During the regular city council meeting, Councilor Josh Zakim proposed new amendments to strengthen Boston’s Trust Act.
The Trust Act is a citywide ordinance that prevents Boston Police from detaining immigrants on the request of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“It’s important to stand up for our values,” said Zakim during the meeting.
The new amendments would now prevent Boston police from sharing immigration information to ICE. Mayor Marty Walsh has gone on record saying he is in favor of the new amendments.
“Our president once again lashed out via Twitter, threatening immigrants,” Zakim said. “We can’t control the orders he’s giving to ICE or others. It just illustrates how important it is for cities like Boston to do something.”
One of the reasons Zakim wanted to strengthen the Trust Act is because of an incident in 2017 where Boston Police and ICE worked together to arrest Jose Martin Paz Flores. At the time, Flores was working for Tara Construction and broke his leg in a work injury. He was arrested by ICE after filing a workers’ compensation claim. Boston Police assisted with the arrest.
The Council originally passed the Trust Act in 2014 when Zakim joined the council.
“We are in a changed time now,” said Zakim. “Immigrants should not live in fear.”
Zakim believes it is vital that immigrants feel safe going to the police if they are victims of a crime or witness one. If they are worried they will be turned over to ICE, they will not communicate with the police, he said.
“Not being a citizen is not a crime, it’s a civil violation,” said Zakim.
Councilor Lydia Edwards applauded her colleague on his work on this issue, saying the new amendments create a balanced approach.
“Our job is not to determine who is a U.S. citizen or not,” she said.
There will be a hearing about the proposed amendments in the coming weeks.
Was he one of the insured? His employer should be making premium payments to the Worker’s Comp insurer. Too often employers exploit illegal workers paying them less than union scale and not insuring them. Allowing illegal entry to this country, while not punishing employers is just enabling worker exploitation. This is happening a lot across the country when illegal aliens try to collect insurance from a program where they weren’t enrolled and paid no premiums. Many career politicians, having no experience in the workplace, aren’t aware of this.
Before the U.S. helps any immigrant, they should start taking care of our U.S. Citizens living & deficating on our
streets. Charity starts at home, and then & only then we should help immigrants. I am sure there are plenty of
immigrants in our neighborhood who are being underpaid. Check it out. It is pitiful, but not as pitiful as our
homeless citizens living on the streets. Our citizens have to study to get their driver’s license & immigrants don’t.
Immigrants get free healthcare, Section 8 food stamps & our U.S. citizens don’t get all these benefits. Trump is not
all that wrong. We don’t know who the hell is coming into the country, but if one of these people should ever hurt a
Democrat you will see things change quickly. I am an Independent & believe in helping people, but not before
our own people. It is sick.
Not sure that illegal immigrants are eligible to receive health care, food stamps and section 8. But I am sure that many of them know how to beat the system. The RMV and the incompetent people who run it and some of the corrupt people who work there are the problem. A hearing was held this week at the State House where the abuse was of illegal immigrants, some with warrants and open cases some convicted of drug charges have been issued mass Drivers license’s some of these people had multiple license’s under different names which they use to get welfare ,ebt cards snd other state benefits that they are not entitled to. The Registry allegedly spent millions of dollars on software to prevent fraud, which is worse than ever.
Many of this stuff is driven by pure politicians who wish to build their own anti-establishment creds. Fact is they have no plan for dealing with the fallout. Portland Maine hoping to become the Portland Oregon of the east coast got their wish. Claimed to be open to all asylum seekers. Never expected that anyone would find them being so far from the southern border just received the gift that they had asked for. A few hundred asylem seekers just arrived and they are completely stymied. Poorest state in the union struggling to take care of their own gets a few hundred more and they are swamped with no solution. Begging for help. Only a microcosm of what southwest feels when thousands arrive. Imagine a small western town that has 70 unregistered students show up on the first day of school? Teachers have no clue what to do. No parents in sight, not enough seats and some can’t speak English. It’s becoming common there, but now the northeast is feeling it and apprently not liking it. Good posturing as long as they don’t really show up.
Illegal immigrants DO NOT GET SECTION 8 HOUSING, , HEALTH INSURANCE , OR FOOD STAMPS. they pay taxes for Social Security and Medicare, benefits they cannot collect., unlike citizens who get paid under the table and pay no taxes and get subsidized housing, food stamps , and Medicaid .
The point is that they don’t get protections that American workers get. You’re wrong in that they aren’t receiving social services, the fact is that they are and in California they have even codified it. The case of the suddenly appearing 70 students is a place that I am familiar with because I pay property tax there to support the schools. I just was talking to someone from a city in Texas today. Same situation only magnitudes higher. In Boston you are out of touch with the real situation. Note the point above, a few hundred show up in the north and it turns their world upside down. Empty promises of refuge to these people is actually cruel. Try hard an imagine several thousand suddenly arriving. Mayor Walsh said he would house them in City Hall. How likely is that? Like the idiot in Maine, he has no plan, he is not really commited to a solution.
There needs to be a distinction between what is an immigrant and what is an illegal alien. Immigrants applied to come here and were accepted. First they had to be in proper standing in the country that they came from. For instance, if you are a pedophile, a murderer or a career criminal, you are likely to stay put. An illegal alien, who knows. Could be all of the above. In Europe, they referred to them as refugees, Their open borders lead to an increase in domestic terror. England is exiting the EU, not because of economic differences, but their main issue was open borders in the increase in domestic terror. France’s immediate reaction to the Charlie Hebdo incident was to close its borders immediately.
Italy is having major problems with people entering the country illegally.
I was talking to a some guys from Australia who were livid, Their country took 10,000 refugees from Syria and interned them. They claimed that they were having non-stop problems and it was proving costly. They also claimed that the government was using funds reserved for military veterans to handle these cost overruns. I don’t know how or whether they actually chose to go to Australia, but now that ISIS is on the run, what if they actually want to go back?
The Mayor and the City Council have a hell of a nerve using resources for ILLEGAL immigrants that Boston citizens need. This city is extremely expensive but our citizens our generous as long as we are safe, it is clean, and there are improvements being made in schools and services for the unfortunate. What about the legal immigrants whose children still are not getting the education they deserve. It is our money and our city they want to give away and the consequences will be irreparable!
Are they not hired by us to serve us?
That is the way orginally intended. Now the are hired by lobbists and special interests to govern us.
Let’s be honest first illegal immigrants or as the liberals prefer “undocumented workers” will eventually be given drivers licence’s and the main goal is to allow them to vote.
I thought they had already decided to let them vote?
Mass prohibits non citizens from voting . The People’s Republic Of Cambridge and the cities of Newton, Brookline have tried but the state legislation has not acted on it yet.
It’s a pretty obvious plan. They plan to dilute the votes of taxpayers and citizens and at the same time pander for their own political benefit. Someone asked, who do they work for? I’m kind of bemused, it’s like voting for someone who wants to take away your right to vote.
Yet we, the voters, are to blame. for continuing to re-elect the same law makers and over and over again.
Couldn’t agree more.
MichaelD. You are right on the money. Kudos.
This is what you get when you keep electing people like Marty Walsh, Liz Warren and Ed Market. You asked for it Boston, enjoy.
Include the guy that inspires the article. Fortunately, he is not running for re-election. But the City Council has some lunatic fringe elements that seem to get their way in their war against taxpayers.