Even as Gov. Maura Healey took aim at ICE during her State of the Commonwealth speech last week, the bottom line is that Massachusetts officials have more power to deplore federal immigration actions than to stop them.
Immigration
Posted inOpinion
What ICE is doing is abhorrent. But here’s why canceling the state contract to house its detainees might not be the right thing to do.
As with all policies, it is important not to make decisions from afar. We must listen to people who are actually impacted.
Posted inOpinion
Why are we looking to deport ambition?Â
These students are tomorrow’s nurses, engineers, teachers, artists, and entrepreneurs. Driving them from classrooms is a moral failure, but also an economic one: It makes the next generation smaller, less educated, and less able to compete in a global economy that depends on talent and drive. We are shooting ourselves in the foot.Â
Posted inEducation
Mass. faces grim reality of fewer international students
Massachusetts’s schools have recruited higher proportions of international students than colleges and universities almost anywhere else because of a demographic decline and the comparatively high cost of higher education here. But even before the second Trump administration, there were signs the bottom was falling out.
Posted inOpinion
Funding was the start – now we need to build out systems to help our immigrant workforce learn English Â
IN POLITICS, timing can be everything. When the Boston Foundation’s Latino Equity Fund released “The ROI of ESOL,” documenting the economic returns of English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) […]
Posted inPolitics
Mass. begins 2030 Census prep amid national redistricting fights
With mid-decade redistricting fights erupting elsewhere, Massachusetts officials are ramping up their preparations for the 2030 Census as they grapple with new housing development and concerns about community trust.
Posted inOpinion
A nation of immigrants imperiledÂ
In both of his terms in office, Donald Trump has taken aim at each of the principal ways that people from other countries can become naturalized United States citizens.
Posted inState House News Service
Feds blame ‘sanctuary policies’ in Milford teenager’s immigration arrest
A Milford High School junior was not the target of a federal immigration enforcement investigation and his arrest was the byproduct of “sanctuary policies,” federal officials said.
Posted inImmigration
As ICE touts island arrests, Healey highlights ‘fear’ and ‘anxiety’
Gov. Maura Healey at an unrelated press conference Wednesday raised questions about due process and a lack of information about those arrested.
Posted inCourts
Lawyers challenge customs officials’ constitutional authority to deport Brown Medicine kidney doctor
An amended complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts Monday contends that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers who refused entry to Alawieh at Boston Logan International Airport lacked the constitutional authority to deport her back to Lebanon.
Posted inEducation
Tutwiler: Immigration chill leading to “extended absences”
According to the state’s top education official, some Mass. schools have reported “extended absences” for students as a result of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement.
Posted inOpinion
With arrest of Rumeysa Ozturk, Trump is pulling out all the stops to divide us. It won’t work.Â
They know that the more that Americans are preoccupied by false enemies and straw men, the more vulnerable we will be to their campaign to dismantle our democracy, strip us of our rights and our privacy, and funnel wealth from everyday Americans to the billionaire class. Â
Posted inOpinion
Immigrants can make us rich, if we let them
In almost every geographic context, immigrants with both high and low levels of education are more likely than non-immigrants to open businesses. Unfortunately, we are not taking full advantage of this economic potential.
Posted inPolitics
Mayor Wu could see a challenger from Boston’s business sector
If O’Brien enters the race, he would join a field that currently includes Josh Kraft, son of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
Posted inPolitics
‘Are you out of your mind?’: Five moments from Mayor Michelle Wu’s immigration testimony
Mayor Michelle Wu offered a forceful defense of the city’s decade-old Trust Act, a policy that limits Boston police cooperation with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, during a testy House Oversight hearing in Washington, DC, on Wednesday.
Posted inPolitics
Wu fends off GOP critiques of Boston immigration policies
Mayor Michelle Wu defended Boston’s immigration policies on Wednesday, testifying with three other blue state mayors before a GOP-controlled House Oversight Committee.
Posted inOpinion
Why we sued to protect Temporary Protected Status immigrants
This fight isn’t just about TPS—it’s about the rule of law, the economic fallout, and fairness. Â
Posted inOpinion
We must push back on attack on sanctuary cities
Sanctuary policies do not prevent federal immigration enforcement; they simply keep local law enforcement focused on public safety rather than acting as ICE agents.
Posted inState Government
House Dems restrict shelter eligibility in $425 million bill
Th bill adopts the administration’s recommendation around so-called presumptive eligibility by allowing the state to verify eligibility for shelter benefits during the application process.
Posted inOpinion
Trump’s reckless attack on birthright citizenship
We fought many battles like this during the first Trump administration, and we expect to fight many more still.