WETHERSFIELD - A slew of advocates for undocumented immigrants will be visiting the Wethersfield Pitkin Center on April 27 for a forum being hosted by a local activist group, in partnership with organizations from around the state.

       The event runs from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

       Debra Cohen, a town resident and organizer with Wethersfield Women for Progress, which is holding the event in collaboration with the ACLU People Power of New Britain and Our Revolution CT Team, described the forum as a rallying cry for those looking to support undocumented immigrants navigating deportation proceedings, as well as understand the issue in its full scope, particularly some of various reasons individuals choose to enter the country illegally or overstay a VISA.

       â€�"You hear a lot of people on the other side of this issue say ‘why didn’t they just come here legally?” Cohen said over the phone. â€�"It’s not a simple explanation. I want to share factual information on why people do what they do.”

       Reasons, as widely publicized in national media over recent years, include fleeing dangerous circumstances, particularly in the cases of those coming from drug violence ridden nations like Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, Cohen said.

       Correction: The April 19th print edition of The Rare Reminder incorrectly reported the location of the event as the Keeney Cultural Center. The story has been updated to reflect the Pitkin Center as the correct venue. We apologize for the error.

      

      

       Attendees will hear about the experiences of undocumented immigrants firsthand, through Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program recipients serving as guest speakers. It’s a conversation she says she hopes will, at the very least, open people’s minds.

       â€�"It makes a big difference when you shake somebody’s hand, look them in the eye, and have a conversation,” she said. â€�"You see that there’s a human being behind the issue.”

       Attendees will also hear from Attorneys Erin O'Neal-Baker, Glenn Formica and Dana Bucin on the legal aspects of the issue, according to the event’s Facebook page.

       â€�"We’re trying to strengthen the ally community because so much work needs to be done,” Cohen said.

       Among the many hallmarks of the Trump Administration has been a more aggressive immigration policy that has cast a wider net for ICE, which has arrested non-criminal undocumented immigrants at an increase. While deportations themselves are reportedly down, relative to the previous Obama administration, that’s been attributed to a drop in the number of individuals entering the country illegally.

       For those amendable to Trump’s policies, it’s been welcomed as a sign of effective enforcement, but detractors say that the approach has shifted ICE’s resources away from gang members and other more violent offenders at a human cost: mostly to citizen family members that have been separated by a loved one’s removal.

       For Cohen, who works with the Middlesex Immigrant Rights Alliance (MIRA) it was the case of Domingo Ferreira, a former East Hartford resident who was eventually deported, that prompted her to gravitate toward the issue.

       â€�"I’ve seen firsthand what deportation looks like,” she said. â€�"I’ve seen firsthand how it tears families apart, and in many ways, destroys them.”