LYNN — A crowd of residents, students, and local leaders filled the Lynn Commons, where drums echoed, bubbles drifted through the air, and young people waved signs at passing cars in a show of solidarity.
Organized by a neighbor-to-neighbor network and youth groups, the rally brought together people from across backgrounds — city officials, educators, and families — united around immigrant and worker rights. Marchers circled the Commons chanting and laughing, building a sense of collective energy that organizers said will continue with another demonstration planned for May 1.
Speakers, including emcees Johnson Mao and Celly De La Cruz, framed the gathering as both a protest and community defense.
“We are here to stand… (as) proud members of the community that refuse to stay silent,” Mao told the crowd, urging local officials to go further in protecting immigrant residents.
Others led chants and shared practical steps for responding to enforcement activity — “Step one: Call Luce. Step two: check WhatsApp. Step three: whistle” — as the crowd repeated calls to keep families safe and push back against deportations.
The most powerful moments came from residents sharing personal stories of loved ones detained by immigration authorities.
One mother, Mireille, described how her son “just walked in… for their appointment, and didn’t come out,” recounting days without information before learning he had been transferred across the country.
Annie, who has been in Lynn for more than a decade, told the crowd, “Three men, three fathers, three workers, three dreams torn from Lynn,” after multiple family members were taken.
Presner, whose brother passed in the care of ICE, described his death in detention following untreated illness: “My brother… was not a criminal. He was a decent man.”
Across testimonies, speakers repeated a common demand — an end to cooperation with ICE — and a shared message: “We cannot remain silent.”
The rally Saturday was endorsed by local organizations, labor unions, and more than 100 community leaders in Lynn, including Nueva Primavera, who are calling for a “united day of action against ICE, mass deportations, and the federal assault on immigrant communities,” according to a press release The Daily Item received in advance of the event.
Per the release, the three community demands focus on having ICE out of the Lynn Police Station, where they are urging Lynn PD to “find a solution to the issue of Peaceful Transfers.” That also includes ICE out of Lynn District Courts, where they are seeking an “end all voluntary collaboration with federal immigration authorities, including an end to providing any non-public information concerning court affairs and a stop to the use of court property for ICE operations.”
The final demand is calling for a portion of the City budget to prioritize legal assistance to immigrants impacted by ICE or other agencies.
Last May, the Executive Office of the Trial Court issued a policy statement that stated that Trial Court officials can share public information upon request by ICE officers, and that they can’t “assist or impede” in ICE detaining a defendant.
According to WGBH, there were 614 arrests made last year, 86 of which happened just last December. Of that, a third took place in Region 3, which includes Lynn.
On March 16, Gov. Maura Healey issued a statement as a response to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement not providing accurate information of arrests made in the state. Earlier this month, on March 6, Healey had demanded, in a letter sent to former U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons, that ICE be fully transparent and take accountability for arrests and their practices at detention facilities. She also requested detailed information on every person arrested in Massachusetts since last January — which includes the “identity of each individual, the legal basis for each arrest, case status, detention location, court jurisdiction, and upcoming hearing dates.”
That information was due by the end of last week.
The protest Saturday is the latest in Lynn calling out against ICE. Just last week, students from Lynn Classical gathered outside of City Hall to protest ICE and held hand-drawn signs that read, “Immigrants make American GREAT,” amongst others.
“We should have at least the ability to go to school, to our work, (or) the grocery store without being afraid of being picked up by ICE,” a speaker named Marla said. “My daughter doesn’t know her own father.”
