On the first day of May and on International Workers Day, people gathered in Hartford to not only lift up one another, but also to let their voices and concerns be heard around the topic of immigration.
As they marched from Bushnell Park to the Capitol, they shared with us their hope to not only push Congress to provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, but their desire to be seen as more than a monolith.
"We are the fabric of this nation. We’re the fabric of this community. Our immigrant folks have been leading in the pandemic. They’ve been farming, they’ve been keeping their families together and sending the kids to school. They are a part of this community and they deserve to be seen and they deserve to have access to healthcare and education," said Barbara Lopez, of Make the Road Connecticut.
"I feel like we all should be treated the same. There is no difference between people even if we speak Spanish or English. We all should be treated with the same respect and same type of healthcare," added Tracey Garcia, of Bridgeport.
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Workers said their goal is to remind the federal and state government that immigrant labor, while essential, is only one of the many ways immigrant communities contribute to this nation.
