What? Seems preposterous. Not Massachusetts. But I think we dismiss that possibility at our peril.
Here is why I am concerned: there are a cluster of amendments to the MA state budget that are based on legislation recently passed in Arizona. The details, taken from the SIM website, include:
• Creating an anonymous tip line to report suspicious people using false documents, business hiring undocumented people and people who are undocumented and mandating investigations of all no matter how uncredible the reports are. (This is a hateful part of the law, requiring neighbors to spy and report on neighbors. This is putting the federal government’s job of immigration reform in the hands of the MA state investigators and in individuals’ hands which would bankrupt and use tax dollars to follow up on less than credible reports.
• -Denying access to assisted housing programs for undocumented people (This would leave many U.S. citizen children and family members homeless and increase government spending on motels, shelters and housing in the future.)
• Creating stricter requirements for housing, social security and health benefits, documented or undocumented (This is redundant for undocumented peoples because they currently receive no social security, welfare nor food stamps, receive basic necessary health insurance and do not benefits in the federal housing projects and vouchers. This requirement would make receiving benefits for all, especially poor and lower income people, more difficult and stricter.)
• Blocking limited and basic health care for undocumented people. (This is hateful and dangerous for the immigrant community as well as public health, creating barriers to basic health care for all, which is a human right, and therefore putting us all at risk for higher emergency costs and communal sicknesses.)
• Requiring businesses that work with the state to use some system (like E-verify) to verify paperwork, or the business will lose contract with government and be fined. (Verifying immigration status for employees is the federal government’s responsibility, not our state’s job.)
• Barring undocumented students from receiving In-State tuition. (This is redundant since MA undocumented students do not receive In-State tuition but it would block the five years of work that the Student Immigrant Movement has done to push for In-State tuition for undocumented students.)
Standing up in fierce opposition to these amendments, and leading the way for the rest of us, is the Student Immigration Movement. They have been holding a vigil outside the MA State House for almost three weeks now, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They are holding press conferences, getting good media attention and doing a fabulous job of calling attention to what is about to happen.
Now they need your help. They need you to call your state senator and tell him/her that you want those amendments removed , that Massachusetts does not want to be in the same category as Arizona when it comes to racial profiling. The phone numbers of the state senators are available at the state website, http://www.mass.gov/legis/memmenus.htm Then make a call to the Governor. http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=gov3homepage&L=1&L0=Home&sid=Agov3 The students also would love to have you join them outside the state house. They plan on being there until either the amendments are removed or the Governor vetoes the bill because of the amendments.
The Student Immigration Movement is a collection of youth who feel the direct impact of our nation’s broken immigration system. Many of them, like the student at Harvard recently in the news (See below for link to Eric’s story) came to this country with their parents when they were very young. They have grown up here, belong here, “feel” American. They want to go to college, and like many immigrant children, want to go to state schools because that is more affordable. They want comprehensive immigration reform that acknowledges the special problems of youth and protects their families. They come from many places around the world. Some are still in high school, others are in college or working. And they are strong and inspiring! Join them for a few hours – you will be glad you did.
PS Want to know more? Here are some recent news articles and a couple of websites:
www.MassHope2010.com Information on the ongoing vigil.
www.afsc.org/goal/human-migration-and-mobility contains a number of resources and stories, including the document “A New Path Toward Humane Immigration Policy” http://afsc.org/document/new-path
WBUR is doing a series on immigration. On Monday the report included an interview with Susan Martin, director of the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University who says that an estimated 40% of people in the U.S. illegally, came here legally – on visas or border crossing cards. You can find the WBUR reports on the show Here and Now, http://www.hereandnow.org/
Eric Balderas and the Rule of Law, http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/06/eric-balderas-and-the-rule-of-law/58488/
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