Amid the background of fear over ongoing deportations and arrests, Connecticut-based Integrated Refugee & Immigration Services will hold multiple events this month to educate and raise awareness help residents and newcomers better understand the services and support available in the state.
The goal is to help people transition into “self-sufficiency and to make Connecticut their home.”
IRIS said its mission is to “help refugees and other displaced people establish new lives, strengthen hope, dare to dream, and contribute to the vitality of communities in Connecticut and across the country.”
The non-profit also supports Americans who “sponsor refugees for resettlement.”
“Our mission remains unchanged — to welcome, support, and empower refugees and immigrants — the individuals and families we serve are gripped by uncertainty and fear,” IRIS stated.
“Far too many immigrants across the country and right here in Connecticut have already been detained or deported. Thousands more remain stranded, unable to reach safety in the U.S. despite having been approved for resettlement. The travel bans and restrictions impacting nationals of 19 countries means millions more have no chance of rebuilding their lives or being reunited with family.”
In 2024, IRIS served more than 2,000 people, and about 800 refugee families were scheduled to be settled in the state this year until Trump shut the door on future arrivals. With the suspension of the refugee program, IRIS has lost about $4 million in funding and has also had to lay off employees.
The first of three IRIS-involved events start with a virtual session from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the McMahon Wintonbury Library at 1015 Bloomfield Avenue in Bloomfield.
The goal of the session is to offer information to help refugees and immigrants rebuild their lives.
“They will discuss their experience working with refugees who have relocated due to war and the types of services IRIS provides, connecting newcomers with resources and support critical to their transition to self-sufficiency and to making local communities across the U.S. their home,” according to IRIS.
There will be an event on Sept. 12 on the New Haven Green during the 10th Annual Apizza Feast on Sept. 12 from 7 to 10 p.m.
Members of the IRIS team will be at the event.
On Sunday, Sept. 21, IRIS will be at the ‘I Wage Peace Interfaith Service Festival’ from noon to 4 p.m. at the St. John Vianney Church of the St. John XXIII Parish in West Haven
The event, which is described as “a transformative interfaith service experience” is free of charge and open to all ages and communities. The panel discussion will include IRIS team members.
Volunteers from Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Baha’i, Buddhist and other faiths will work together on community service projects.
Massachusetts Congressman Bill Keating and Connecticut U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal met at a McDonald’s a few miles from Plymouth County Correctional Facility to give a press briefing after they toured the facility and met with a Connecticut man who is being held there by ICE. (Livi Stanford/Hartford Courant)
ICE has specifically called out what it named “sanctuary legislation like Connecticut’s Trust Act,” saying it “only endangers the communities it claims to protect.”
In President Donald Trump’s second term, ICE arrests and deportations are up sharply.
According to The Connecticut Mirror reporting, ICE made 405 arrests in Connecticut from January 2025-July 2025, more than doubling the 173 arrests made during the same months of 2024. There was also an increase of 145 deportations compared to January-July 2024, or 237.7%.
Most deportations were to Ecuador, although Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras and the Dominican Republic had deportations since Jan. 20.
There has been a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement presence in the state including three at state car washes. One of the more high-profile raids was at a Newington car wash on Aug. 23 in which seven workers were detained by ICE.
In June, there were four detained at a car wash on Queen Street in Southington. On Aug. 4, four were detained at a New Britain car wash.
Further, at restaurants, landscaping businesses, farms and stores across Connecticut, undocumented workers are increasingly not showing up, afraid of being seized by federal agents looking to rid the state of immigrants. At the same time, some workers legally in the U.S. have lost protected status and with it their jobs.
CT organization that has helped thousands of refugees closing its doors. It comes after Trump orders
State officials and immigration advocates have also warned that President Trump’s continued plan to deliver the “single largest mass deportation program in history” will severely impact Connecticut’s economy, resulting in the loss of thousands of jobs because immigrants are as a critical contributor.
Matthew Drake of Hartford yells, “No ICE in Hartford” during a “No Kings” protest against Trump’s executive actions at the State Capitol in Hartford, Conn., Saturday, June 14, 2025. (Jessica Hill/Special to the Courant)
Daniel O’Keefe, the state’s commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development, has said immigrants are “a big part of our entire entrepreneurial ecosystem and a big part of our innovation ecosystem.”
Art Feltman, executive director of International Hartford, a nonprofit focused on the creation of jobs in Hartford for immigrants and refugees, has said that if immigrants leave the state, the regional economy will “shrink.”
Reporting by Livi Stanford and Lori Riley is included.
