BOSTON — Some 200 people “put their bodies on the line” at the Statehouse, Tuesday, to demonstrate in favor of four pro-immigration proposals that didn’t make it into the final draft of the Legislature’s fiscal 2019 budget.
Organized by the Pioneer Valley Workers Center in Northampton, the protest drew a half-dozen residents from western Massachusetts to stand, sing and chant on the steps of the Statehouse grand staircase, led by Eduardo Samaniego.
“We’ve been let down by House Speaker Robert DeLeo, Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez and Sen. Karen Spilka, who promised to protect immigrants,” Samaniego said. “We’re here to show our heartbreak, our disappointment and our rage.”
Samaniego is an undocumented immigrant who came to America at the age of 16. Now a student at Hampshire College and resident of Amherst, he spoke to the gathered crowd about the fear he feels going to class or walking down the street.
“I have been here since I was 16, I have been a taxpayer, I have a full-ride scholarship to Hampshire College,” Samaniego said. “For all intents and purposes, I am a Massachusetts resident, except on paper.”
In May, the state Senate passed a budget that included the four provisions: barring police from asking people about their immigration status, unless required by law; ending contracts that deputize state and local law enforcement as Immigrations and Custom Enforcement agents; requiring that immigrants be notified of their due process rights whether they are documented or not; and ensuring that Massachusetts does not contribute to any registry based on protected categories such as religion, ethnicity or citizenship.
However, the most recent version of the Legislature’s $41.9 billion budget to come out of conference committee eliminated the amendment containing those provisions.
According to press materials, the protesters “risked arrest” and “put their bodies on the line” Tuesday to “mourn legislators’ moral failure” on the immigration proposals.
Sarah Peacock, of Holyoke, said she is frustrated because Massachusetts should be a progressive leader on immigrant rights.
“I want to fight back against what we are becoming as a nation,” Peacock said. “Massachusetts has the opportunity to take measurable steps to protect immigrant families, and yet we’re not taking them.”
Protesters, including a number of children and babies, filled the grand staircase.
Representatives from faith organizations, the Pioneer Valley Workers Center and the Essex County Community Organization took turns speaking, singing, chanting, and offering prayers about why the four proposals should be included in the final budget, with some drawing comparisons between the Pilgrims who first arrived at Plymouth Rock and the immigrants seeking a new home in America today.
“Our legislators have chosen to ignore the very people who elected them into office,” said Cherish Casey, with the Essex County Community Organization. “Today, we are here to show them ‘people power.’”
Isobel Lopez, also with the Essex County Community Organization, told the protesters that their elected officials have to listen to the people who elect them.
“We are here in mourning,” Lopez said, directing her comments to lawmakers. “But we are also here taking action. You have 10 or 11 days to take action.”
The legislative session ends July 31, and conference committees have been negotiating and reconciling final versions of bills that have passed the House and Senate for the last few weeks, trying to wrap up unfinished business and agree on a final budget, one that was supposed to be set by the start of the month.
Alan Gates, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, addressed the protesters to affirm the church’s commitment to supporting undocumented immigrants.
“We stand to jointly decry the Legislature’s form of the budget that does not include immigrant protections,” Gates said. “What is just and fair for some is just and fair for all, and that which fails to protect some, fails to protect all of us.”
The protesters also went from office to office around the Statehouse, delivering letters with black ribbons attached to share their feelings directly with legislators.
“If they don’t put these provisions into the FY2019 budget, there’s blood on their hands,” said Finley Janes of Easthampton.
Manuel Pintado, of Northampton, said he came to the Statehouse to ask his legislators which side they’re on in the ongoing national immigration debate.
“I’m here today to demand that lawmakers protect our immigrants and oppose the racist Trump deportation machine,” said Amherst resident Rich Last, a volunteer with the Pioneer Valley Workers Center. “I’m here for Irida and Lucio.”
Irida Kakhtiranova is an immigrant who took up sanctuary from deportation at the Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence in April.
Lucio Perez is an immigrant who has been in sanctuary from deportation at First Congregational Church in Amherst since October.
“Our lawmakers have shown blatant disregard for public interest, for the thousands of people across Massachusetts who have advocated for these provisions and for the threat to our immigrants,” said Northampton resident and Pioneer Valley Workers Center volunteer Alexis Cespedes. “This is an issue of basic human rights.”
Samaniego also spoke to the crowd about Perez and Kakhtiranova, saying Kakhtiranova had recently started making and selling pierogies in the church where she has taken sanctuary in order to help provide for her three children.
“Is that the type of life we want immigrants to live?” Samaniego said. “Our elected officials are disregarding immigrants like me and it’s hurtful.”
Though the protesters expressed anger, they said they still feel optimistic and hope that the provisions will be added back into the budget.
“To be honest, I have zero faith in these check-licking, back-stabbing politicians,” said Holyoke resident Shaun Lamory. “But I have the utmost faith in the people of Massachusetts.”