Laura Cassenti said getting the word out on what to do during an immigration raid shouldn’t be complicated.
“When you're in an emergency situation, ICE is pounding at your door, you're not going to have a lot of recall, but if you have some simple phrases that you can memorize, you could get it through your head,” Cassenti said.
Cassenti partnered with fellow immigration rights advocates across Connecticut and other parts of New England to rent a billboard off Interstate 95 in New Haven to advertise a "Know Your Rights" campaign.
The billboard, which features text in Spanish that says “Know Your Rights,” also has three phrases in English and Spanish. The phrases read: “Stay Silent,” “Don’t Sign” and “Ask for a lawyer.”
Cassenti stood under the billboard in mid-March and said the goal was to send a clear message to drivers.
“We came up with the short thing that you could drive past, read very quickly and understand what your rights were in an easy to remember format,” she said.
Cassenti is part of MA/CT Stop Avelo, an advocacy organization that originally protested against Avelo Airlines when it chartered deportation flights. Avelo has since stopped the practice.
The "Know Your Rights" billboard replaced the previous one by Cassenti’s group, which advertised an Avelo Airlines boycott during the time it was chartering deportation flights.
The billboard was originally rented out by Seth Miller, a New Hampshire state representative, with help from the Rightful Resistance Indivisible Group.
Miller says the billboard can reach more people compared to other outreach campaigns.
“Raising public awareness requires attacking an issue from many angles, and billboards remain a key avenue for reaching a broad audience quickly and affordably,” Miller said. “And the results speak for themselves.”
Cassenti said it was important that the message be bilingual. She said the advocates even enlisted the help of a marketer who advised them not to mix the colors red and black because it would look blurry.
“We kind of didn't listen,” Cassenti said. But Cassenti said the billboard ended up displaying clearly, crediting the LED lights for keeping the blurriness to a minimum.
She said she has received positive feedback surrounding the billboard.
Charla Nich, who is affiliated with CT Shoreline Indivisible, says the billboard also accomplished something else.
“This administration is using fear to isolate people,” Nich said. “This billboard counters that by making support visible. We want our neighbors to know they’re part of a welcoming community in a state that values them.”
