LYNNFIELD — Most people celebrated the new year by counting down the minutes, cheering at midnight, and reflecting on the past 365 days. But some chose to end the year doing something they’re passionate about: Standing up to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement by peacefully protesting outside a detention center.
A group of Lynnfield residents weathered frigid temperatures on New Year’s Eve to support immigrants who are being held nearby at the ICE facility in Burlington. They joined the Bearing Witness @ ICE group, which has been peacefully protesting since April 2025 in Burlington at 1000 District Ave., just steps away from the Burlington Mall.
Linda Duchin, one of the Lynnfield residents who attended, said, “It was a very powerful experience to see so many citizens gathered outside of the ICE facility right there in Burlington, standing out very peacefully with signs.”
She said she was impressed by how organized the event was and added that it had live music and speakers who addressed the crowd of approximately 700 people to share stories of the detainees “in very graphic detail about what they underwent, how they were kept, how they were captured, how long they stayed, (and) the conditions inside there.”
Duchin also noted that, unlike other protests she has attended, there were donation drives for food and coats. She said that the Bearing Witness @ ICE event was less of a protest and more of a peaceful gathering.
“It’s not what you might think of a typical protest, that it’s loud and violent… It’s not like that at all,” Duchin said. “It’s a very peaceful gathering, and people that are there are really committed to maintaining peaceful vigilance (and) bearing witness in terms of what is going on inside that ICE building.”
She first found out about the Bearing Witness @ ICE protests through her rabbi at Temple B’Nai Abraham in Beverly. Duchin explained that “this peaceful protest has become really a multi-faith initiative, so there are clergy from all different denominations.”
She said she was “surprised to know… what was going on there, that immigrants were being detained, including some people that have all their legal paperwork, even some citizens, and just the conditions that they were detained under.”
Duchin added that she was additionally alarmed to find out the conditions of the ICE facility in Burlington.
“There’s no clock, so people have no idea what time it is. There’s very little food. Women are denied sanitary products. The list just goes on and on,” Duchin said.
She said that she and her husband, Jay Duchin, have been standing out there weekly for about six months now. Jay Duchin, who was part of the group of Lynnfield residents who attended the New Year’s Eve protest in Burlington, emphasized that “this shouldn’t be a partisan issue.”
“We’re there to fight for basic constitutional rights that are given to everyone within the borders of the country. It has nothing to do with citizenship. We all should get due process… At the core, we still want to have safe borders, but we want people to be treated the way the Constitution was designed,” he said.
He added, “Our biggest call to action is just to encourage people to attend and see for themselves… just building awareness and hopefully engaging more people to fight for this stuff.”
