Demand Governor Healey Protect Our Immigrant Communities, NOW!
Written by Green-Rainbow Party
June 07, 2025
The Green-Rainbow Party is a proud signatory of the LUCE Immigrant Justice Network of Massachusetts's letter to Governor Healey.
The letter reads as follows:
Dear Governor Maura Healey, Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll, and Attorney General Andrea Campbell,
Since the start of the new presidency, ICE activity has surged across the United States, with close to 50,000 people in ICE detention centers.1 Here in Massachusetts, a state that has long prided itself on being a beacon of liberty and justice, the threat is especially grave.
We are witnessing a chilling rise in ICE raids in Acton, Brockton, Chelsea, East Boston, Everett, Framingham, Lawrence, Lowell, New Bedford, Quincy, Waltham, and Worcester. These communities are being terrorized and traumatized without a headline or a single statement by our Governor or state leadership. Now, more than ever, we need Governor Healey to take action to defend immigrants across the Commonwealth from the escalating state sanctioned violence.
Over the past four months, friends and parents have been violently taken from their homes, jobs, school drop-offs, and bus stops. We are witnessing ICE agents taking axes to windows, dragging loved ones from cars, beating and pepper spraying them, then disappearing them into a hidden network of detention centers. These are abductions. State sanctioned kidnappings. Violations of due process, family integrity, and basic human rights.2,3,4
This isn’t just lawlessness, it is a direct attack on the values that define the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
From the displacement and attempted genocides of indigenous peoples, the enslavement of Black people, and the codification of Jim Crow-era laws to the detention of over 200,000 Japanese Americans during World War II and the surveillance of millions of Muslim, Sikh, Arab, and South Asian communities after 9/11. These tactics are not new and are being repeated across the state. They echo methods used and refined over the 250 years of our nation’s history.5
Governor Healey: We urge you to use the full power of the state constitution. You campaigned on justice, fairness and protecting all residents of this state. The people of Massachusetts are looking to you to lead with courage. You have the legal authority, and the moral responsibility, to protect your constituents: immigrants, refugees, and ALL of us across the Commonwealth.
LUCE Immigration Justice Network of Massachusetts is calling on Governor Healey to end Massachusetts’ participation in the prison-to-deportation pipeline by:
- Declare ICE a rogue federal agency operating outside the law
- Restore COVID-19 era remote participation in our courthouses
- Support state legislation, to terminate every state contract funneling money and resources into the deportation machine, and ban new contracts (including the Dignity Not Deportations Bill - H.1588 & S.1122). This includes terminating the existing 287g contracts with the Department of Corrections, and doing everything in your power to end the Intergovernmental Service Agreement with Plymouth County Correctional Facility
- Create a reparations fund for families and communities shattered by these kidnappings
States have the authority and the obligation to opt out of voluntary ICE cooperation, stop sharing data with federal agencies, bar ICE from state courthouses, and hold federal actors accountable for violations of civil rights and due process.6
We know that with your support, these responsible and lawful steps grounded in our constitutional values will help counter the attacks on our community.
Sincerely,
LUCE Immigrant Justice Network
AF3IRM Boston
AFT Massachusetts
Allston Brighton Progressives
Arise for Social Justice
Ashley Spring for Worcester School Committee
Asian American Resource Workshop
Asian Pacific Islanders Civic Action Network of MA
Beyond Borders of First Parish Cambridge
Boston College Law School National Lawyers Guild
Boston Immigration Justice Accompaniment Network
Boston Indivisible
Boston Indivisible Group
Boston Ujima Project, Inc.
Boston Women's Fund
Boston Workers Circle
Brazilian Women's Group
Brazilian Worker Center
Brockton Workers Alliance
Brookline Indivisible
Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association of Greater Lowell, Inc.
Cambridge Residents Alliance
Cape Cod Coalition for Safe Communities
Cape Cod Women for Change
Center for Economic Democracy
Center To Support Immigrant Organizing - Equity Now & Beyond
Centro Presente
Charlesview, Inc.
Citizens for Public Schools
City Life/Vida Urbana
CLAM Mass
Climate Action Now Western Mass
Coalition for Social Justice Action Fund
Coalition for Social Justice Ed Fund
Comminity for Better Planning
Committee to Protect Our Democracy
Community Action Agency of Somerville, Inc.
Concord coalition for Palestine
CultureHouse
Dartmouth Democratic Town Committee
Dignidad
Dominican Development Center
Dorchester People for Peace
ECCO
Episcopal City Mission
Faculty Staff Union Executive Committee (UMass Boston)
Falmouth Immigrant Rights Coalition
Families for Justice as Healing
Fenway Community Development Corporation
First Church Boston UU Social Justice Community
First Church Unitarian, Littleton
First Parish in Concord MA
First Religious Society Unitarian Universalist, Newburyport
Follen Community Church
Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution
Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution
Friends Meeting Worcester
Grannies Respond
Greater Boston Labor Council for Latin American Advancement
Greater Lawrence Family Health Center
Green-Rainbow Party
GreenRoots, Inc
Harvard Graduate Students Union
Homes for All Massachusetts
IfNotNow Boston
Immigrant Justice Task Force of First Parish in Concord
Indivisible Acton Area
Indivisible First Middlesex
Indivisible LAB
Indivisible Mass Coalition
Indivisible Northampton/Swing Left Western Mass (IN-SLWM)
Indivisible Outer Cape
Indivisible Somerville
Indivisible Upper Cape
Indivisible Waltham
Indivisible West Quabbin
Indivisible Worcester MA
Jamaica Plain for Palestine
Jane Doe Inc.
Jewish Activists for Immigration Justice of Western Massachusetts
Jewish Democratic Council of America
Jewish Voice For Peace
Jewish Voice for Peace Boston
Kavod Boston
Krupp Family Foundation
La Comunidad, Inc
Latinos En Provincetown
Leah Zallman Center at Institute for Community Health
Longmeadow Anti-Racism Coalition
Lynn United for Change
Lynn Worker Center
MA Catholics for Indigenous Rights
MAMAS (Mutual Aid Medford and Somerville)
Marion Democratic Town Committee
Mass 50501
Mass NOW
Massachusetts Advocates for Children
Massachusetts Communities Action Network
Massachusetts Peace Action
MassCOSH
Matahari Women Workers’ Center
Melrose Alliance Against Violence
Merrimack Valley Project
Mid Cape Indivisible
Mothers Out Front
Multistate Association for Bilingual Education, Northeast (MABE)
Neighborhood Birth Center
Neighbors United for a Better East Boston
New England Independence Campaign
North Shore Indivisible
North Shore Sides With Love
Northampton Friends Meeting
Our Revolution Cambridge
Our Revolution Massachusetts
OUTnewcomers
Pioneer Valley Workers Center
Progressive Massachusetts
Progressive MetroWest
Progressive West Roxbury/Roslindale
Project Literacy
Reclaim Roxbury
Refugee & Immigrant Assistance Center
Revere Youth in Action
Rise Up Western Mass Indivisible
Same Boat Consulting
SEIU Local 509
Sierra Club Massachusetts
Sisters Unchained
Social Workers for Peace and Justice - MA
Solidarity Lowell
Somerville Educators Union
South Asian Workers’ Center- Boston
South Coast Action Network
Spanish American Center, Inc.
Springfield No One Leaves
Stories Inspiring Movements
Sunderland Democratic Committee
Swampscott Racial Justice Action Group
Swing Left JP
The Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine
The Black Response
The PDA Safe Circle
The Right to Immigration Institute
The Welcome Project
Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence
Unitarian Universalist Mass Action
Worcester RISE for Health
Yankee National Party (YNP)
Sources:
2. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/04/17/metro/juan-francisco-mendez-new-bedford-arrest-ice/
3. https://www.instagram.com/p/DJSWOrJP9ee/?img_index=1
5. https://theintercept.com/2025/01/28/trump-deport-immigrants-alien-enemies-act-japanese/