Local UUs Organize for Immigrant Justice

In an effort to ensure that immigrant communities feel safe, local UUs have joined with local immigrant rights organizations to ask Massachusetts Governor Duval Patrick, Boston City Mayor Menino and other politicians to withdraw support for Secure Communities (S-COMM).

Derek Mitchell, UU Holdeen India Program Director; Rev. Terry Burke of First Church in Jamaica Plain Unitarian Universalist; Alex Kapitan, UUA Congregational Justice Administrator, (pictured right) were among the Unitarian Universalists who joined local organizations to hand deliver "Restoring Community," a report endorsed by the UUA which outlines the failure of the S-COMM to keep immigrant communities safe. [Read more.]

S-COMM is a program established by the Department of Homeland Securities to deport anyone who is undocumented who commits a crime by sending fingerprints taken by local law enforcement to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The program has resulted in the deportation of many people who have committed only minor crimes or who have committed no crimes at all, resulting in the breakup of families and the breakdown of trust in law enforcement.

Governor Patrick and Mayor Menino have both told ICE the state and the city respectively are no longer willing to comply with the program.