During Coast Guard graduation activists call for welcoming migrants
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May 17—NEW LONDON — The U.S. Coast Guard Academy graduation ceremony in New London is a regular draw for activists looking to make a statement, especially during presidential visits every four years.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, the keynote speaker at Wednesday's ceremony, did not attract the kind of crowds President Joe Biden's visit did in 2021 or even Vice President Kamala Harris in 2022.
Five activists arrived at McKinley Park outside the entrance to the Coast Guard Academy on Wednesday morning with a message focused on immigration. They had the park to themselves, exchanging smiles and polite greetings with the families walking into the Coast Guard ceremony.
The group was a mix of members of New London-based St. Francis House, New London Green Party and the War Resisters League. The group held signs reading "Welcome asylum seekers," "Justice at the border for those fleeing injustice," and "Stop deporting Russian war resisters."
Joanne Sheehan, the New England coordinator for the War Resisters League, says Biden's administration has quietly started deporting Russians in the U.S. who have refused to be conscripted into the war against Ukraine, and in some cases, fled to this country for safety.
"It's really hard to believe that with billions of dollars going to fight Russians that we're not supporting Russians who don't want to fight," Sheehan said.
Sheehan had flyers to pass out with a link to an online petition sponsored by the Center on Conscience and War calling for Biden to not only halt deportations to Russia, Belarus and Ukraine but to review immigration policies to ensure immigration officials in the U.S. can properly recognize credible claims for people seeking asylum.
"As the war raged on, and death and destruction mounts, the United States has a legal and moral obligation to provide refuge to anyone with sincere political, religious or moral objections to their participation in the atrocities taking place in Ukraine," the petition reads.
Immigration policies in general also need to be looked at, said the activists at Wednesday's protest.
"The problem is we are funding these dictatorial governments in Central and South America. If we work for justice at home, and U.S. policy was aimed at providing opportunities for everybody in their own countries, you would not see people wanting to leave home to come here," said Anne Scheibner, the co-founder of St. Francis House.
Sheehan addressed politically right-leaning folks and said there seems to be a need to create a panic or "a bogeyman thing" focused on immigrants when she believes these immigrants are among the hardest-working people in the country.
