At Massachusetts 'Immigrants Day,' communities say they'll fight back against Trump's immigration policies

Boston Globe

19-03-2025

'Today, as we navigate a federal administration that is intent on targeting immigrants, all of us here are afraid,' said Elizabeth Sweet, the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Coalition, which put together the event. 'Massachusetts depends on the strength, the innovation, and the simple hard work of immigrants in so many areas.'
In recent days, reports of federal immigration enforcement actions have spread quickly through social media in Massachusetts, with notable ICE presence in Chelsea, Everett, East Boston and New Bedford, according to advocates across the state. A number of immigrants had been stopped and detained while they were simply on their way to work, advocates said; some had work permits and no known criminal record.
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At the State House on Wednesday, community groups and immigrants said they expected these kinds immigration enforcement actions to continue — and urged people to speak out against them.
Suyanne Amaral, a DACA recipient from Brazil who came to the US at age 12, recounted her own family's recent experience of separation under the Trump administration.
Her husband, Lucas Dos Santos Amaral, also from Brazil, was arrested by ICE at the end of January in Marlborough while he was on his way to a job for their painting business,
He spent more than three weeks in federal custody, transferred to immigration detention in Texas, separated from his family before being released.
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'In an instant, our family was torn apart,' Amaral said, as her husband held their 3-year-old daughter behind her. 'Our toddler, too young to understand, cried for her father night after night, asking when he would come home.'
Amaral told the crowd that their story, though, was not 'unique.'
'That is why I stand before you today, pleading not just for my family, but for all the families like mine,' she said.
Senator Jamie Eldridge, a Marlborough Democrat who has been assisting the family in their case, cautioned that the Trump administration is not only going after immigrants who may not have a lawful status in the country.
'Whether it is undocumented immigrants, whether it is TPS holders, whether it is now green card holders — what we know is that the Trump-Vance administration is launching an all-out assault on all immigrants," Eldridge said.
State leaders also worried about how these enforcement actions could deplete the state's workforce, which a number of speakers said relies on the employment of immigrants across a myriad of sectors; construction, healthcare, small businesses, and STEM fields.
Lauren Jones, the state's Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development, said that the Healey administration valued the diversity of all who were employed in the state, and its immigrant community in particular. 'It's part of the fabric, that, simply put, makes Massachusetts great,' Jones said.
Dozens of Haitian community members turned out for the gathering. Thousands of Haitians in Massachusetts rely on temporary legal protections to stay in the country, such as Temporary Protected Status, which the Trump administration is seeking to end — leaving some vulnerable to deportation.
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Guerline Jozef, the Founder & Executive Director of the Haitian Bride Alliance, an organization that supports Haitians and other migrants across the US and at the southern border, urged immigrants from all countries to resist the Trump administration eroding their protections, together.
'Today, in Massachusetts, we say: No more,' Jozef said. 'Silence is not an option.'
Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio can be reached at