This Thursday: Stand up and Speak Out for Immigrants in Massachusetts

Immigrants with work authorization, temporary protected status and other legal permissions—including union members—are being threatened and/or detained, along with other Massachusetts residents, in the federal administration’s vicious campaign of mass deportation.

That’s why we’re joining allies across the Commonwealth for a rally and speakout in support of immigrants’ rights this Thursday at 12:30 pm in Boston City Hall Plaza.

Can’t make it? You can still take action.

Last week, the Legislature held hearings on key bills to protect the civil rights and safety of everyone in the Commonwealth. Help build momentum by writing to your legislators in support of the Protecting Massachusetts Communities Coalition’s three priority protections: (1) Don’t collaborate with ICE, (2) Don’t let police be ICE agents, and (3) Fund legal aid.

Email Your Legislators

If you’ve already emailed recently, take a moment to call. Find your legislators’ phone numbers here. In solidarity,

Testimony: MA Must Stand Up for Our Immigrant Communities

Tuesday, November 25, 2025 

Chair Edwards, Chair Day, and Members of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary: 

Progressive Massachusetts is a statewide, multi-issue, grassroots membership organization focused on fighting for policy that would make our Commonwealth more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic. We urge you to give a favorable report to S.1122/H.1588: An Act relative to immigration detention and collaboration agreements and S.1127/H.1954: An Act ensuring access to equitable representation in immigration proceedings. 

This Thanksgiving, families will be gathering across Massachusetts. But at many tables, there will be missing chairs due to the kidnapping of our immigrant friends and neighbors by ICE agents. 

Since Trump took office in January, ICE has escalated its activities in Massachusetts, terrorizing immigrant communities. ICE arrests have gone up by more than 250% since last year, driven by their targeting of individuals without criminal records. ICE has brutalized children, torn families apart, and engaged in rampant racial profiling. With Congress approving $170 billion to expand deportations, this will only get worse. 

Our immigrant communities are helping to keep our communities healthy, they are innovating and educating, and they are helping us build a better future for all of us. We need to do right by them. 

Immigrants’ rights advocates from across the Commonwealth our aligned on what steps that you can take as a Legislature to protect communities: 

  1. Prohibit new 287(g) agreements

Massachusetts should follow the steps of seven other states and prohibit any new 287(g) agreements. These agreements, in which state and local police are deputized as federal immigration agents, threaten public safety by diminishing trust, overburdening public financial and managerial capacity, distracting from real threats to public safety, and breaking apart communities. 

  1. Prevent partnerships between local law enforcement and ICE

It’s simple: local law enforcement should be focused on keeping communities safe and preventing and investigating crime. Getting involved with immigration raids and arrests diverts time, money, and resources from this goal and undermines the trust on which public safety depends. 

  1. Prohibit local law enforcement from asking about immigration status 

If people fear that interacting with law enforcement could lead to the deportation of them or their loved ones, they will not feel comfortable doing so. This means that incidents of domestic violence, wage theft, and other abuses will go unreported, and communities will be less safe. 

  1. Create a legal aid fund for immigrants at imminent risk of deportation 

Access to counsel matters: detained immigrants with a lawyer are 10 times more likely to win their case than those without. Shockingly, a majority of immigrants with pending cases in MA are navigating their cases without a lawyer.

This bill would remedy that and build into statute an important step that your chambers took in the FY 2026 budget. Similar programs already exist in California, Colorado, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Washington. 

The Trump administration is creating never-ending, everyday crises for so many of our residents. Communities across the Commonwealth need you to lead. 

Sincerely, 

Jonathan Cohn 

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts 

Testimony: Welcoming Communities Are Safe Communities

Tuesday, November 25, 2025 

Chair Cronin, Chair Cahill, and Members of the Joint Committee on Public Safety: 

Progressive Massachusetts is a statewide, multi-issue, grassroots membership organization focused on fighting for policy that would make our Commonwealth more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic. We urge you to give a favorable report to H.2580 / S.1681, An Act To Protect The Civil Rights And Safety Of All Massachusetts Residents.

This Thanksgiving, families will be gathering across Massachusetts. But at many tables, there will be missing chairs due to the kidnapping of our immigrant friends and neighbors by ICE agents. 

Since Trump took office in January, ICE has escalated its activities in Massachusetts, terrorizing immigrant communities. ICE arrests have gone up by more than 250% since last year, driven by their targeting of individuals without criminal records. ICE has brutalized children, torn families apart, and engaged in rampant racial profiling. With Congress approving $170 billion to expand deportations, this will only get worse. 

Our immigrant communities are helping to keep our communities healthy, they are innovating and educating, and they are helping us build a better future for all of us. We need to do right by them. 

Immigrants’ rights advocates from across the Commonwealth our aligned on what steps that you can take as a Legislature to protect communities: 

  1. Prohibit new 287(g) agreements

Massachusetts should follow the steps of seven other states and prohibit any new 287(g) agreements. These agreements, in which state and local police are deputized as federal immigration agents, threaten public safety by diminishing trust, overburdening public financial and managerial capacity, distracting from real threats to public safety, and breaking apart communities. 

  1. Prevent partnerships between local law enforcement and ICE

It’s simple: local law enforcement should be focused on keeping communities safe and preventing and investigating crime. Getting involved with immigration raids and arrests diverts time, money, and resources from this goal and undermines the trust on which public safety depends. 

  1. Prohibit local law enforcement from asking about immigration status 

If people fear that interacting with law enforcement could lead to the deportation of them or their loved ones, they will not feel comfortable doing so. This means that incidents of domestic violence, wage theft, and other abuses will go unreported, and communities will be less safe. 

The Trump administration is creating never-ending, everyday crises for so many of our residents. Communities across the Commonwealth need you to lead. 

Sincerely, 

Jonathan Cohn 

Policy Director 

Progressive Massachusetts 

ACTION ALERT: This Thanksgiving and Always, Families Belong Together

This Thanksgiving, families will be gathering across Massachusetts. But at many tables, there will be missing chairs due to the kidnapping of our immigrant friends and neighbors by ICE agents.

Federal immigration agents have been terrorizing communities across Massachusetts in service of Donald Trump’s xenophobic, hateful agenda. Families are torn apart, workplaces stripped of employees, and documented immigrants have feared their status will be revoked. Massachusetts can and must take action to better protect our communities.

Three key pro-immigrants’ rights bills will have hearings tomorrow:

  • Safe Communities Act (H.2580 / S.1681), which would end the voluntary involvement of our public safety officials in civil immigration matters
  • Dignity Not Deportations Act (H.1588 / S.1122), which would prohibit sheriffs from voluntarily renting beds to ICE and ban agreements to deputize state and local law enforcement to ICE
  • Immigrant Legal Defense Act (H.1954 / S.1127), which would ensure that immigrants navigating our complex immigration courts have legal representation and make permanent a recent budgetary appropriation

First, take a moment to email your state rep and state senator in support of these bills:

Email Your Legislators

Second, if you’ve already emailed recently, take a moment to call. Find your legislators’ phone numbers here.

And third, join us at the State House tomorrow for a rally and the hearings for these bills.

Protect Massachusetts Communities | Pre-Hearing Rally
Tuesday, November 25, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Massachusetts State House | Room 428

The Dignity Not Deportations bill and the Immigrant Legal Defense Act will have hearings at 10 am in Room A2. Information here.

The Safe Communities Act will have a hearing at 11:30 am in Gardner Auditorium. Information here.

If you are unable to attend in person, you may log into the livestream of the hearing at the Massachusetts Legislature website.

Protecting Massachusetts Communities: Rally & Hearing

Federal immigration agents have been terrorizing communities across Massachusetts in service of Donald Trump’s xenophobic, hateful agenda. Families are torn apart, workplaces stripped of employees, and documented immigrants have feared their status will be revoked. Massachusetts can and must take action to better protect our communities.

Three key pro-immigrant bills will have hearings next week:

  • Safe Communities Act (H.2580 / S.1681), which would end the voluntary involvement of our public safety officials in civil immigration matters
  • Dignity Not Deportations Act (H.1588 / S.1122), which would prohibit sheriffs from voluntarily renting beds to ICE and ban agreements to deputize state and local law enforcement to ICE
  • Immigrant Legal Defense Act (H.1954 / S.1127), which would ensure that immigrants navigating our complex immigration courts have legal representation and make permanent a recent budgetary appropriation

Join us at the State House next Tuesday for a rally and the hearings fo rthese bills.

Protect Massachusetts Communities | Pre-Hearing Rally

Tuesday, November 25, 2025 at 9:00 AM

Massachusetts State House | Room 428

The Dignity Not Deportations bill and the Immigrant Legal Defense Act will have hearings at 10 am in Room A2. Information here.

The Safe Communities Act will have a hearing at 11:30 am in Gardner Auditorium. Information here.

If you are unable to attend in person, you may log into the livestream of the hearing at the Massachusetts Legislature website.

What MA Can Do to Protect Our Communities from ICE

ICE officials have announced an increase in activity in Massachusetts, and it has been seen on the ground already. ICE has been kidnapping people off the streets, harassing bystanders, and terrorizing communities–making everyone less safe.  

The LUCE hotline has been doing amazing work to keep people alert and to document what’s happening. Bookmark https://www.lucemass.org/if you haven’t already.

Although we can’t stop everything ICE is doing in Massachusetts, we should not be making their work easier. We need our state legislators to pass legislation to limit the scope of ICE in Massachusetts and to better support our immigrant communities.

That’s why it’s essential for your state legislators to co-sponsor and advocate for critical legislation this session in support of immigrants’ rights:

  • Safe Communities Act (H.2580 / S.1681), which would end the voluntary involvement of our public safety officials in civil immigration matters
  • Dignity Not Deportations Act (H.1588 / S.1122), which would prohibit sheriffs from voluntarily renting beds to ICE and ban agreements to deputize state and local law enforcement to ICE
  • Immigrant Legal Defense Act (H.1954 / S.1127), which would ensure that immigrants navigating our complex immigration courts have legal representation and make permanent a recent budgetary appropriation

EMAIL YOUR LEGISLATORS
In solidarity,
Jonathan Cohn
Policy Director
Progressive Massachusetts

Say Hi at the Mass Dems Convention This Weekend!

If you’ll be in Springfield this Saturday for the Massachusetts Democratic Party Convention, swing by the PM table to say hi! (Don’t see us at first? That’s because we’re all the way in a corner.) We’ll have actions for you to take at the table — and to bring back to your Senate district seating area.

CONVENTION ALERT:In 2017 and 2021, we collaborated with allies like Our Revolution MA to help strengthen the Massachusetts Democratic Party platform. The 2025 platform committee erased the gains from 2017 and 2021 as well as decades-old commitments to policies like single payer health care.

The 2025 platform is a major step back on health care, labor, climate, racial justice, democracy reforms, LGBTQ+ rights, disability rights, immigrants’ rights, and more.

Click here to learn about the effort to fight this rollback.

LEARN MORE

Protect Our Care with Corporate Fair Share Town Halls

It’s time to Protect Our Care with Corporate Fair Share. The Trump administration is taking away healthcare from working families and seniors so they can put more money into the pockets of billionaires and big corporations. Here in Massachusetts, we could lose as much as $3.5 billion in federal aid that pays for health care, education, and food access for hundreds of thousands of people. We simply can’t afford the harm that will cause.

That’s why the Raise Up Mass coalition is holding a series of regional Protect Our Care Town Halls across the state to tell our legislators: it’s time to make big corporations pay their fair share in taxes—and stop the cuts. Chances are we’re holding one near you! Can you join us?

Find a Town hall near you

Here’s what’s at stake. Up to 350,000 people in MA could lose their health care and/or food assistance because of cuts to Medicaid and SNAP. More than one million students could be hurt by cuts to PreK-12, colleges, and child care. The money from these cuts to state funding is flowing directly to big corporations and billionaires, while our communities are stuck with the cost of hospital closures, hungry students, and long ER lines.

Help Get Rent Control on the Ballot

Homes for All Massachusetts is launching the process to place rent control on the ballot in 2026 with a kickoff event this Saturday, September 13, at 11 am in Town Field (1565 Dorchester Ave) in Dorchester–the first of many events.

Want to volunteer for the campaign? Sign up here.

Editorial: How Mass. Must Respond To Trump’s Big Ugly Bill

Jonathan Cohn, “How Mass. Must Respond To Trump’s Big Ugly Bill,” Fenway News, September 2025.

In time for July 4, Trump and Congressional Republicans celebrated the passage of their policy wish list, a massive tax cut for the rich and large corporations combined with the biggest rollback of healthcare access in U.S. history, cuts to food assistance and public education, and escalated funding for ICE that puts it on par with the size of other countries’ militaries. It was the most regressive bill passed by Congress in decades.

This all raises the question: how is Massachusetts going to do to respond?

Here are some critical first steps.

First, Massachusetts needs to better protect our essential services from federal cuts. The extreme cuts to health care access, food assistance, education, and other vital programs will hit the state budget hard.

Massachusetts is an affluent state, with a GDP per capita in the top five of states and a total GDP on par with Sweden’s (if only we had their welfare state…). Rather than making cuts that will fall on the backs of the most vulnerable, we should make  sure that the most profitable corporations in our commonwealth are paying their fair share. That’s why we need to pass the Corporate Fair Share bill (H.3110 / S.2033), which would ensure that large multinational corporations like Amazon and Walmart pay more in taxes on the profits they hide in offshore tax havens in places like Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. This bill would make a simple change to the tax code that would put us in line with the federal government and the state of New Hampshire (yes, New Hampshire) and bring in significant new revenue.

Second, Massachusetts needs to better protect our immigrant communities, and that means not being complicit with Trump’s mass deportation agenda. Trump’s $45 billion infusion into ICE means that the administration will be looking for more people to work as immigration agents. Scaling up means that they will want states to offer existing personnel to do their dirty work. We must be clear that we won’t. The Safe Communities Act (H.2580 / S.1681) would ensure that our state and local law enforcement are not being deputized as ICE agents and shore up other vital protections.

Where is Fenway’s delegation on these priorities? Good question. Sen. Liz Miranda, who has a sliver of Fenway along with adjacent neighborhoods of Roxbury and Mission Hill, is the co-filer of both the Corporate Fair Share and the Safe Communities Act, and Sen. Lydia Edwards, who represents Back Bay and East Fenway, is a co-sponsor of both. Rep. Chynah Tyler, who has the Longwood Medical Area as well Roxbury and Mission Hill, joins them on the Corporate Fair Share bill. But Sen. Will Brownsberger, Rep. Jay Livingstone, and Rep. Dan Ryan have yet to do so.

Massachusetts prides itself for its role in our country’s democracy and as a beacon to other states. At this moment, we should do that by making clear that we don’t leave people behind when under attack by a hostile administration.

Jonathan Cohn, Policy Director, Progressive Mass; Secretary, Boston Ward 4 Democratic Committee

Letter: “How MA Must Respond to Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill”

Heather Ford, “LETTER TO THE EDITOR: How MA Must Respond to Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill”,” Westwood Minute, July 31, 2025.

To the Editor:

A month ago, Trump and Congressional Republicans passed the Big Beautiful Bill. But this bill is ugly: containing one of the biggest rollbacks of health care access in US history, cuts to food assistance and public education, and escalated funding for ICE.

Through this bill, the Trump administration wants states like Massachusetts to do their dirty work for them. Bay Staters need to be clear that we won’t.

Massachusetts needs to better protect our essential services from federal cuts. The extreme cuts to health care access, food assistance, education, and other vital programs will hit state budgets hard. Indeed, we are already seeing the impact of the unilateral cuts that Trump made earlier this year.

Rather than making cuts that will fall on the backs of the most vulnerable, we should be making sure that the most profitable corporations in our commonwealth are paying their fair share. That’s why we need to pass the Corporate Fair Share bill (H.3110 / S.2033), which would ensure that large multinational corporations like Amazon and Walmart pay more in taxes using a federal formula called Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income (GILTI).

Fun Fact: if Massachusetts started charging these corporations fifty percent of their GILTI, it would be the same percentage of their GILTI that Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire already do.

Beacon Hill also needs to tap into the state’s $8 billion rainy day fund. The looming cuts that Bay Staters face under the “Big Beautiful Bill” are why the rainy day fund was created.

Second, Massachusetts needs to better protect our immigrant communities by not being complicit with Trump’s mass deportation agenda. Trump’s $45 billion increase in ICE funds means that the administration will be looking for more people to work as immigration agents. Scaling up means that they will want states to offer existing personnel to do their dirty work. We must be clear that we won’t. Bills like the Safe Communities Act (H.2580 / S.1681) and the Dignity Not Deportations Bill (H.1588 / S.1122) would ensure that our state and local law enforcement are not being deputized as ICE agents.

Our legislators on Beacon Hill speak of doing the best for their constituency. Bay Staters should push for them to pass these three bills to help them do their best and reject the President’s agenda.

Heather T. Ford
Westwood, MA

Thanks to Heather Ford, Westwood resident, for sharing these comments and opinions with Westwood Minute. 

Letter: “It’s Time for Beacon Hill to Lead, Not Linger”

Jason Brown, “It’s Time for Beacon Hill to Lead, Not Linger,” West Roxbury/Roslindale Bulletin, July 30, 2025.


To the Editor:
Seven months into President Trump’s second term, the harm has been swift: rollbacks of civil rights, environmental protections, and safety net programs. ICE raids are tearing families apart, and Congress has aided these efforts. Meanwhile, Massachusetts has been slow to respond. There has been some progress, like immigrant legal defense funding and laws pro-
tecting abortion and gender-affirming care, but we can and must do more.

We need to better protect immigrants. Trump’s $45 billion expansion of ICE means federal agents will pressure states for help. Massachusetts must draw a clear line by passing the Safe Communities Act (H.2580/S.1681) and the Dignity Not Deportations Bill (H.1588/S.1122), which would ensure that local law enforcement is not deputized as ICE agents.

We also need to shield essential services from deep federal cuts to health care, education, and food assistance. Massachusetts can lead with fair and direct revenue policy. The Corporate Fair Share bill (H.3110/S.2033)
would close offshore tax loopholes, ensuring that large multinational corporations like Amazon and Walmart pay their fair share. This would be an overdue fix with meaningful impact.

And let’s not forget our $8 billion rainy day fund. These federal assaults on our communities are precisely the “rainy days” it was designed for.

Massachusetts has the wealth, the tools, and the moral imperative to act. When the Legislature returns from recess, we need them to meet the urgency of the moment—not just with words, but with action. Constituents must demand bold leadership.
Jason Brown
West Roxbury

MA Passed a Budget on Time. What’s in It?

Let’s start out with the ugly, and then the good and the bad.

The UGLY: Yesterday, the US Senate passed a horror show of a budget to take away health care access and food assistance in order to fund tax cuts for the mega-rich and large corporations, and to create a police state in the US by increasing ICE’s budget several times over. If passed, it will be a disaster for the country and for Massachusetts. If you have friends in other states who have Republican Senators or Representatives, ask them to make a phone call in opposition to the Big Ugly Bill.

THE GOOD: On Monday, the Massachusetts State House did something it hasn’t done since 2016: it passed a budget before the end of the fiscal year.

There are some major victories in this budget to celebrate:

  • Banning tenant-paid broker’s fees
  • $2.5 million in continued funding for an access to counsel program, which provides legal representation to low-income tenants facing eviction
  • $5 million for an immigrant legal defense fund
  • Permanently fare-free regional transit authorities
  • Increased funding for our public schools

THE BAD: But there were also disappointments in the budget:

  • Only $1 million in dedicated funding for No Cost Calls implementation
  • Less funding for local aid
  • Insufficient funding for housing safety net programs
  • Insufficient funds for SNAP case workers

Read more about the state budget here, here, and here.

Write to your legislator to express your support for the budget wins and your disappointment with what was left out.

Email Your Legislators

Healey Wants to Spend $360 Million on a New Prison. Tell Her No Way.

For years, our friends at Families for Justice as Healing have been organizing against a proposed $50 million new women’s prison to replace MCI-Framingham.

How has Governor Maura Healey responded? By proposing a $360 million new women’s prison.

Incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women and girls have been clear: what we need is not a new prison, but greater programming for those currently incarcerated, better reentry programs for people when they return to community, and greater community investments in housing, health care, education, and economic security and opportunity.

Think of how much that $360 million could do if it went instead to keeping communities safe and ending cycles of incarceration and harm.

Join FJaH in telling Governor Healey to stop the $360 million new women’s prison with the action toolkit at bit.ly/FreeHerMA.

Call daily between 9am and 5pm only – (617) 725-4005

Email any time using this form: https://www.mass.gov/info-details/email-the-governors-office Sample Email/Script:

“Hello, my name is _________________ and I am your constituent. I oppose your plan to build a $360 million women’s prison. Spending hundreds of millions of dollars on prison construction is not investing in people’s wellbeing and will not make our communities safer. Our communities need this money for housing, healing, healthcare, treatment and more. We could actually make Massachusetts a model for the rest of the country by releasing many more women and implementing alternatives to incarceration rather than building yet another prison.”

Another Budget Takeaway: Fair Share Delivers

One major budget takeaway: The Fair Share Amendment has been delivering even more than expected, and it has proven essential. The Fair Share Amendment has been producing even more revenue than projected, and it has made possible critical new investments in education and transportation. Learn more about its $6 billion in positive impact so far at https://www.fairsharema.com/.