suspended according to a state statute, which states that if a person fails to comply with their prescribed sales tax regulations, their permits may be revoked or suspended.

New permits may be issued once the department’s commissioner “is satisfied that the former holder of the permit will comply” with sales tax regulations, according to the statute.

Jason Wojnarowski, Donut Crazy’s owner, did not respond to the News’ requests for comment despite multiple attempts. Wojnarowski also declined to comment to the New Haven Independent on the storefront’s closure in March.

The Department of Revenue Services declined to comment on specific cases.

Donut Crazy New Haven’s telephone number is now “temporarily unavailable,” and the store’s social media has not been active since before the suspension.

“It’s sad because I would go there to get coffee or gluten-free food when I wanted a study break,” said Lelah Shapiro ’27, citing the storefront’s convenient proximity to popular study locations — including Bass and Sterling Libraries — when explaining the impact of the store’s sudden closure.

Shapiro elaborated that though coffee shops like Common Grounds remain accessible as alternative quick dining options on the block, Donut Crazy utilised SnackPass services. SnackPass, a social media ordering application created by Yalies in 2016, enables its users to order ahead at local New Haven restaurants and earn loyalty points and discounts where possible.

“The prices were good,” said Sasha Foer ’28, who, like Shapiro, ordered from Donut Crazy on a weekly basis. “The donuts were good. There are alternative locations for a sweet pick-me-up, like Ashley’s, [but] they’re less accessible.” 

Donut Crazy, founded in 2011, launched its New Haven location, the fourth in the franchise, in October 2016. Originally a late-night dessert cafe open past midnight, the donut shop’s hours had been reduced by the time it closed, though its interior decor — darkened lights, red neon signs and leather couches — still resembled a bar lounge.

In 2024, Donut Crazy closed its locations in Branford and Fairfield. The Fairfield location had opened only a year prior.

Donut Crazy currently operates storefronts in West Hartford, Shelton, Stratford and Westport, Conn.

The post Future of Donut Crazy’s downtown store uncertain appeared first on Yale Daily News.

McInnis’ speech made four references to the city, mostly gestures made in broad strokes that characterized the city in partnership with Yale, braving challenges and marching forward together. In comparison, Former University President Peter Salovey in 2013 dedicated three minutes in his speech to an address on town-gown collaborations.

“Together with our home city of New Haven, we have weathered the storms of every moment, the ‘breeze of public criticism’ and the winds of change,” McInnis said.

The presidential inauguration came as higher education institutions across the nation face criticism from the federal administration, a decline in public trust and potential funding freezes. Several of Yale’s peer institutions have already faced funding cuts.

McInnis previously told the News that while she originally hoped to lay out a more ambitious vision plan in her speech, given the current political backdrop, she chose not to. Instead, her speech would reflect on Yale’s history and values, as well as muse on its future.

Yale’s outreach to New Haven extended beyond McInnis’ speech, however. In the week before her inauguration, the Yale Alumni Association and United Way of Greater New Haven led dozens of volunteer events, open houses and local partnerships to celebrate the town-gown community, drawing over 250 Yale and community volunteers.

McInnis and Salovey on town-gown

In his inauguration speech more than a decade ago, Salovey sought to probe “new directions in [Yale’s] alliance with New Haven,” calling for fresh entrepreneurial and intellectual partnerships.

In particular, he encouraged students to contribute more to the “local idea economy.” After graduation, he hoped, “they can remain in New Haven and play active roles as civic, arts, and business leaders.”

He ended his New Haven segment with several driving questions for his term: “How can we create a local ecosystem that supports entrepreneurs? How would a one-hour train between New York and New Haven change the intellectual and educational biosphere of our campus and city?”

Though the University’s relationship to New Haven could be at times tense as late as 2020, when Mayor Justin Elicker rose to the mayoral office, the signing of a 2021 agreement to increase Yale’s voluntary contribution to the city ushered in a wave of friendly public appearances between public officials and University leaders. In February, Elicker called on McInnis to increase the voluntary contribution.

Last week, in her speech, McInnis recounted how she “found a second home in New Haven” during her time as a graduate student, spending her leisure time exploring the city’s pizza spots and staying up late at Toads.

Near the end of her speech, McInnis quoted a New York Times article that named New Haven among the “52 Places to Go in 2023.” In it, Alexander Lobrano, travel writer and Connecticut native, promoted the city’s history, culture and food scene.

“There’s a reason the New York Times called us a ‘home to tinkerers and rebels.’ We don’t sit still. We don’t sit back,” McInnis said, following a segment referring exclusively to Yale. “We are a university in motion, always seeking out the next frontier. It’s why New Haven has become a global hub of biotechnology and innovation.”

Yale is not mentioned in Lobrano’s article, but McInnis told the News that she saw “Yale as part of New Haven” and that is why she said “us.”

Elicker, a spokesperson from UNITE HERE and two New Haven alders did not respond to requests for reactions to McInnis’ address and the Elm City’s role in the inauguration weekend. 

Like Salovey, McInnis also emphasized Yale and New Haven’s close unity in her speech.

“Hand in hand with the city of New Haven, we will create a vibrant, thriving community where our mission — our purpose — is renewed with each new member we welcome, each discovery made and idea exchanged, each new graduate who carries Lux et Veritas into the world,” she said. 

Inauguration community programming reached hundreds

Leading up to McInnis’ inauguration, the Yale Alumni Association and United Way of Greater New Haven organized New Haven Community Days, a week of volunteer activities and open houses to commemorate the bond between Yale and New Haven.

The volunteer teams assembled 540 toiletry kits for Haven Free Clinic, distributed 200 pounds of clothing donations, served food to 351 families, and wrote 60 handwritten letters to seniors, according to Mara Balk, Yale Alumni Association’s associate director for volunteer engagement.

Overall, the groups organized 18 volunteer activities on campus and in the city, including a book drive, gardening work days and read-aloud events for children.

Community Days programming also featured 43 open houses across the city that welcomed all visitors — like a “New Haven all-access pass,” YaleNews wrote. Open houses at Harkness Tower and various art galleries — Yale University Art Gallery, 63 Audubon Gallery and NXTHVN — saw “lively turnout” or were at capacity, according to Alexandra Daum, associate vice president of the Office of New Haven Affairs.

On the first community day, McInnis visited local vendors at CitySeed’s Farmers Market and read to young students with New Haven Reads. Ahead of her inauguration, McInnis also spent time showing her family around town, she told the News.

According to Balk, McInnis explicitly requested there be a volunteer component in her inauguration activities.

The success of the Community Days programming was not unprecedented or uncommon, Balk noted, but rather characteristic of the “mutual respect” and history of collaboration between Yale and New Haven volunteer agencies.

On April 3, McInnis spoke at Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting, and she hosted the first Seton Elm-Ivy awards ceremony of her term last Tuesday.

“Yale’s and New Haven’s successes are inextricably linked. I look forward to building on our progress and strengthening our centuries-old bond, and I will be sharing more details as we do this work together,” McInnis wrote to the News.

Since July 2024, McInnis has served as the University’s 24th president.

The post Amid federal attacks on universities, New Haven takes back seat in McInnis’ inaugural speech appeared first on Yale Daily News.

As of Thursday, none of these threatened cuts have been implemented, but local leaders remain afraid that New Haven schools will face steep reductions in federal funding from the Trump administration, especially as the Trump administration attempts to dismantle the Department of Education. Meanwhile, even with federal funds intact, New Haven Public Schools have struggled to fund normal operations this school year.

“It’s quite ironic that the Trump administration says they want to give control over schools back to the states, except for the issues that Mr. Trump cares about,” Mayor Justin Elicker said. “They are, on the one hand, giving control of the schools back to the state, but on the other hand, micromanaging how our schools educate our children.”

The proposed cuts have already created a climate of uncertainty, according to Michael Morton, spokesperson for the School and State Finance Project, making planning difficult for school districts and hurting students. 

Minnesota and New York have refused to comply with the federal memo to dismantle DEI, but Connecticut officials have taken a different approach. 

On Tuesday, Connecticut Education Commissioner Charlene Russell-Tucker told superintendents that they have more time to respond to the memo than initially feared and that her office is still formulating a response, the Connecticut Post reported.

In 2020, Connecticut became the first state in the country to require all public high schools to offer an ethnic studies curriculum in Black and Latine history, with Asian American history added in fall 2025.

In his state of the state address in January, Governor Ned Lamont urged state legislators to let the Trump cuts play out over the coming months and “focus on what we can do to build on the progress we’ve made over the last six years.”

In recent weeks, Lamont has expressed a willingness to declare a fiscal emergency if the Trump administration cuts federal funding for Medicaid, allowing the state to bypass its fiscal guardrails. But Lamont’s response to potential cuts to federal funds for public schools remains unclear, Elicker said.

In a joint statement last month with the state senate president and house speaker, Lamont promised to protect “our most essential programs” from federal cuts.

“No state can restore every cut that comes from Washington or ignore the effects, especially on public health,” they wrote. “However, sound fiscal practices have positioned us better than most states in the nation. If this pattern of devastating cuts continues, we will be prepared to exercise emergency powers. Although we hope that Washington reverses course, we must plan for the inevitable or unpredictable.”

Also last month, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, who has positioned himself as a vocal opponent of the Trump administration, joined a lawsuit from dozens of states to prevent the dismantling of the Department of Education. The Department administers millions of dollars in federal funds to NHPS each year and is responsible for civil rights oversight nationwide.

The rising tensions between the federal and state governments comes amid a long-simmering fight over state education funding at the state capitol, as state legislators hammer out a budget for the next two years. 

In March, Elicker traveled to Hartford with 75 New Haven Public Schools students to testify before the state Education Committee in favor of SB1511, which aims to address “disconnected youth” in the state by increasing the base amount the state spends per student each year.

The Trump cuts will only exacerbate existing inequalities in education funding in Connecticut, John Carlos Musser, a senior at Wilbur Cross High School, told the News.

The threatened Title 1 funds are critical for NHPS. According to Musser, for example, they were used to purchase all of the district’s Chromebook computers.

“Those cuts would be disastrous. Even with the funding that we’re currently getting with the federal government, we’re looking at cuts and deficits and not being able to meet the needs of our students,” said Leslie Blatteau ’97 GRD ’07, president of the New Haven Federation of Teachers. “It would begin to accomplish what the Trump administration wants, which is our public schools to be starved out of existence.”

Blatteau said that if push comes to shove, she believes state leaders would protect the new ethnic studies curriculum and other programs targeted by the Trump administration. But proactive state action is necessary, Blatteau added. 

Elicker told the News that New Haven will likely sue the Trump administration once again if the cuts are carried out. He called on state leaders to also do their part by providing further support for the state’s public schools, regardless of changes in federal funding.

“What I would like to see is that state leadership make clear that our values are shared across the state, and that no matter what happens, no matter what decisions the Trump administration implements, we in Connecticut stand together, and will fight things together, and defend one another,” Elicker said.

In the 2023-24 school year, Connecticut public schools served more than half a million students.

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Historically, New Haven has not had a large Asian American and Pacific Islander population. But the number is growing every year — from four percent in 2010 to seven percent in 2020 — and new Asian American shops and markets are popping up all over the city. 

A generation of Asian American leaders are finding their own ways to fight for change in New Haven – whether through organization, public service or community-building. Some found their way to Yale and New Haven from immigrant families, and with a deep sense of community and shared stake in the city’s future, they now call New Haven home. 

The News spoke to three local organizers to learn how their Asian American background informs their community advocacy. 

John Lee ’18 DIV ‘26: An “embodied” connection to New Haven

John Lee ’18 DIV ‘26, the grandson of North Korean immigrants, grew up in the predominantly white suburbs of Baltimore. His main source of Asian American community was the local Korean church, and when he came to Yale as an undergraduate, he naturally found community in a Korean American church in Westville. Since he couldn’t speak Korean well, he gravitated towards the younger, English-speaking churchgoers, volunteering and helping out with the youth programs. 

As he worked with New Haven students as a LEAP site coordinator, he noticed how neighborhoods close to Yale struggled with housing, unemployment and a lack of resources in schools and libraries. At the same time, he began meeting city activists and organizers from New Haven Rising — an organization that advocates for racial, economic and social justice. Their ideas for solidarity and reform were energizing, he thought.

After graduating, Lee stayed at Yale to study at the Divinity School and eventually became a key leader for New Haven Rising. 

On a typical day for Lee, he wraps up class at Yale to meet directly with residents and other organizers. He goes to East Rock Magnet School every week to teach students to cycle, and in his free time, he traces the city’s streets on his bike, writing poetry about Elm Street or Whalley Avenue. Sometimes, he challenges kids to foot races at a Newhallville school he used to mentor at; when the weather’s nice, he might take on Alders Caroline Tanbee Smith ’14 and Eli Sabin ’22 LAW ’26 in basketball. 

For many immigrants, it’s difficult to tangibly relate to systemic, historical problems in America, Lee said. As an organizer, a big question for him has been identifying personal points of connection to engage people. 

For him, it’s an “embodied” relationship with New Haven. He sees this connection as grounded in his faith but also in his sheer love for the city: its charming size, diverse neighborhoods and history. “It’s a very rich place that has a lot of the patterns of American history that are confusing, beautiful [and] painful,” he said.

When people have an embodied relationship to a place, Lee thinks, they “hold a lot of what that place has meant” and can pass that along to future generations.   

“I love New Haven, and I love walking out my door and being a part of the city and being among neighbors. [But there are] young people who are like, ‘I take a lot of pride in being here or I have a kind of vision, but it’s getting harder and harder to live in the city.’ So that tension is where I locate a need for change,” he said.

Alder Caroline Tanbee Smith ’14 SOM ’25: The activist spirit

New Haven is a “city that fights for itself,” Alder Caroline Tanbee Smith ’14 SOM ’25: of East Rock said. “It’s a city where you can feel the spirit of advocacy, the entrepreneurial spirit really ripple through the sidewalks and streets.”

When she arrived at Yale as an undergraduate, Tanbee Smith felt the urgency of wanting to be a part of something bigger than herself. She got her start mentoring at New Haven Academy and interning at the mayor’s office. 

She described how her mother, in South Korea, would often go to student protests and have to flee from the police. Yet now, in America, her parents were nervous when Tanbee Smith initially proposed becoming a politician. 

“I sometimes wonder if a lot of us have that experience of our parents having that advocate spirit when they’re in their home countries. Then, when they come here, it’s different,” she said.

Mayor Michelle Wu of Boston is one of her heroes: “a ferocious, fiery but humble leader.” Seeing her run for city council years ago affirmed Tanbee Smith’s desire to run for office.

After living in New Haven for over a decade and growing confident in her values — developing a “really strong spine,” she says — she ran for office in 2023 and became alder of East Rock. Since then, she’s worked on issues ranging from traffic safety and climate justice to economic opportunity. 

“I think love is built and cultivated over time. And I just, I love this place, and it’s the place I want to be, hopefully for the rest of my life,” she said. 

Chistine Kim ’99 and aapiNHV: Scaffolding of support
Over the pandemic, Christine Kim ’99 felt “paralyzed” by the rise of anti-Asian sentiment nationally and locally. Her and other Asian American residents realized the necessity of more dialogue and a space for an Asian American community in the city. 

In 2021, she co-founded aapiNHV, New Haven’s first organized community for Asian Americans, with Tanbee Smith and several others. 

People come in and out of the group, Kim said — a reflection of the transitory nature of New Haven she finds dynamic. She loves how the group is diverse in all regards: age, skin color, ethnicity and socio-economic. 

Tanbee Smith found the friendships she formed with other Asian American women — from aapiNHV’s team to her Korean American co-founder in Collab, an accelerator for small businesses — “edifying” for her confidence as an Asian American advocate. “They poured into me, and I hopefully poured into them as well,” she said.

Now, Tanbee Smith is appreciative of the opportunity to build the “scaffolding” for Asian Americans to see themselves as politicians and advocates, to spark the “fight and advocacy” embedded in their family’s histories. 

Since its inception, aapiNHV has gathered in support of community members, held potlucks and hosted pop-ups at New Haven’s night market. In the coming years, Kim hopes to continue the space for Asian Americans to gather and support each other in business ideas or community projects.

“I think it’s really important for young people to be able to imagine a future for themselves and, you know, representation can help to establish that kind of horizon line. You’re like, ‘Hey, I could do that too,’” Tanbee Smith said.

Building spines and bridges

For some kids that Lee has worked with in New Haven schools, he’s the first Asian person they’ve spent time with and befriended. 

“Those moments are wonderful. It was never my intention to go in as an Asian representative, but I do think there was something fun and joyful about being a surprising presence,” he said. 

Tanbee Smith echoed this, describing her appreciation of being “more than one”: half-White and half-Korean, part of the LGBTQ+ community and from an immigrant family, grew up in the South but now in the Northeast. Though she struggled in her youth with wanting “simplicity,” she’s grown to cherish her multitudes. 

“Being able to build bridges or see multiple perspectives is something that feels pretty baked into my DNA,” she said. 

Her proudest moments during her time as an alder have been when, sitting across the table from a neighbor who disagrees with her, they are able to find a “shared underbelly of respect.” Her experience being multi-racial and Asian American, she says, has provided her some of the crucial tools to find this common ground. 

In January, when anti-immigration flyers were distributed in East Rock, Tanbee Smith was astonished by how resolutely the community rallied around their immigrant neighbors. Though “hateful actions” are sometimes inevitable, she believes that the most important thing is how a community responds. 

“I think New Haven is a city that responds with love,” Tanbee Smith said. “That moment of anti-immigration flyers being distributed in the neighborhood, kids picked them up and threw them away. [Even] a dog ate one. New Haven has a spine of values that it returns to.” 

In 2006, William Tong became the first Asian American elected to Connecticut state office.  

Correction, April 14: A previous version of this article misstated that John Lee ’18 DIV ‘26 was the son of North Korean immigrants. Additionally, Lee’s role in LEAP was site coordinator, not mentor and counselor.

The post New Haven’s Asian American changemakers appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Leaders and advocates representing the city’s food banks and soup kitchens made the request during a Board of Alders budget workshop Wednesday evening in City Hall. The organizations have begun to experience the fallout from reductions in federal food assistance spending.

“There’s a perception that the community will take care of itself when it comes to food assistance, and that’s just not the reality,” Steve Werlin, the executive director of the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen, told the News.

The food kitchen has recently received less food than normal from the Connecticut Foodshare, which depends partly on federal money, Werlin said. He expects DESK’s stockpile of food to dwindle “at some point in the next few months” without a new source of funding.

Alycia Santilli — co-chair of the Coordinated Food Assistance Network, or CFAN, the coalition that made the proposal — told the Finance Committee that 27 percent of New Haven residents currently face food insecurity, compared with 18 percent statewide. She added that nearly two-fifths of Elm City residents reported receiving groceries or meals from food assistance providers.

Coalition members developed their “legislative agenda,” totaling $993,000, before the 2024 election, Werlin said. They presented it to New Haven community services officials in the winter as Mayor Justin Elicker was preparing his budget proposal.

Elicker announced his $703.7 million budget proposal for the 2025-26 fiscal year in late February, saying he took a “primarily status quo” approach amid the unpredictability of the Trump administration’s funding for local programs. The proposal did not include CFAN’s proposed spending.

Werlin and Santilli both said they hoped alders would be sympathetic to their requests in the wake of the Trump administration’s cuts. They stressed that the city has not usually provided regular funding for food assistance.

 “I know that a lot of alders really care about this issue,” Santilli said, “and they probably weren’t fully aware that the city doesn’t really spend money in this way.”

Elicker said Thursday in a statement provided by his spokesperson that he has proposed directing almost $150,000 in federal Community Block Development Grant money to food assistance organizations, including $35,000 for DESK.

He also said the city planned to allocate about $890,000 from two federal grants to Haven’s Harvest, a nonprofit focused on reducing food waste — but that the grants are now frozen.

“The cuts by the Trump administration to food banks and meals programs are devastating,” Elicker said in the statement. “We would always like to do more, but we can’t make up the difference from the federal government.”

About a dozen food assistance advocates attended Wednesday’s aldermanic meeting. Four of them testified directly to the alders, and some held signs saying, “FOOD IS A HUMAN RIGHT” or “Hungry for Change!”

Alder Anna Festa of East Rock’s Ward 10 said alders face a difficult balancing act as they refine the mayor’s proposed budget.

“It’s going to be some very difficult decisions, because if we contribute to every little thing, every nonprofit that’s not getting aid, that cuts into the budget, which means higher taxes for the residents, which means for some of those folks, they’ll now have to decide themselves if they need to go to the food pantry or not,” Festa said.

New Haven has over 50 food pantries and soup kitchens, Santilli told the alders.

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