Tuesday, December 10, 2024
Speaker Ron Mariano
24 Beacon St.
Room 356
Boston, MA, 02133
Senate President Karen Spilka
24 Beacon St.
Room 332
Boston, MA, 02133
Speaker Mariano and Senate President Spilka,
Residents across Massachusetts have responded to the recent presidential election with fear and anxiety about what will come from a second Trump administration. We know the damage caused from the first one: the harms done to civil rights, labor rights, environmental protections, immigrant communities, communities of color, LGBTQ rights, reproductive rights, health care access, public health infrastructure, and so much more.
Trump and the coming Republican Congress have been clear that they plan to continue these assaults. They and their allies have outlined it in Project 2025, which proposes a radical right-wing restructuring of the federal government and an attack on basic rights and freedoms that we in Massachusetts cherish.
States like Massachusetts have a responsibility to lead and push back: we must refuse to comply everywhere we can, we must shore up protections for marginalized communities in the Commonwealth, and we must chart a clear course for what accountable progressive governance looks like and how it delivers for us all.
This work ahead will follow different timelines, but what is clear now is we cannot wait until next January to get started. We ask you to be proactive, and not merely be reactive to the threats of the Trump administration. This extraordinary moment requires extraordinary action. Other states, such as California, have responded by coming back into session to pass additional protections. We urge you to come back into session as soon as possible this month to do the same.
Knowing that assaults on our immigrant communities will be immediate actions from the next Trump administration, we urge you to take up legislation this December to protect our state’s immigrant communities, including but not limited to provisions found in bills S.1510/H.2288 and S.997/H.1401:
- Guarantee that Massachusetts resources are used for state priorities, not federal immigration enforcement, by ending the state Department of Corrections’ 287(g) agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and ensuring that state and local police will not inquire about immigration status
- End ICE detention in Massachusetts and prohibit the deputization of local officials to act as ICE agents
- Protect access to courts by prohibiting police and court officials from initiating contact with ICE about a person’s pending release from police or court custody, except at the end of a sentence of incarceration
- Ensure the safety and well-being of the residents of the Commonwealth and those traveling from other states for reproductive care by shoring up privacy rights and banning the purchase and sale of personal cell phone location data.
If old patterns hold, then the Legislature will reconvene in January, committees will be assigned in February, hearings will continue for the next year, and little if any legislation will be passed and signed into law in the first half of 2025. We saw the damage of the first Trump administration, and we cannot afford that wait.
We appreciate past efforts to proactively respond to right-wing federal action. After the Supreme Court’s shameful Dobbs decision in late June of 2022, you took quick action to provide legal protections to abortion providers, out-of-state patients, and insurers; expand access to contraceptives; and help ensure that women who face grave circumstances get the care they need.
We ask that you once again step up. We look forward to working with you in December and also in the coming years to counter the threats posed by the Trump administration. Our Commonwealth must take action at this moment and respond, and we must be flexible now, which means proactively passing legislation in December before this session ends.
Sincerely,
Indivisible Mass Coalition
Progressive Mass
Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Coalition
Act On Mass
American Federation of Teachers – MA
Asian American Resource Workshop
Asian Pacific Islanders Civic Action Network – MA
CARE Action, Inc
Clean Water Action
MassEquality
Mass Peace Action
Our Revolution Massachusetts
Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts
Indivisible Acton Area
IndivisibleLAB
Valley Action
