NEW HAVEN, Conn. — The immigrant community in New Haven is outraged after a city employee allegedly reported more than 70 marriage license applications involving non-citizens to the feds. Patricia Clark serves as Registrar of Vital Statistics and is now on paid leave while an investigation is launched.
However, advocates are asking for the city to do more. Members of Unidad Latina En Accion stood on the steps of city hall Monday night, protesting. Mayor Justin Elicker and other leaders came out to listen and speak with the crowd.
“We’re very outraged, and we’re very upset,” said John Lugo, Director of Unidad Latina En Accion. “We feel like the city is not performing their job anymore regarding the immigrant community.”
This was as city leaders hired a third party to investigate the allegations. Clark is accused of flagging 73 out of 215 immigration-related marriage licenses in a matter of a few months. City leaders said Clark reported these couples to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, calling the requests “questionable.”
“New Haven is a very welcoming city, and we embrace everyone, regardless of where they come from, their backgrounds, whether they have documents to be here or not,” Mayor Elicker said.
If proven true, Elicker said these actions go against his executive order, which directs city workers not to share immigration information with the feds unless required by law or if it’s related to crime.
“I’m sorry that this happened and that there is a lot of anxiety that has been created,” Elicker said.
The whole thing came to light when a neighboring town told the Connecticut Department of Public Health that New Haven “Appeared to be requiring additional documentation (such as birth certificates) for people coming from out of state or out of the country seeking marriage certificates,” according to Christopher Boyle, a spokesperson for DPH.
DPH then reached out to Clark, reminding her of the rules.
Those rules say to apply for a marriage license, people need a government-issued photo I.D. If they cannot provide that, according to New Haven’s Vital Statistics website, they can use a combination of two other forms of I.D., like a Social Security Card, current utility bill showing name and address, Voter’s Registration Card, or Car Registration showing name and address.
“I would point out that immigration doesn’t even take the marriage license as anything more than a piece of paper,” said Glenn Formica, an immigration attorney for Formica P.C.
Formica is helping the advocates understand the legality of this controversy.
“I think that’s what’s going to come out of this, just a moment of reflection for the city to say, ‘Hey wait a minute, this isn’t how we treat immigrants,’” Formica said.
Elicker said he will be reaching out to all 73 couples impacted by this. He said the meeting involving the immigrant community should be on the books soon.
FOX61 reached out to Clark on social media but did not hear back.
Elicker said the investigation could take quite some time to complete.
Julia LeBlanc is a reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jleblanc@fox61.com Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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