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By: Travis W, Brad L, James N, Reid J
Timeline of Events:
Tuesday, April 29, East Boston: ICE detains Ruth Mufute at Logan Airport
Wednesday, April 30, Boston: Mass mobilization at the Moakley Courthouse demanding Ruth’s release
Thursday, May 1, East Boston: ICE releases Ruth from custody
Sunday, May 4, Waltham: ICE abducts a Working Mass author’s neighbor, still in custody, and leaves a child abandoned in the street after abducting their guardian and mocking volunteers
Wednesday, May 7th, Worcester: ICE arrested a man, Clara Moura’s partner and father of her three-month old son, on his way to work and told her she needed to sign documents at an immigration facility the next day
Thursday, May 8th, Worcester: ICE arrests Clara Moura when she arrives with her infant child and is told by ICE that her mother needed to take custody of her daughter during the arrest, forcing Clara to call her mother Rosane Ferreira-De Oliveira, who is baited out of her house to be promptly arrested by ICE — but after 25 people intervene, ICE calls city police for backup
Friday, May 9th, Worcester: Hundreds, including Worcester DSA members, march from City Hall to Worcester Police Department headquarters, as community leaders and activists voice concerns during a YMCA press conference
Sunday, May 11, Worcester: People rally again to the Worcester Common
Monday, May 12, Boston: DSA member and schoolteacher witnesses ICE regrouping at a Boston staging ground
Tuesday, May 13, Worcester: City officials decide to close City Hall, citing “threats of violence”, the same day another non-violent protest was planned outside the building
Thursday, May 29, Somerville: ICE attacks Somerville High School, only to stare off a crowd protecting students during dismissal
Immigrant Worker Detained, Then Freed Under Community Pressure
By: Travis Wayne
EAST BOSTON, MA: On her return from vacation on Tuesday, April 29, Ruth Mufute was detained at Logan Airport.
A member of the Student Clinic for Immigrant Justice, Ruth is a 70-year-old community organizer known for wearing colorful hats and building community in her workplace. Despite her permanent legal residency status, Ruth was detained by ICE upon her arrival back from Zimbabwe.
The community rallied with less than twenty-four hours. The Student Clinic for Immigrant Justice sent out its call to all organizations of immigrant workers, who in turn mobilized their bases to Moakley Courthouse demanding Ruth’s release the next day. Unionists and organizers spread the emergency call by word of mouth, including throughout Boston DSA.
At noon on Wednesday, April 30, people poured out to Moakley Courthouse. One community member welcomed the crowd with song. Jonathan Goldman, executive director of the Student Clinic for Immigrant Justice, said:
Ruth is a 70-year-old grandmother, a mother, a wife, and a beloved member of our community. She’s the type of person who wants to make sure you always go home with leftovers so you have something to eat, the first person to turn on the music to dance together, the sort of person who rallies together our staff to throw a surprise birthday for me after she’s only been working there for two months. That’s the sort of person Ruth is.
Jaya Savita, director of the Asian and Pacific Islander Civic Action Network and coordinator of the LUCE Immigrant Justice Network, said:
“The Trump Administration is using deportations as a way to repress working families and also now as a way to silence people and hold cities that speak out for justice and defy him. Across Massachusetts, we refused to be silenced. We refuse to stop defending our immigrant residents from this state violence. On the eve of International Workers’ Day, we’re calling on the public elected leaders and the media to be in solidarity with immigrant worker women of color — like Ruth.”
The organizations that bottomlined the Wednesday solidarity action followed the mass mobilization of community members with mass emails, legal proceedings, and further statements of pressure from prominent Boston community leaders. “Ruth is a lawful green card holder residing in Worcester, and her only crime seems to be working with a known immigrant non-profit,” the organization argued.
The next day, the government rescinded its “motion for detention.” Ruth was released on International Workers’ Day.
Abductions in Waltham
By: Brad L
WALTHAM, MA – On Sunday, May 4th, I was on the scene immediately following an ICE raid in Waltham. I watched the secret police get in their all-black Dodge Chargers, Dodge Durangos, and Chevy Tahoes. An anonymous source informed me that this was the second one they knew about that day. It was only 10AM.
That same day, in the same Waltham suburb, ICE abducted a third neighbor. They kidnapped an adult and abandoned the child that was with the adult in the street. Volunteers helped the kid get home while the secret police filmed the volunteers in mockery.
It’s clear that ICE local attacks’ geographic spread is informed by Greater Boston’s own history of rigid segregation and layout of immigrant communities. Dense and vibrant concentrations of immigrant neighborhoods in East Boston, Chinatown, Mattapan, Chelsea, and Quincy seem to be particular targets of the Trump Administration. Another is Waltham, home to new immigrant communities from Guatemala, China, India, Haiti, and Uganda, as well as immigrant workers key to Boston’s construction, domestic, and academic industries.
At this point, it has become clear that Boston and its metropolitan area is a special target of the secret police terrorizing immigrant worker communities nationwide. Boston’s “sanctuary city” status has made the city a target to the Trump Administration currently also in a public war with Harvard University, one of Greater Boston’s largest employers. According to Tom Homan, ICE’s seizure of 370 people from their homes, workplaces, and places of worship in just the March wave of abductions in Massachusetts was a direct response to the Governor’s and Boston Mayor’s apparent efforts to prevent the Boston Police Department from cooperating with ICE.
This is what fascism looks like: a violent crackdown on a city as punishment for even weak attempts to defend residents.
Since the city has proven unable to defend us, organizers continue to build grassroots community defense. One of these is the LUCE Immigrant Justice Network, an entirely volunteer-run and immigrant-led organization that coordinates immigration defense in Massachusetts, which organized the release of Ruth Mufute on International Workers’ Day.
Boston DSA’s Internationalism and Immigration Working Group (IIWG) is also organizing a strategic campaign and building relationships with immigrant rights coalitions. Anthony O-F, co-chair of IIWG, told Working Mass:
We’ve established nascent relationships with immigrant rights groups across eastern Massachusetts such as MIRA (Boston DSA has formally joined) and BIJAN (collaboration partner). We’ve done a lot of organizer trainings to do ICE watch work and know your rights talks.
Since then, IIWG has formally solidified its ICE watch plan. Organizers have agreed to combine a campaign against the State House for safe communities and rent stabilization legislation with ICE watch hotline trainings and mass education to combat the secret police.
Keeping the Heat on ICE
By: James N and Brad L
WORCESTER, MA — Three days before Mother’s Day, on Thursday, May 8, ICE arrested a grandmother: Rosane Ferreira De-Oliveira.
Rosane’s violent arrest was the culmination of twenty-four hours of terrorizing unleashed by ICE on one Brazilian family in Worcester. First, they arrested Clara Moura’s partner and father of her three-month old son on his way to work. Then, they told Clara that she needed to sign documents at an immigration facility the next day. Clara Moura left with her sister and infant, was detained by ICE, and forced to ask her mother Rosane Ferreira De-Oliveira to leave her home to take her grandchild during Clara’s arrest. As soon as Rosane stepped out onto Eureka Street, ICE left Clara alone and abducted Rosane. The Rolling Stone described the secret police’s strategy for what it was: using her daughter as bait to kidnap Rosane.
The outrageous arrest by ICE and subsequent response by city police galvanized activists, residents, and organizers.
By the time the arrest culminated, around twenty-five people had begun intervening directly. Federal agents were surrounded by community members chanting for the secret police to stop and screaming “Where’s the warrant?” and “Don’t take the mother!” as they surrounded the car where Rosane was held. An agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) was also on the scene, according to one witness. Community members hounded ICE agents until ICE agents called the Worcester Police Department, who intervened militarily, suppressing the popular crowd and escorting the unmarked car of the secret police from the scene. Many audience members reported Worcester police used excessive force by pinning the 16-year-old sister of Clara Moura to the ground.
Claire S.D. volunteers with LUCE, who received a tip through their hotline about ICE activity on Eureka Street in Worcester. Claire and other members of their rapid response team reported to the scene as the popular crowd unfurled around agents. One glimmer of hope amidst the ICE crackdown, Claire said, was the response by Worcester residents and activists who tried to stop ICE agents.
The community intervened. They intervened to send a message that there’s another force, nonviolent power. The immigrant is so central to Worcester .. and these raids are an affront to who we are.
Claire also noted the arrests of three women, one of them holding an infant, occurred just prior to Mothers Day.
Worcester City Manager Eric Batista performed impressive moral dodgeball in his press conference on the incident. “I want to reassure our community that the municipality will never target individuals based on their immigration status and reaffirm that the City of Worcester and Worcester Police Department does not assist with ICE civil detainments, according to Massachusetts State Law, but may not interfere with it,” Batista said. “However, it is the municipality and department’s responsibility to uphold the law and protect the peace of our community.”
In other words, Worcester’s city manager was careful to underscore that the police does not assist ICE, but does not interfere, and if there was a threat, and the police did happen to assist ICE, then that was because it’s to uphold the law and protect Worcester from immigrants.
Batista did not earn favor for that response.
On Friday, May 9, hundreds marched from City Hall to the Worcester Police Department to stand against ICE and the city’s police response. Jake S, Worcester DSA organizer and communications chair, said at the rally:
Cops aren’t here to protect us either, and every time they get the chance, they show us whose side they’re really on, whether that means cracking skulls on picket lines or ripping apart immigrant families,
Mayor Joseph Petty filed an order with the city clerk asking Batista and the police chief to create a written policy on how the city interacts with ICE. The Mayor’s request indicates the city has no formal policy about ICE interactions.
Jake S continued:
Instead of listening to [Batista] justify more police funding and tax breaks, Worcester DSA is going to host our own State of the Workers address to let him hear what we think of his management style.
The State of the Workers address on Wednesday, May 21 was held directly outside of Worcester City Hall. As Eric Batista delivered his State of the City speech, he was drowned out by the sounds of activists in the audience yelling “ICE out of Worcester!” and “Batista out of office!” until they were escorted out by security. Worcester DSA held its forum for the wider working class outside the venue. They accused Batista and the municipal government of siding with the Worcester Police Department’s abetting of the ICE raid on Eureka Street, as well as its own self-investigation of excessive force, racial discrimination, and brutal accounts of regular sexual assault. Jake S went on to call for the abolition of ICE itself:
Our demand is not so simple as ‘come back with a warrant,’ And we don’t just want ICE out of Worcester — we want ICE out of business! We’re against all attempts to underpay, illegalize, disorganize, or otherwise precaritize immigrant labor, and that includes opposing separate punishments like deportations.
Meanwhile, Clara Moura put together a GoFundMe for financial support after ICE’s attack on her family. As of this writing, they have yet to reach their own fundraising goal. You can support them in reaching here.
ICE Attacks A High School
By: Travis Wayne
SOMERVILLE, MA – On Thursday, May 29, ICE staged an attack on Somerville High School, only to be repelled by a large crowd protecting students during dismissal. Students all escaped without abduction and the crowd dispersed by 4PM.
LUCE was joined by mutual aid groups in mobilizing people to the scene before the high school bells rang and ICE descended. Crowds of Somerville residents that showed up just two months earlier at Powder House within hours appeared to defend students at Somerville High’s dismissal with only an hour of warning. Two ICE vehicles had been confirmed on Highland Avenue.
Local workers also indicated to Working Mass that they’d been seen in East Somerville earlier, prior to the high school raid.
As early as February, East Somerville community leaders told City Council that their clients at immigrant restaurants were being pushed into hiding by ICE. Many businesses are worried that the secret police would force them to close their doors by emptying the streets of East Somerville of foot traffic. About 75% of Somerville enterprises are immigrant-owned.
Somerville High School wasn’t the first school in the Greater Boston area where students have been forced to flee ICE. The secret police’s tinted windows were spotted by an anonymous schoolteacher and Boston DSA member in her workplace on May 12, as well. “We couldn’t even walk the kids to the park, we snuck back outside,” the teacher reported.
But the cars weren’t there for a raid. Instead, they utilized the school lot as a staging ground. Organizers and immigrant activists now suspect ICE uses some parts of the metro area as staging grounds, others as target raid zones.
The crowd at Somerville High School dwindled by 4PM. Organizers began mobilizing people to the next action: protecting students coming to school. Residents reported back to the high school the next morning at 7:15AM.
But on Friday, May 30, ICE was gone.
Towards Community Defense
By: Reid Jackson
Boston, MA – New England finds itself on the front lines of authoritarian overreach once again, just like nearly 250 years ago in the struggle for the nation’s independence against the British Empire. From Worcester to Boston, the threat of ICE looms over our communities as the secret police targets the most vulnerable members of our Commonwealth. The Trump Administration has targeted immigrant workers in justice organizations, like Ruth, and baited grandmothers out by hostaging their children, like Rosane. Organizations like LUCE and MIRA continue to build up a volunteer base capable of instituting the first steps necessary to stop ICE.
One of the most powerful tools in ICE’s arsenal is that ICE has the benefit of making the first move, often without warning, against the targets they want. They attack at the best time for them and the worst time for any resistance to organize. But we do know now multiple points of information about their movements. We know they hold staging locations, as observed by one Boston DSA member and schoolteacher at work, and we have observed the pattern of which cars they use for patrols in New England, at minimum: Dodge Chargers, Dodge Durangos, and Chevy Tahoes. LUCE posted other information for community awareness as ICE raids increased in May:
Beyond reporting to LUCE for rapid response to both raid and staging locations, as well as building up the volunteer network of hotline responders, there iss another potential step to combat ICE raids: mapping. Mapping involved collecting enough data about these raids to populate projects like the Immigrant Defense Project has piloted to outline areas ICE is likely to target, geomapping where to allocate watch group resources. This map would have to be regularly updated with reliable reports from a hotline like LUCE’s, but make reaching individuals before ICE has a chance to detain them far easier. This has shown promise in New York community defense.
As we build up our community defense today, we can look to historic resistance groups that did even more with less. In 1966, the Black Panther Party of California took advantage of the state’s open carry laws at the time and literally “policed the police” by following cruisers around in their own vehicles and intervening with their weapons drawn if any traffic stops would occur. It’s hard to say how this would result in de-escalating violence with today’s hyper-militarized police if similar tactics were used, nor is it clear how we can track secret police movements without a base of community connected enough for rapid response. Geomapping represents a step towards making Panther tactics possible.
This wave of ICE raids seems to have receded. It’s possible that multiple high-profile incidents caught by the media have brought too much heat to the federal agency’s Massachusetts operations. Incidents such as Tufts University graduate student Rümeysa Oztürk’s kidnapping in broad daylight in Somerville and the disturbing video of both ICE and the Worcester Police Department working to detain Rosane amidst a popular crowd of twenty-five fighting back shook across Massachusetts. But so did the possibility for collective power. The crowd forced ICE to call for reinforcements in Worcester while beating them back from their raid in Somerville. People power works.
But the situation may worsen. On Thursday, May 22, the House of Representatives passed Donald Trump’s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” with one big pile of planned attacks on the working class. These include benefits for the rich and historic cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, the vestiges of welfare remaining in the starved American bureaucracy. They also include deep stripping of access to HRT, ensuring trans death, leading the entire bill to be described by trans organizers as a “Murder Budget.” Most forbodingly for organizers focusing on defending against ICE abductions, the bill headed to the U.S. Senate includes $45 billion for detention facilities, $14 billion for deportation operations, and funds for 10,000 new secret police agents by 2029.
We’ll need the collective organization to fight.
Travis Wayne is the deputy managing editor of Working Mass and the co-chair of the Somerville branch of Boston DSA.
Brad L is a community organizer in Massachusetts focused on building grassroots power and fighting for healthcare justice.
James N is a member of Worcester DSA.
Reid Jackson is a contributing writer to Working Mass and a former member of the YDSA at the University of Rhode Island.
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