NORTHAMPTON — The day after Border Patrol agents shot and killed 37-year-old intensive care nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Congregation B’nai Israel Rabbi Jacob Fine shared the fear, anguish and uncertainty many in his community shared.
But, he said, this is not the time to freeze, but to “go forward.”
“It means each of us acts from where we stand, with the tools we have, in alignment with the values we hold dear,” Fine said at the synagogue’s virtual meeting with legislators on Sunday. “Liberation does not require that we all be heroes — but it does require that we all move.”
As part of this forward movement, 115 CBI members tuned into the 14th annual Tikkun Olam (“Heal the World”) legislative gathering to hear the area’s five state legislators outline actions they are taking on key issues in the commonwealth.
The lawmakers in attendance — Sen. Jo Comerford and Reps. Lindsay Sabadosa, Mindy Domb, Homar Gómez and Aaron Saunders — each gave insight into their respective committee’s work on immigration, housing, health care and antisemitism. Rather than a traditional luncheon this year, the event moved online due to a snowstorm that buried the region on Sunday and Monday.
“This is an all-hands-on-deck moment,” Sabadosa said in the wake of last weekend’s shooting. “There is nothing that should be off the table in us responding.”
Immigration
With national news setting the tone, a majority of the meeting centered around this country’s immigration policies. Karen Levine, a member of Jewish Community of Amherst’s Tikkun Olam Committee, outlined three measures to protect the commonwealth’s immigration community from Immigration and Customs Enforcement: “Don’t assist ICE” in locating and arresting immigrants, “don’t turn police into ICE agents” by assisting in detainment and “fund legal help to fight deportations.”
“Many predict that ICE and perhaps [U.S.] Customs and Board Patrol [Protection] will target Massachusetts next, with greater force and more massive arrests,” Levine said. “Lives are at stake.”
Three bills moving through the Legislature already include these actions outlined by Levine. The include:
- The Dignity Not Deportation Act (H.1588/S.1122) would prevent law enforcement from entering into agreements with federal immigration agencies, such as 287(g) agreements or renting beds.
- The Immigrant Legal Defense Act (S.1127/H.1954) would create a free legal aid program for immigrants detained in Massachusetts.
- The Safe Communities Act (S.1681/H.2580) would ensure due process in immigration proceedings, such as requiring written consent to ICE interviews. This act is similar to local Safe Communities ordinances passed in Easthampton, Northampton, Amherst and South Hadley.
A joint hearing on the first two acts took place last November, but no votes have occurred. The Safe Communities legislation is currently under review by the Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee.
“The [Immigrant Legal Defense Act] legislative is important, but we don’t need it,” Domb said. “We funded this [Immigration Legal Defense Fund] at $5 million in this fiscal year. What we need to do is build pressure to increase that amount for the next fiscal year.”
Gomez said the Safe Communities legislation is especially important to him, as he helped get it adopted in Easthampton as a city councilor. He is also working with Easthampton Mayor Salem Derby and the American Civil Liberties Union to organize a training with city police officers to ensure they remain in compliance with the ordinance.
In Amherst, Domb said the First Congregational Church will soon hold bystander training with the LUCE Immigrant Justice Network of Massachusetts. LUCE, a grassroots immigrant rights and community advocacy group, trains volunteers to monitor, report and document ongoing ICE actions.
“Immigration right now is what I am hearing the most from individuals,” Sabadosa said. “So keep that up please, because without this pressure from the district, it’s hard for me to justify (that) it’s not just my opinion.”
All five legislators support the Dignity not Deportations Act, and all but Saunders has co-sponsored the Safe Communities Act and Immigrant Legal Defense Act.
“You would likely not want me to send the emails on this issue to leadership that I get,” Saunders said. “There’s an awful lot of people in Massachusetts still and a growing number from the previous presidential election that do not share the specific goals of these three bills.”
Environment, food security
Saunders instead focused on consensus with other issues, such as the Mass Ready Act. This five-year environmental bond bill filed by the Gov. Maura Healey last year is designed to preserve farmland and forests, protect water resources like the Connecticut River and Quabbin Reservoir and streamline permitting for housing and culvert replacements. The bill has just come out of bonding committee, Saunders said, and will move through the Legislature before heading to the governor’s desk.
“The Mass Ready Act is, I’m sure for all of us, a main event,” Comerford said. ““It will hit every area that I know many of us care about.”
While the Mass Ready Act will also bolster local food systems, Saunders said, it is not the only food security measure under consideration by legislators.
Domb and Comerford have presented legislation in the House and Senate (S.104/H.222), respectively, to enshrine Massachusetts’s Health Incentives Program (HIP) into law. HIP helps Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients buy more healthy food by automatically giving money back to users who buy fruits and vegetables at participating places like many farmers markets, farm stands and some grocery stores. The bill is currently in the Senate Committee of Ways and Means.
Tikkun Olam member Randi Klein advocated for full funding of Massachusetts Emergency Food Assistance Program and year-round HIP in the face of federal budget cuts and the last year’s freeze on SNAP benefits.
After the end of the Affordable Care Act subsidies, Norbert Goldfield said tens of thousands of people lost MassHealth coverage in January, and the need for affordable and accessible health care is only going to grow.
Health care, antisemitism
Sabadosa said Joint Committee on Healthcare Financing has spoken favorable of a Primary Care Bill (H.2537), which would create expenditure targets for primary care. The Medicare for All bill (H.1405), which Sabadosa is the lead sponsor, has also been in discussions.
“The primary care bill seems like it’s going to keep moving,” Sabadosa said. “But I do want to make sure that we understand there are good long-term solutions as well that we need to continue to focus on as we work on the many steps needed for health care reform.”
Sunday’s session ended with questions from the community regarding the final recommendations of the Special Commission on Combating Antisemitism. Comerford, Gomez and Saunders spoke in favor of the recommendations as ways to address antisemitism in schools. Comerford, in particular, commended her constituents for continually testifying about separating antisemitism with anti-Zionism.
“When I’m around tables in Boston, I recognize that people in western Mass. think differently than people in eastern Mass,” Comerford said. “It is very important for you to continue making your voices heard directly through me and our colleagues but also directly into leadership.”