Dear Gov. Healey,
The United States Federal government is openly committing acts of murder, abduction, and brutality against citizens and undocumented immigrants. The agencies involved are doing so under the fiction that people from other countries are an immediate violent threat to the safety and prosperity of citizens.
Published data clearly refutes this conclusion. Undocumented immigrants do not commit crimes at a higher rate than citizens, nor do higher rates of immigration correlate with loss of jobs for citizens. If the aim is to prevent undocumented people from working within the U.S., it would be feasible to mandate that large employers use the E-Verify system to confirm proof of work authorization.
Republicans have replaced the fantasy of a border invasion with the reality of an ongoing invasion of masked, unaccountable thugs operating under the orders of a tyrant. More than 200 citizens have been arrested and held for hours or days before being allowed to contact legal representation. Thousands of immigrants have been arrested and put in prison camps without being charged with a crime. The purpose of these actions is to instill terror not just in immigrant communities, but in anyone who objects to the corruption, greed, and senselessness of the administration.
And now, ICE has killed two citizens in Minneapolis within a week of each other. When masked agents are performing cold-blooded executions in broad daylight, we have no obligation to treat their power as legitimate.
Gov. Healey, it is time to show that Massachusetts will not cooperate with agencies that act as the personal Gestapo of a corrupt administration. Denying ICE agents cooperation with State Police and forbidding them from courthouses is the first step to putting a check on their brutality. Our neighbors deserve a world where all are equal under the law.
Alex DePalma,
Lynnfield Citizen
