Thousands will March in Boston to Support Immigrants and Oppose Family Separation Immigrant, Labor, Civil Rights Groups Coalesce Around National Call to Action Rally Aims to Draw Connections Between Struggles.
Boston, MA – A growing coalition of civil rights groups, immigrant advocates, and labor unions will help rallythousands of people in Boston, MA as part of a national wave of protests incited by current U.S. immigration policies.
Organizers say they will also draw parallels from these recent events to the ways local families are criminalized and detained, while similarly voicing opposition to the racist Muslim Ban upheld recently by the Supreme Court.
The groups organizing the march will be calling on lawmakers at the federal level to end family separation and detention. They are also calling on state lawmakers to take action on key measures such as ensuring due process for detained immigrants and ensuring local law enforcement officers do not serve as ICE agents or ask about the immigration status of people they encounter.
New details of the emerging protest are being released today as the number of potential attendees to RSVP for the Boston action on Facebook skyrocketed towards 10,000 just three days after the event was posted online.
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren and U.S. Congressman Joe Kennedy are expected to join with impacted people and families on stage as part of a rally in the Boston Common at the conclusion of the march. The march was to begin at Boston City Hall Plaza at 11:00 A.M. EST. and end at the Boston Common.
Event organizers released a statement on social media reading in part, “From the border to Boston and all over the country, families are being torn apart by a government that criminalizes, detains, and deports them. Recently, the Trump administration escalated its racist attacks on immigrants by separating children from their parents at the border and putting them in cages. After public outcry, their “solution” was to keep families together… in detention centers. Jailing families is not a solution.”
MORE BACKGROUND FROM EVENT ORGANIZERS:
“From the border to Boston and all over the country, families are being torn apart by a government that criminalizes, detains, and deports them. Recently, the Trump administration escalated its racist attacks on immigrants by separating children from their parents at the border and putting them in cages. After public outcry, their “solution” was to keep families together… in detention centers. Jailing families is not a solution.
We know that families belong together and free, but this administration isn’t stopping there. The racist Muslim ban backed by Trump will keep people from majority Muslim countries from being reunited with their families in the United States.
Deportation is part of a system that targets and profits off of immigrants and people of color. Now is the time to be clear: this is about putting an end to criminalization, detention, and deportations in our communities. NO ONE should be kept from the place they choose to call home and the people they choose to call family.
Here in Massachusetts, we’re calling on elected officials to protect community members by passing basic protections included in our state budget: YES to due process for detained immigrants, NO to local police acting as ICE agents and asking about immigration status.”
As of Monday, June 25, 2018, cosponsors of the action included:
ACLU Massachusetts, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), AFT Massachusetts (American Federation of Teachers),
ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism),
Anti Racism Collaborative,
Asian American Resource
Workshop (AARW),
Boston Teachers Union (BTU),
Boston Workmen’s Circle,
Brazilian Women’s Group,
Brazilian Worker Center,
Cambridge Area
Stronger Together,
Chelsea Collaborative,
Chelsea Uniting
Against the War,
EBECC,
Families for Justice
as Healing,
Grassroots International,
Indivisible Massachusetts,
International Socialist
Organization (ISO),
Justice4siham,
La Comunidad,
March for our Lives,
March Forward
Massachusetts,
Mass Peace Action,
Massachusetts Interfaith
Worker Justice,
Massachusetts
Jobs with Justice,
Massachusetts Nurses
Association (MNA),
Massachusetts Teachers
Association (MTA),
Massachusetts
TPS Coalition,
MataHari Women’s
Worker Center,
MIRA Coalition,
Muslim Justice League,
NARAL Pro Choice
Massachusetts,
New Bedford Worker
Center/ centro comunitario
de trabajadores,
Our Revolution-
Massachusetts,
Philip Brooks House
Association,
Pioneer Valley
Worker Center,
Queer South Asian
Collective,
Revere Youth in Action
(RIYA),
SEIU 32BJ,
Student Immigrant
Movement (SIM),
Unite Here Local 26,
UU Mass Action,
Watertown Citizens f
or Peace, Justice
and the Environment,
Young Democrats
of Boston.
About Massachusetts Jobs with Justice
Jobs with Justice is a coalition of labor, faith, and student organizations working together to build unity and support for the struggles of working people. Jobs with Justice is a campaign for workers’ rights. Our mission is to defend working people’s standard of living, fight for job security, protect our right to organize and support contract campaigns and strikes. Jobs with Justice opposes racism, sexism, ageism and homophobia and will actively support struggles against any form of discrimination.
