By Ryan Grewal, city editor
Lara Jirmanus, a physician with the Cambridge Health Alliance, stood before a crowd of more than 100 people at the Boston Common Wednesday and described a distressed boy she treated recently. The boy was expressing symptoms of anxiety after witnessing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers take his father into custody.
He was one of many patients Jirmanus has seen who suffer from the psychological effects of U.S. immigration policies.
“The fear is everywhere. It affects everyone. It’s palpable in our schools, our clinics, our hospitals,” Jirmanus said. “We have to live without fear. Fighting for your rights is good for your health—and I have a study to back that up”
Jirmanus and other Massachusetts residents gathered on Beacon Hill Wednesday to urge the State Legislature to protect immigrants from deportation. The Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA) organized the event, titled “Immigrants’ Day at the State House,” to facilitate the direct lobbying of lawmakers by their constituents.
On the Common, participants gathered across from the State House holding signs that read “The Pilgrims were undocumented,” “Safe immigrants = Safe communities” and “No human being is illegal.”
Alejandra Duarte, a member of the hospitality union UNITED HERE! Local 26, alleged that ICE officers came to her hometown of Framingham, Massachusetts, and intimidated people by demanding their immigration statuses. Duarte told the crowd that the state of fear caused by immigration enforcement in Massachusetts requires politicians to take a side.
“This is not a time for middle grounds,” she said. “In this time, being on the fence is being on the side of hate.”
Franklin Peralta, an organizer with MIRA-member group English for New Bostonians wprovides English language training for adult immigrants in the area, encouraged the crowd to emphasize the personal connection they have with immigrant communities when talking to lawmakers.
“I want you to step into that building and talk to your representative and talk to your senator,” Peralta said. “You say, ‘I want my neighbors to feel safe in my state. I want my coworkers to feel safe in my state. I want the classmates of my children to feel safe in my state.’”
Cambridge City Councilor and local activist Nadeem Mazen addressed the failure of the State Legislature to make Massachusetts a sanctuary state thus far. The legislation to do so, the Safe Communities Act, would prohibit police from enforcing federal immigration law, prevent state databases from being used in a potential Muslim registry and affirm due process for detained immigrants.
“The Safe Communities Act is not expected to be a sure thing,” Mazen said. “Elected officials must realize that this should be a sure thing if they actually represented the electorate.”
Peter Gould, a professor of peace, conflict and coexistence studies at Brandeis University, led the crowd in a song inspired by Emma Lazarus’ poem “The New Colossus,” which is engraved on the base of the Statue of Liberty.
“Give us your tired, give us your poor,” Gould sang while playing the accordion. “I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
Mitch Lewis, a 36-year-old Somerville resident, came to the State House to lobby his representatives. In his job as a translator, Lewis said he often interacts with local immigrant communities.
“I see what [immigrants] go through,” Lewis said. “I see how much they deal with. They are not criminals. They contribute to our economy.”
Nicolas Hyacinthe, a 37-year-old photographer from Randolph, Massachusetts, came out to the lobbying day even though his representative, William Driscoll (D-Norfolk), supports the Safe Communities Act.
“This is called the Commonwealth, so we should try to reach for some commonality, to reach for something better for all of us, to provide some safe space,” he said. “We can’t just cherry pick which immigrants are allowed here and which are not.”
