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how to deal with ice

Spanish / Creole 

ICE inside the Home

If ICE agents enter your home, you still have rights! This video provides crucial information about what to do if ICE agents are inside, explaining your rights during the encounter and what steps you can take to protect yourself and your family. It also offers guidance on how to prepare for potential future immigration proceedings, ensuring you are better informed and ready to take action if needed. Understanding your rights can make a significant difference in these situations, so it’s important to be proactive and prepared.

Ice At the Door

ICE agents may visit your home searching for you or someone you care about. They might use various tactics to try to get you to open the door. This video will explain your rights if ICE agents show up at your home and offer advice on what you can do to prevent them from entering.

ICE in the Community

ICE agents are increasingly detaining individuals in public spaces—on the street, in vehicles, at work, or even in court. This video explains your rights if ICE approaches you in the community, including what actions to take during such encounters. It also highlights your right to record these interactions, not only if you are involved but also if you witness them happening to others. Understanding your rights and how to document these situations can be crucial in protecting yourself and your community.

IF ICE Arrests You

ICE arrests surged by 30% in 2017, and the frequency of such arrests continues to rise. Now, more than ever, it’s essential for you and your family to have a clear plan in place for what to do if someone is detained by ICE. This video will guide you through your rights during an ICE arrest, including the steps you and your loved ones should take if someone is taken into custody. Being prepared can make a significant difference in ensuring your rights are protected and that you know how to respond in such situations.

spanish

ICE en su Puerta

Los agentes de ICE pueden visitar su hogar buscándolo a usted o a algún ser querido. Para lograr que abra la puerta, podrían emplear diversas tácticas. Este video explica cuáles son sus derechos si los agentes de ICE se presentan en su casa y ofrece consejos prácticos sobre cómo puede evitar que ingresen.

ICE Dentro su Hogar

Si los agentes de ICE ingresan a su casa, ¡usted aún tiene derechos! Este video proporciona información crucial sobre qué hacer en esa situación. Explica sus derechos durante el encuentro y detalla los pasos que puede tomar para protegerse a usted y a su familia. Además, ofrece orientación sobre cómo prepararse para posibles procedimientos de inmigración en el futuro, asegurándose de que esté mejor informado y listo para actuar si es necesario. Conocer sus derechos puede marcar una gran diferencia en estas situaciones, por lo que es fundamental ser proactivo y estar preparado.

ICE en la Comunidad

Los agentes de ICE están deteniendo a un número cada vez mayor de personas en espacios públicos, como en la calle, en vehículos, en el trabajo o incluso en tribunales. Este video explica cuáles son sus derechos si ICE le aborda en la comunidad e incluye recomendaciones sobre qué acciones tomar durante estos encuentros. Además, destaca su derecho a grabar estas interacciones, ya sea que usted esté involucrado directamente o sea testigo de que le ocurre a otras personas. Conocer sus derechos y saber cómo documentar estas situaciones puede ser fundamental para protegerse a usted mismo y a su comunidad.

Si ICE lo Arresta

Los arrestos de ICE aumentaron un 30% en 2017, y la frecuencia de estos arrestos continúa en aumento. Por ello, ahora más que nunca, es crucial que usted y su familia cuenten con un plan claro sobre qué hacer si alguien es detenido por ICE. Este video le orientará acerca de sus derechos durante un arresto de ICE e incluirá los pasos que usted y sus seres queridos deben seguir en caso de una detención. Estar preparado puede marcar una gran diferencia para garantizar que sus derechos sean protegidos y para que sepa cómo actuar en estas situaciones.

Kreol Ayisyen

ICE nan Pòt Kay ou

Ajan ICE yo ka vin lakay ou pou chèche ou menm oswa yon moun ou pran swen anpil. Yo ka itilize plizyè taktik pou fè ou louvri pòt la. Videyo sa a ap eksplike dwa ou si ajan ICE parèt lakay ou epi li ap ofri konsèy sou sa ou ka fè pou anpeche yo antre.

ICE andedan Kay la

Menm si ajan ICE yo antre lakay ou, ou toujou gen dwa! Videyo sa a bay enfòmasyon esansyèl sou sa pou w fè si ajan ICE yo andedan lakay ou, li eksplike dwa ou pandan rankont lan epi ki etap ou ka pran pou pwoteje tèt ou ak fanmi w. Li ofri tou gid sou kijan pou prepare pou pwosesis imigrasyon potansyèl nan lavni, asire ou gen plis enfòmasyon epi pare pou pran aksyon si sa nesesè. Konprann dwa ou ka fè yon gwo diferans nan sitiyasyon sa yo, kidonk li enpòtan pou w prowaktif epi prepare.

ICE nan Kominote a

Ajan ICE yo ap arete moun pi souvan nan espas piblik—sou lari, nan machin, nan travay, oswa menm nan tribinal. Videyo sa a eksplike dwa ou si ICE apwoche ou nan kominote a, enkli aksyon ou ta dwe pran pandan rankont sa yo. Li mete aksan sou dwa w pou anrejistre entèraksyon sa yo, pa sèlman si ou enplike, men tou si ou temwen sa k ap pase ak lòt moun. Konprann dwa ou ak kijan pou dokimante sitiyasyon sa yo ka esansyèl pou pwoteje tèt ou ak kominote w.

Si ICE Arete ou

Arestasyon ICE yo te ogmante pa 30% nan lane 2017, epi frekans arestasyon sa yo kontinye ogmante. Kounye a, plis pase tout tan, li esansyèl pou ou menm ak fanmi ou gen yon plan klè sou sa pou w fè si yon moun ta arete pa ICE. Videyo sa a ap gide ou sou dwa ou pandan yon arestasyon ICE, enkli etap ou menm ak moun ou renmen yo ta dwe pran si yon moun ta pran nan prizon. Prepare ka fè yon gwo diferans pou asire dwa ou pwoteje epi ke ou konnen kijan pou w reponn nan sitiyasyon sa yo.

We Don’t Put Politics Before People

At a time when policies are freezing green card applications, stalling asylum decisions, and throwing long-settled families into uncertainty, IRIS is staying focused on what matters: safety, stability, and real community for newcomers.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 17, 2026 

Media inquiries: 

IRIS: Maggie Mitchell Salem, msalem@irisct.org  

Integrated Refugee & Immigration Services (IRIS) Collaborates with League of Women Voters of Connecticut for Constitution and Citizenship Day 

Partnership raises awareness of the importance of voter registration, provides translated materials 

NEW HAVEN, CT — In honor of this year’s Constitution and Citizenship Day, Integrated Refugee & Immigration Services (IRIS) and the League of Women Voters of Connecticut (LWVCT) are reminding newcomers and the community at large of their partnership to ensure that new citizens are able to access and participate in America’s elections. Each organization carries its own mission and history, but each has a simple conviction: a democracy that values the constitution and citizenship must be one where everyone can participate fully and with dignity. 

“Taken together, these two organizations’ missions form a response to the particular challenges of this moment: deep polarization, the spread of disinformation, and barriers to civic participation,” said Maggie Mitchell Salem, Executive Director of IRIS. “For many families IRIS serves — newcomers shaped by past experiences in countries where political engagement carries life-threatening risk — voting and civic life can feel distant or even dangerous. That is where collaboration matters.” 

The League of Women Voters of Connecticut focuses on the engine democracy runs on: informed, active participation in elections. The League is nonpartisan but not neutral about democracy itself. It believes every eligible voter should be able to understand the issues, access the ballot, and have their vote counted — no exceptions. 

IRIS has been translating LWVCT voter education materials into the languages spoken by refugee and immigrant communities. “When a newly naturalized citizen receives clear, trustworthy, nonpartisan information about how to register and where to vote in their first language, a door opens,” Mitchell continued. “The message arrives alongside the words: you belong here; this democracy is yours too.” 

“How great is it in America to be able to vote in free and fair elections?” said Patricia Rossi and Laura Smits, Co-Presidents of LWVCT. “Live in another country for a while and see how rare and precious that is!” 

Voter registration materials offered by the LWVCT have been translated into multiple languages including Spanish, Swahili, Portuguese, Chinese, Pashto, Dari and Arabic. Residents can access the translated materials at: 

English / Spanish

Swahili

Portuguese

Chinese

Pashto​

Dari​

Arabic ​

About IRIS: Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services  

IRIS welcomes refugees and other immigrants, helps them rebuild their lives, pursue their dreams, and contribute to the vitality of their communities. Founded in 1982, IRIS advances economic mobility, legal stability, language equity, and civic engagement through its New Americans platform. Learn more at irisct.org.  

About the League of Women Voters of Connecticut 

The League is a political grassroots network and membership organization that believes the freedom to vote is a nonpartisan issue. For more than a century, we’ve worked to empower voters and defend democracy. As a women-led organization, we encourage everyone to take part in our democracy. 

 

 

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PUBLISHED BY THE DAY Oct 29, 2025

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

 
tong-speaking-on-immigration

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