By Gretchen Webster
WESTPORT–“Our immigrant community is under attack” in the U.S. and even in Connecticut, community organizer Barbara Lopéz told the crowd at the Westport Library Thursday night, introducing “A Community Conversation on Immigrant Justice.”
“There is a rise in ICE and police activity across Connecticut,” said Lopez, the executive director of the immigrants’ rights organization Make the Road Connecticut. “We are forced to manage our daily lives in the face of force.” The organization, located in Bridgeport and Hartford, supports immigrants and working class people.
At the forum, López introduced Cristina Jiménez, the author of the book, “Dreaming of Home: How We Turn Fear into Pride, Power, and Real Change,” who came to the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant, and is now a community organizer, and the co-founder of United We Dream, the largest immigrant youth-led organization in the country.
2016: paralyzed
Waiting for the election results from the 2016 election, when Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton, “we knew our lives and our community were at stake,” Jiménez said. “When the election results were announced I was paralyzed,” she said. “I knew I couldn’t guarantee that we would be okay.”
As she crosses the country on her book tour, Jiménez said she sees inequity and pain when immigrants are rounded up, separated from their families, detained, or transported elsewhere. One of the libraries where she was to speak was raided by ICE officers before she arrived there.
Hope
But despite the increase in the mistreatment and deportation of immigrants, she has hope, she said, that grass roots organizations like hers and Make the Road Connecticut will succeed by getting together and providing a strong front against the inequities that immigrants face.
“Even in the toughest moments, if we have each other, we can make it through,” she said. “Immigration is a story of love,” giving immigrants and their families a chance at a better life.
Historical perspective
She traced immigration policies in the U.S. back to the 1920s, when the U.S. border was open and people could travel back and forth, in and out of the country. When border controls were enacted, they were unjust from the very beginning, she said, favoring people of European or “white” background.
In 2007 her husband was arrested and taken to jail by border agents. “I had the feeling that I might not see him again. … You can fall in love with someone you could lose the next day.” She and others worked to get him released in five days.
Recent rise in anti-immigration
After the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, anti-immigrant feelings increased in this country, particularly against Muslims, but also against other immigrants. “Muslim neighbors kept disappearing,” from their homes in New York City, Jiménez said. “I remember the feeling; I could be next.”
With the current surge in anti-immigrant activity including deportation, “we should all be afraid, even if we’re not immigrants,” Jimenez said. But she still has hope that changes can be made to an unfair system, “by coming together to make a change. I truly believe that is possible.”
Youth leaders
Arantza G., a youth leader, said “the process is slow,” to enlist others in the fight against immigration injustice, but progress is being made in other cities and schools.
The fourth member of the library panel, Aracelis H., a leader in Make the Road Connecticut, gave a call to action to help immigrants. “We have to keep fighting,” she said through an interpreter. “We can’t give up. This fight is not over. Even though we have challenges, we have to keep fighting.”
When asked how citizens of Westport and others living in “a bubble” of safety could help immigrants, López said that there is a campaign to send letters to Governor Ned Lamont asking the state to protect immigrant data, and to maintain the Husky Health insurance protection for immigrant children and pregnant women.
The forum was sponsored by The Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Westport.
Westport Journal’s recent articles on the Westport Library
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- Three finalists named for third Westport Prize for Literature
- Westport Library names new Board members, president
Gretchen Webster
Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist for many years, has reported for the daily Greenwich Time and Norwalk Hour, the weekly Westport News, Fairfield Citizen and Weston Forum. She was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman for ten years. She has won numerous journalism awards over the years, and taught journalism at New York University and Southern Connecticut State University.
Were I a person in a poor country with little hope for a future and my rich neighbor to the north allowed unfettered entry into their country, I would do the same thing as these illegal immigrants did. I don’t blame them; I blame our government, with ridiculous elected officials like Chris Murphy and others, who behave as if their mandate is to represent illegal immigrants and not the citizens of this country. Having said that I was somewhat taken aback by the forum in which the participants spoke of voting rights for illegal immigrants and justice due them from the U.S. government. That degree of entitlement from illegal immigrants has caused less, not more sympathy to their dilemma.Miss Jimenez stated that ICE activities are largely disapproved of by the majority of U.S. citizens. That is factually incorrect. The majority do want illegal aliens deported, even if not in the ultra leftist enclave in which they gathered last night.
Hi Sharon! Hope you are having a great day.
You wrote “Miss Jimenez stated that ICE activities are largely disapproved of by the majority of U.S. citizens.” I do not see that quote or reference in the article, so I can only assume you heard her say that at the event. How was it? Did they serve cookies?
You also said that Miss JImenez was factually incorrect in making that statement.
From a quick bit of searching, I found that in a Quinnipiac Poll from June 26 2025 that “Voters 56 – 39 percent disapprove of the way U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, is doing its job.” https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3926
Are there reputable data sources you can point to counter this and to back up your attack on Miss Jimenez?
Well John, polling firms, including Ipsos, have been reporting the fact that the majority of U.S.citizens want illegal immigrants deported.
I have seen reports on cable news outlets, including some leftist ones that seemed dismayed by the indication of a huge increase in that sentiment. In fact, support for deportation is one of the reasons, perhaps the biggest, that Trump won the election. I don’t know about Quinnipiac’s polling method or how many people participated but as you may or may not know, the way a question is asked affects the response. For instance, “do you agree that ICE should drag Illegal grandmother’s out of their homes by their hair? Yes or No?” Miss Jimenez said that the majority of citizens does not want illegals deported; that is not true. ICE provides the activity that facilitates that deportation, which is largely approved of by U.S. citizens. Furthermore, my disagreement with Miss Jimenez’s view of illegal immigrants rights is hardly an attack on her. You have apparently lived a very sheltered life; good for you! And,BTW, I am having a great day as I see my country being brought back to sanity in regards to immigration and other issues.