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Author: IRIS

Communications
IRIS

Ice Out (Community Advocacy tool)

FROM PEOPLE VS. PAPERS:  Our objective is to collect community-submitted information about possible ICE activity to help inform the public and raise awareness. All reports are reviewed by our moderator team before appearing on the map. We categorize reports as either confirmed, which are submitted through trusted community partners such as RRNs and nonprofits, or non-confirmed, which come from the general public. Because all reports involve human interpretation, we encourage users to review this information with caution and cross-reference it with their local or state rapid response networks. We do not condone any form of violence, harassment, or invasion of privacy. No compensation is accepted for reports, and appearing on the map does not imply endorsement or affiliation.

ICE OUT App
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For Employers
IRIS

Employer Resources for Immigration Enforcement

Immigration worksite enforcement remains an important consideration for many employers. Staying informed about changes in immigration laws and enforcement priorities is essential to maintaining compliance and reducing risk. Regularly reviewing trusted resources and preparedness materials can help employers anticipate potential challenges, implement effective mitigation strategies and respond confidently and proactively.

Minnesota's Immigration Resources for Employers
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Urgent Updates
IRIS

5 Steps To Prepare For Refugee Reinterviews

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Refugee Reinterview Process

How Should You Prepare?

Based on Operation Parris in Minnesota, refugees who do not yet have a green card are at immediate risk for arrest, detention, re-vetting, reinterviewing, and possible deportation.  Refugees with legal permanent residence (LPR/green card) may be re-vetted in the future.  While a federal court has issued a temporary restraining order to stop this process, it is unclear whether and how DHS and ICE will respond.  

Here are five (5) things that will help you prepare and increase your chances of staying safe.

Proper preparation and planning are vital

1

Know Your Rights!

ICE’s strategy is to assume people do not know their rights, cannot spot when their rights are violated, and will not exercise those rights when confronted. 

If you’re over 18, carry your papers with you at all times. If you don’t have them, tell the officer that you want to remain silent, or that you want to consult a lawyer before answering any questions.

Remember, these rights are held by each and every human on U.S. soil, regardless of status.  Rights that may exist in other specific situations such as at the workplace or in a home may differ.

* Addendum:  On January 22, 2026, we learned that Federal Immigration Officials are forcibly entering people’s homes and businesses without a judicial warrant, and they assert this is not in violation of the law and Constitution. If this occurs, we suggest you still refuse consent to a search and request a judicial warrant signed by a judge. 

  1. You Have the Right to Remain Silent.  Do not answer questions! 
  2. You have the right to say that you want to speak to an attorney. 
  3. You have the right against unlawful searches by ICE agents and other government officials in accordance with the 4th Amendment of the Constitution.*  An “Administrative Warrant” should not permit a search, but a valid, “Judicial Warrant” signed by a judge must be honored.
  4. You have the right to refuse to sign any documents ICE asks you to sign.

2

COMPLETE A FAMILY PREPAREDNESS PLAN!

In 2025, the Connecticut Governor’s office put together an updated set of instructions and forms to help you and your family prepare for immigration enforcement.  This plan can help you designate Standby Guardians to take care of children if parents are absent, complete Powers of Attorney so others may take care of your affairs if necessary, and help you collect important information and documentation in case they are needed. 

The main Family Preparedness Plan page can be found here on the State of CT Portal.

Download the Connecticut Family Preparedness Plan

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3

REQUEST YOUR IMMIGRATION FILE

If you are an immigrant or refugee, you should request your immigration file as soon as possible from USCIS.  If you have your file, then you will be able to store and study key information if you are re-interviewed. 

FOIA requests to USCIS should be submitted online.  First you must make an USCIS account here:  myaccount.uscis.gov/create-account.  Once you have an USCIS account, file your request here: first.uscis.gov. 

Remember, the government is imperfect and it may take more than one request to obtain your whole file! 

A thorough and current guide to requesting your refugee file with immigration can be accessed here.

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4

Sign & SUBMIT A "RELEASE OF INFORMATION" FORM

Sign a “Release of Information” Form so IRIS can better help you if you are detained. If you are an IRIS client, then we have at least some information related to your immigration status and history.  If you or a family member is arrested by federal law enforcement, this Release of Information will allow us to share documentation with people such as attorneys, non-profits representing refugees, and other groups that may help you.  Note: IRIS will only send information or documents where you direct and we will not send the information until the release is presented to us. 

Download the release form here or click on the image to fill online.

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5

FIND AN IMMIGRATION ATTORNEY

It is incredibly important to find an attorney before you need one.  Finding a suitable immigration attorney is difficult, but we urge you to use this information and resource sheet to help you find an immigration attorney that you trust.  

Our guides on how to find an immigration attorney can be found on our Resoure Hub section of our website.  We are attaching the English version to this memo. 

Direct links to our guide “How to Choose an Immigration Attorney” can be found on our Web Site’s Resource Hub in several languages here:

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Urgent Updates
IRIS

How to Choose an Immigration Attorney

Where to Start Looking

What to Look For

  • Someone you feel comfortable talking to
  • Someone who explains things clearly in a way you understand
  • Someone you trust

How to Make Sure You Have a Real Attorney

  • Verify that they are licensed and in good standing
  • An immigration attorney may be licensed in any state, but must be licensed in the U.S.
  • Check their disciplinary record with their state bar
  • Check their record with EOIR:

    justice.gov/eoir/attorney-discipline-program

Warning signs someone may not be a real attorney:

  • They refer to themselves as a “consultant” or “notario”
  • They refuse to provide credentials or a state bar number

At the First Meeting

  • Bring your relevant documents
  • Do not lie — if you don’t know or feel uncomfortable answering, say so
  • Ask questions — make sure you understand the plan
  • Take notes — so you remember what was discussed

You Should Leave the First Meeting Knowing

  • What relief the attorney suggests you apply for
  • What the eligibility requirements are
  • How the application process works
  • Your deadlines
  • The consequences of missing deadlines
  • The attorney’s timeline
  • Your responsibilities in the process
  • What evidence you will need
  • How often you’ll need to visit the office
  • The cost and how fees are structured

Things to Discuss with the Attorney

  • Other immigration statuses you may qualify for
  • Why you are or are not eligible for certain options

Also Discuss

  • Confidentiality and duty of candor
  • How often you will communicate
  • Whether communication is with the attorney or staff
  • Preferred methods of contact
  • The role of support staff and paralegals

When to Get a Second Opinion

  • Before choosing an attorney
  • If you have doubts about your current attorney

When NOT to Get a Second Opinion

  • If you’ve already received the same answer from multiple attorneys and are just unhappy with it

Signs of a Bad Attorney or Non-Attorney

  • Does not sign the forms they prepare
  • Promises a guaranteed outcome
  • Is not transparent about fees
  • Suggests applying for a work permit without explaining eligibility
  • Encourages you to lie

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Benefits Update, Immigration Resource Hub
IRIS

Public Benefits Updates

important public Benefits updates

Recent changes to public benefits may affect your household. To help you stay informed, we’ve created this resource to show what’s changing and what you can do next.

Connecticut Food Assistance Directory

Directorio de asistencia alimentaria de Connecticut

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دليل مساعدات الغذاء في ولاية كونيتيكت

Diretório de assistência alimentar de Connecticut

لست مراگز کمک مواد غذایی کندییکت

کنیکٹیکٹ فوڈ اسسٹنس ڈائرکٹری

Hagaha Kaalmada Cunnada Connecticut

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Anyè Asistans Manje Connecticut

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Click Here
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Benefits Update
IRIS

Federal Policy Changes

U.S. immigration Policy changes

Immigration Resource Hub, Tools
IRIS

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS 4 IMMIGRANTS App

This app is available in 16 languages, primarily Asian languages. It has the ability to read your rights out loud to an ICE or law enforcement agent and send a message to an emergency contact. It has other resources as well, such as the ability to look up a consulate and a sample family preparedness plan. Available for the iPhone, and will be ready for Android phones soon.

DOWNLOAD THE KYR APP

 

FILL MOBILE FORM HERE

PUBLISHED BY THE DAY Oct 29, 2025

AG Tong, talking immigration in New London: 'They will make it if we fight for them'

 
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Attorney General William Tong speaks at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Congregation in New London on Wednesday, Oct. 29. The event by Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services focused on the impact of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. (Alison Cross/The Day)

By Alison Cross
Day Staff Writer
 
New London — State Attorney General William Tong visited the city Monday evening to share a message of hope and resistance amid President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The event at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Congregation was organized by Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services, the New Haven-based nonprofit known as IRIS.
Since 1982, IRIS has welcomed and resettled thousands of refugees and immigrants within the state, but Maggie Mitchell Salem, the organization’s executive director, said new federal policies have upended longstanding pathways to legal immigration.
As a result of these changes, Mitchell Salem said IRIS will not participate in the U.S. government-supported refugee admissions program for the first time in the nonprofit’s history, starting on Jan. 1. Mitchell Salem said IRIS will continue to resettle refugees from Afghanistan and other countries without federal funding.
During his speech, Tong described the Trump administration’s policies and actions over the last nine months as “awful, brutal, (and) painful.” Tong spoke about lawsuits he has filed against the federal government to block the Trump administration from ending birthright citizenship and coercing states into following the administration’s immigration agenda.
Tong said people often put refugees and immigrants into separate categories but “very often they’re one and the same.”
“My grandparents and my dad ran for their lives (from China),” Tong said. “I’m a kid that comes from refugees and immigrants. I grew up in a Chinese restaurant. … If you go to a takeout joint around here and you see a high schooler ring up your Tuesday night takeout, that was me.”
“In one generation, I went from that hot Chinese restaurant kitchen in the state of Connecticut in Wethersfield, to being the 25th attorney general of the state,” Tong continued. “I don’t tell you that story because it’s a good story, I tell you that story because it is an unremarkable story. It is a story shared by so many people. And there are kids right now, our kids in this city, the sons and daughters and grandchildren of refugees and immigrants who are just like us … and I know they will make it if we fight for them right now.”
Maryam Elahi, the president and chief executive officer of the Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut, said that right now, children are not getting an education because “so many parents are terrified to take their kids to school (and) pick them up.”
“This is not acceptable,” Elahi said.
Elahi encouraged people to reframe the way they speak about immigrants.
“Unless you’re a Native American, you’re an immigrant in this country,” she said. “Some of us came earlier on boats. Some of us came later by foot or plane or both, but the end result is the same. It’s really important for all of us to change the narrative, to talk about immigrants as all of us, to talk about immigrants as people who bring so much richness to our community and to put our arms around them.”
Jeanne Milstein, the human services director for the city, said that New London’s history is rooted in immigrant communities who have made the city stronger.
“It is our diversity which is our strength. New London is a seaport town. It has always been a rich mix of people. It is a community where everyone is welcome,” Milstein said. “The feds may be trying to kill the American dream, but here in New London, it is alive and well.”

PUBLISHED BY THE HARTFORD COURANT

After four decades, CT organization won’t resettle refugees this year. Here’s why

For the first time in more than four decades Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services made the decision to not resettle refugees through the United States Refugee Admissions program, due to the Trump administration’s intent to shift the program’s focus.
“We will not resettle populations that aren’t refugees,” said Maggie Mitchell Salem, director of IRIS. “That is basically the point. This is not about Afrikaners or right wing groups in Europe. This is not about ideology or politics. This is about our mission. Our mission is to resettle the world’s most vulnerable people who have been screened for the credible fear they possess which keeps them from going home.”
Mitchell Salem added: “We are not a relocation service. We work with and for a very specific population and as part of the humanitarian pathway within this immigration system.”
The New York Times reported Wednesday that the Trump administration “is considering a radical overhaul of the U.S. refugee system that would slash the program to its bare bones while giving preference to English speakers, white South Africans and Europeans who oppose migration.” 
The Trump administration has said that white South African farmers face discrimination and violence at home, which the country’s government strongly denies.
The IRIS board made the decision last month to change course after learning about the Trump’s administration’s plans to change the refugee program, including limiting the number of refugees to 30,000 to 40,000, Mitchell Salem said.
“That only reinforced that decision,” Mitchell said. “We have never had to question the U.S. government’s decision. This is not about who is in charge of our government. We have supported refugee resettlement in Republican administrations, and Democratic administrations without fail. We had to do some critical thinking about whether based on what we understood to be the administration’s policy on the U.S. refugee program, whether there was an alignment between our mission and how they were implementing the program.”
The Church World Service, which IRIS is an affiliate of, and contracts with the State Department to help refugees “expressed its dismay and deep concern in response to the Trump administration’s plans to reduce the refugee admissions’ goal “to the lowest level in history,” according to a press release from the agency.
New numbers reported from the Associated Press suggest the Trump administration is considering admitting far fewer refugees than IRIS had initially learned, with just 7,500 admitted.
Dana Bucin, an immigration attorney and partner with Harris Beach Murtha in Hartford, said the administration’s ban against refugees at the beginning of 2025 is not advisable.
“The entire policy that is against refugees in particular is harmful at a time when the world is seeing a record number of refugees due to wars, civil wars, famine, climate change and a bunch of other factors,” she said. “We have never had so many refugees as we do now and so few tools to deal with them and so definitely in general an anti-refugee policy is not conducive to humanitarian endeavors.”
Bucin said she does not believe that all Afrikaners qualify as a group for refugee status.
“But as attorneys we are open to hearing of any individualized case of persecution for Afrikaners, much like anyone else,” she said.
Since the Trump administration suspended the refugee program in January, IRIS relocated its New Haven office and had to shut its Hartford office.
In fiscal year 2024, IRIS served more than 2,000 people and resettled 900 refugees.
In fiscal year 2025 they were planning to resettle 800 refugees but have only been able to settle 241 refugees as many were denied entry or delayed.
As a result of the suspension of the refugee program, IRIS lost about $4 million in funding and had to lay off employees.
In the United States, some 128,000 refugees have currently been approved for resettlement in the United States and are now stuck in limbo, said Mark Hetfield, president of HIAS, the Jewish refugee resettlement agency. In addition, 14,000 Jews, Christians and other religious minorities in Iran have long been registered with the refugee program.
New vision
IRIS is not suspending its activities though. The organization is realigning its focus to help refugees and immigrants with assistance securing housing, food, addressing health issues and advocating for more English Language Learning programs to help them succeed in the workforce, Mitchell Salem said.
Mitchell Salem said she is concerned about provisions in Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill particularly eliminating SNAP for refugees. She said IRIS needs more support to provide basic proteins for refugees in its food pantry.
Targeting ELL programs aligned to workforce development programs is critical, she said, so “people are getting the right vocational training and entering these programs successfully and entering higher paying jobs in the healthcare, hospitality and manufacturing sector. This is a win for the state. The state has to become more competitive.”
Mitchell Salem said IRIS will focus on deepening partnerships with the Chambers of Commerce and workforce boards and adult literacy organizations that exist in every town and city in the state.
In addition to those being barred from entering the country, Mitchell Salem said immigrants who are here are being terrorized. Calling it inhumane, Mitchell Salem said rounding up of people in the community at their place of employment is having an impact on everyone.
“It is going to impact the price of food and whether your grandmother is being taken care of in an assisted living community,” she said. “It is impacting employers. It is impacting tax bases. You don’t remove this significant number of people from our community and have no impact.”
With ICE arrests continuing in Connecticut and immigrant advocates calling for state officials to act, lawmakers are in discussions about increasing legal protections during an upcoming special session.
ICE agents stormed a Hamden car wash Wednesday and detained and took away eight people including a husband and wife and a customer, according to information from state Sen. Jorge Cabrera’s office.
“Since we passed the TRUST Act a decade ago, Connecticut has always carved out exceptions for dangerous felons,” Cabrera said in a statement. ”Democrats don’t have a problem with that. Neither does the governor. What we do have a problem with is Donald Trump and ICE telling us that they are arresting the scum of the Earth – murderers and gang members and pedophiles. And then who do they arrest? Landscapers. Dishwashers. High school kids. People working at car washes.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Originally Published: 

October 17, 2025 at 5:37 AM ED