WESTFORD — The Westford League of Women Voters joined Westford’s First Parish Church United and St. Mark’s Episcopal Church for the “Bearing Witness at ICE” demonstration outside of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Burlington on Wednesday.
A large group of protestors lined the street outside of the DHS ICE Boston Field Office on 1000 District Ave, to oppose what they called “unlawful and unconstitutional abductions” of immigrants across the state.
At the demonstration, protestors held signs criticizing President Donald Trump’s administration and accusing ICE agents of using excessive force during arrests, holding prisoners in inhumane conditions, and not respecting civil rights and due process.
Members of the League of Women Voters told WestfordCAT they felt it was important for their organization to take a public stance.
“We want to call attention to a lot of things that are going on within the federal government and Massachusetts, regarding the detention (of immigrants), how detainees are being treated, and what the process is,” League of Women Voters member Diane Wood said. “But often we’re not getting answers.”
Members also told WestfordCAT that while they were unsure of the exact number of ICE arrests that have taken place in Westford, they said the issue was important to Westford residents, given the large number of immigrants in town, and the fact that some immigrant residents in town have expressed worry due to the ICE arrests in other communities across the state.
“So I don’t personally know of any ICE arrests in Westford to be perfectly honest,” League of Women Voters Treasurer and Spokesperson Vicky Geary said. “But that said, Westford does have a large immigrant population and I’m sure they have been impacted by that. Even if they haven’t been targeted, it’s the emotional aspect of this. It’s the fear. In fact, I actually know an immigrant who’d love to go see some friends in Europe, but is scared to death to leave the country, because she’s scared she might not be let back in. Even though she has a legal residence card. So even if we haven’t had that impact like some of the other communities with massive arrests, we have that population in our town and we are a community and we do stand up for each other, as we should.”
Organizers of the demonstration also told WestfordCAT they encourage any members of the public, regardless of their political beliefs, to take part in the demonstration; as they believe standing up for immigrants transcends political partisanship.
“We’ve been doing this for 31 weeks,” Rev. Andrew Harris said, who is a pastor at the Burlington United Church of Christ and helped organize the demonstration.
“It all started when the two founders, a couple folks from Maynard, had heard that the ICE Field Operations building was here in Burlington, in our community backyard. After what they saw that day, which was lines of people outside the door waiting for their appointments and an endless parade of ICE vans that we’ve come to recognize around our communities, they reached out to local clergy; and that was when I got involved. The first week I was here, there was probably ten people. Over the summer sometime we hit 100, then 200, 300, 400. Then a couple of weeks ago we had 715 people out here. So it just keeps growing.”
Organizers said the demonstration was one of many planned protests, and that they hope to continue throughout the upcoming weeks.
“We have a message of extreme solidarity,” Harris said. “No matter your opinion on any other issue, you’re welcome here if you want to stand up for our immigrant neighbors, and say the treatment they’re subject to right now is not okay. One of our fellow organizers has talked about the idea that someone wearing a ‘Make America Great Again Hat’, who thinks Donald Trump should be king and is perfect in everything he does, if that person sees what is happening to members of our community and decides that they’re against that and they show up here, they would be welcome here.”
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