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By: Kelly Regan & Travis Wayne
ALLSTON, MA – On Monday, November 17, sixty people crossed Allston to assemble at Marsh Plaza on Commonwealth Avenue in response to a flurry of rapid-response organizing by Boston Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
Community members rallied after ICE’s abduction of nine Allston Car Wash employees on November 4. The raid disappeared people from families across the community as the Car Wash itself closed its doors. Exhaling into frigid night air, angry community members held up signs that read “Bring Them Home,” “ICE Out of Boston Now,” and “Keep Families Together.”
Days after the raid, Boston University (BU) student Zac Segal took credit on social media for calling in ICE. Segal claims to have been calling ICE for months in an attempt to ensure workers were abducted.
Segal, president of Boston University’s College Republicans, has faced immense backlash from the local Allston community.
“This abduction in my neighborhood, in our neighborhood, is personal,” shouted Destiney McGrann, who graduated from Boston University and organizes with Allston-Brighton DSA. “How dare a member of BU – my school – participate in this act of terror?”
Another Phase in the Sanctuary Campus Movement
Members of the Back Bay Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) mobilized students to the rally. Among them were many students who were themselves vulnerable to abduction abetted by Boston University.
The institution still refuses to declare itself a sanctuary campus to protect its own immigrant students amidst abductions in its backyard.
“We demand that BU enact policies that they are legally able to enact, to safeguard its community from federal overreach,” said one student organizer. They also noted that, “on the BU campus, over 2000 students have signed the YDSA petition to make BU a sanctuary campus.”
For Boston University students, the organizing campaign to compel the institution harboring Zac Segal a sanctuary campus stretches back to the beginning of the year – when federal attacks began.
YDSA launched the campaign immediately after Trump took power, echoing back to the 2016-2017 Sanctuary Campus movement, before escalating in April 2025.
The Sanctuary Campus campaign reached an end-of-winter high point on Marsh Plaza, in the same spot where DSA would rally students and community members in the cold November night several months of federal attacks later. On April 3, hundreds of Boston University students and faculty walked out of classes to assemble at Marsh Plaza to demand a sanctuary campus. Some students conducted a sit-in, which Boston University used to crack down on YDSA, before forty autonomous actors staged a direct action to escalate even further and with greater risk against Boston University in response to the university’s repression on April 16.
After suspending YDSA on April 7, which later regrouped during the summer in the wider Back Bay, Boston University went back to doing nothing: refusing to make any change to make the campus a sanctuary.
People continued to be abducted – including, devastatingly, nine workers at the Allston Car Wash just ten minutes from campus.
“ICE is a machine that is shrinking people’s lives,” said Bonnie Jin, co-chair of Boston DSA, “We’re making a parent into a case number, a neighbor into a risk. It’s designed to silence, but we were not built, Boston, for silence.”
Towards Community Defense
Back Bay YDSA already planned and organized a walkout for the end of the week: November 20. That’s just the first action. No one stands under any assumption that the moment constitutes anything but a new phase of pressure on Boston University.
“If you’re mad, you should feel the full weight of your anger,” said Hank, a pseudonym to protect one student vulnerable to ICE who stayed home from the rally for their own safety. “Use that anger to lead you to take you to the next step, to organize your neighborhood, your workplace and your campus. Work hard for a better tomorrow.”
The Allston community is gripped with the rage that Hank calls for – at Boston University, and at the federal government. Rally organizers listed off the organizations to become involved with: DSA, for organizing; Boston Immigration Justice Accompaniment Network (BIJAN), for mutual aid; and LUCE, for ICE Watch. McGrann roused the crowd to shout together:
“When we refuse to bow down, we win. Together, we keep us safe… so today, I beg you to make this commitment to protecting your neighborhood.”
The rally descended into a moment of silence, for the people stolen, before the crowd dispersed into smaller conversations. Jin put the crowd’s sentiment simply:
“Our coworkers are not collateral and our city is not a hunting ground.”
Kelly Regan is a member of the Allston-Brighton branch of Boston DSA.
Travis Wayne is the managing editor of Working Mass and a member of the Somerville branch of Boston DSA.
The post Allston Community Seethes and Rallies After ICE Abduction of Allston Car Wash Workers appeared first on Working Mass.
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