close
close

Association-anemone

Bite-sized brilliance in every update

    • Immigrants and advocates in Massachusetts are preparing for the next Trump presidency
    asane

    Immigrants and advocates in Massachusetts are preparing for the next Trump presidency

    Online Niel Posted on

    On a typical night, attendees at the New Bedford Center for Community Workers’ weekly meeting want to talk about workplace issues. But on Wednesday after Donald Trump won his bid to reclaim the presidency, the nonprofit’s director, Adrian Ventura, found himself instead advising the group on their rights as immigrants.

    “What should you do if there’s a knock on your door?” he asked in Spanish to the group, made up mostly of Mayan immigrants from Guatemala. “Don’t open it. And if you are detained by the police, you have the right to remain silent – ​​and to tell them you have a lawyer.”

    For decades, New Bedford’s Mayan immigrants have been a key source of labor in the textile mills, construction sites and seafood processing plants that support the nation’s most profitable fishing port.

    And they know immigration enforcement well. In 2007, federal agents raided a garment factory and arrested 361 workers.

    The city hasn’t seen a raid of this magnitude since, but Ventura said Trump’s election is reawakening old fears.

    Just hours after the election, Ventura said, a local worker told her she had been harassed by a colleague who said the new presidency meant her days in the U.S. were numbered.

    Throughout his campaign, Trump sought to link immigrants to crime and pledged to work with local police to round up those in the country illegally.

    Immigrant advocacy groups such as the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy coalition are also concerned about Trump programs that allow people to be in the country legally, even if only temporarily.

    MIRA Chief of Staff Sarang Sekhavat said he is concerned about the loss of programs and policies that protect people from deportation, such as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or Temporary Protected Status, which have been in place for years.

    “What’s going to happen to all these families when you have an administration that said, ‘we’re ending these programs and we’re kicking them out of the country,'” he asked.

    States have little or no control over immigration policy, but they can decide whether to cooperate with federal law enforcement.

    Several cities, including Boston and Somerville, have sanctuary city ordinances that prevent police from asking about immigration status and detaining immigrants.
    based on non-criminal charges. Massachusetts does not have a statewide sanctuary law, but now advocates are renewing their calls for the legislature to pass one.

    On Wednesday, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell said she was prepared to reject Trump’s policies, including on immigration. She cited Trump’s 2017 ban on people from seven Muslim-majority countries entering the US.

    “Obviously, when he was president before he ran and he started with a ban on certain populations and certain constituencies,” she said. “We are well aware of that, and (the attorneys general) came together then to work in partnership to combat this administration. That won’t change this season.”

    Other immigrant advocacy groups in Massachusetts, such as the nonprofit La Colaborativa, are also preparing to push back against potential Trump administration policies. Chief Operating Officer Alex Train said the organization has already begun expanding its immigration and legal aid programs.

    “As we head into January, providing free legal aid to community members at risk of deportation or caught up in the immigration process will be invaluable,” Train said.

    The group is also “strengthening its local safety net, including housing resources, food access programs, as well as health equity initiatives to ensure that all community members, regardless of immigration status, will have access to those critical life-saving resources,” in the months and years ahead, he said.

    Either way, activists in New Bedford are trying to show resilience.

    At Wednesday night’s meeting, 22-year-old Yaquelyn Ruiz said this time calls for people to organize and support each other.

    Speaking in Spanish, Ruiz said, “panic and sadness are not the solution.” She said the broader community has been more accepting of Latinos since the 2007 raid, and she doesn’t think Trump can take away everything they’ve accomplished in New Bedford.

    Online Niel
    View all posts

    You Might Also Like