For the Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS), a New Haven-based nonprofit refugee and immigrant aid service, the last year has been difficult.
Because the government has halted refugee programs, with a few exceptions, IRIS has no new refugees – people who have been forced to flee their homes due to war, violence or persecution – to help settle. Now the organization is focusing on those who are already here, with education, language, youth services, health services and employment aid.
IRIS is doing this with a slashed budget after its federal funding was eliminated last year, which forced the agency to cut half its workforce and close its office in New Haven and find a smaller space in which to operate.
The 19th annual IRIS Run for the Refugees 5K road race – which will take place Sunday at 10 a.m. at Wilbur Cross High School in New Haven and has over 2,000 runners and walkers registered – is the organization’s biggest fundraiser. Last year’s race had 3,300 runners and walkers registered and over 2,000 people donated to the event.
Even though snowy weather kept some at home, over 1,800 runners and walkers participated in the annual race. This year it is expected to be very cold, with temperatures in the single digits and wind chills possibly below zero on race day.
“What people don’t realize is that we spend years supporting clients,” said Maggie Mitchell Salem, IRIS’ executive director. “People are coming from places where they need more support and understanding to get a new job, a better job, how to apply for an education program, how to help their kids if they’re facing problems in school. They have a health problem and they’re trying to figure out how to address it.
“It takes time to go from the middle of Afghanistan, a Congolese refugee camp, a refugee camp in Jordan or Greece or somewhere else to come here and start rebuilding your life.”
A sense of belonging
More than the financial boost the race gives to the organization, for some refugees and immigrants, it is a sense of belonging and hope, especially with stepped-up deployments of ICE agents in places like Minneapolis and Maine. Last November, the Trump administration ordered officials to reexamine all green cards previously issued to people from 19 countries, including Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. Immigrants without green cards are also being targeted.
“If you don’t have a green card and they’re using the excuse they don’t have a green card, here’s another thing, so you can only apply for a green card at Day 365 since you’ve been here. The prices have gone up to $1,500 per person. And the processing for almost everyone we’ve served has stopped,” Mitchell Salem said. “They’re either on the list of 75 countries that the U.S. is not longer processing immigrant visas or they’re on the previous lists of travel ban and restricted countries, some of which may overlap with the 75.
“If you’re going to pick them up because they don’t have a green card – which is no way legally required – they can be here for years without applying for a green card. They’ve focusing now on refugees without green cards. But it’s not an infraction of any kind not to have one.”
One asylum seeker who did not wish to be named, even though the person is here in Connecticut legally, has run the race numerous times.
“Everything that is happening is bringing the worst and best of people,” the person said. “I really want to feel that energy because the run brings the best of people.”
The asylum seeker has a hard time watching the news sometimes, even though they want to stay informed, but they are gratified to see people standing up for immigrants and others who have been targeted by ICE.
“Sometimes I have to take a pause – not watch, not read, I don’t want to know – but then I come back,” the person said. “It’s happening and you need to know what’s happening, especially if you’re in danger of being targeted.
“I always think that these people who are coming outside to raise their voices and who are trying to protect immigrants who are going through this, they just do it because they want to help and they believe this is wrong and that’s the beauty of it.”
Working on despite cuts
And Mitchell Salem and her staff keep working, despite the cuts and the continuous loss of funding, because they have to support the people who are already here. IRIS has helped resettle over 4,000 people since 2021.
“We’ve always said to our board and staff, if you’re feeling low on any day – just go see the family diversity program with the Afghan and Syrian and Congolese moms pushing strollers, we have child care and they get to spend time together and learn English but beyond that, they’re feeling a sense of belonging and community,” she said.
“Sometimes hope isn’t huge hope. It’s small hope that builds and grows like a fire. Some days, that seems like a very small light in a lot of darkness.”
Last year, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong ran his first 5K at the IRIS race.
“As a son of immigrants and as a birthright citizen, it’s really important for me to show people I’m in this fight with them,” Tong said last year.
He will be back, as will Senator Richard Blumenthal, who did not run last year but helped kick off the festivities.
“We don’t do country club dinners, we make people suffer in 20-degree weather – and last year it was incredible,” Mitchell Salem said. “The sense of community – I really hope that comes through this year.
“Some folks have said to us, maybe make it an anti-ICE protest or some form or protest – people are free to say what they want to say or wear what they want to wear. But we want this to be about showing up for people in need. You can frame that any way you want.
“We want it to be a positive experience for everyone and for everyone to take away that sense of community. Our immigrant neighbors – you’re not alone. Anyone who may feel isolated and fearful right now, we see you.”