Kica Matos mixed no words Monday in a lecture at the Yale School of Public Health.
“The world has changed radically from what it was a year ago,” the veteran New Haven activist told a gathering at the Laboratory of Epidemiology and Public Health. “These are really dark times.”
Matos contrasted the policies of former President Barack Obama with those now being pursued by President Donald Trump. The current administration is seeking to rollback protections against climate change, has made several attempts to dismantle Obama’s signature Affordable Care Act, is on a dangerous nuclear course with North Korea and has directly targeted Muslim and undocumented immigrants seeking new lives in the United States.
“Our values are being challenged on a daily basis,” said Matos, director of Immigrant Rights and Racial Justice at the Center for Community Change, an organization that seeks to empower the people most affected by injustice.
She urged the dozens of students before her to get involved in the New Haven community and to help those most in need, including families facing deportation.
“They are now living lives filled with fear,” she said. “Your voice matters. There are many ways that you can step up.”
Your voice matters. There are many ways that you can step up.
Kica Matos
On a more optimistic note, Matos outlined the local resistance to Trump’s policies and said that the movement is growing locally and nationally. She and others in the Elm City have developed a team that can rapidly respond to immigration raids by federal agents. Additionally, they are working with the city’s school system to help protect undocumented students, have organized short- and long-term sanctuary in local churches for people facing deportation and established free legal assistance for those in need.
Matos, who previously served as deputy mayor of New Haven and executive director of JUNTA, New Haven’s oldest Latino advocacy organization, said there are some 120,000 undocumented immigrants currently living in Connecticut, 14,000 of whom live in New Haven. Despite the city’s efforts to welcome and protect these immigrants (New Haven is a sanctuary city), there is unease over what will happen next.
“No one is safe,” Matos said. “We think it only a matter of time before they [federal immigration agents] come to New Haven.”
Shelley Geballe, assistant clinical professor of public health, welcomed Matos to her Health Policy and Management class, which is sponsoring a series of lectures this semester.