A Letter from Lily Huang
Hi friends,
I hope you are doing well. I want to talk about something that is important to me. I organize on the side with the Student Immigrant Movement (www.simforus.com) and we are organizing against the MA amendments that were just passed in the Senate (Senate Amendment 172.1). And I hope that you and your group join our campaign as sponsors.
These amendments were introduced less than 24 hours the decision time and went through little debate passed 28-10. These budget amendments, if accepted by the House of Rep, would detrimentally affect our immigrant and greater community. These amendments include:
- Requiring businesses that work with the state to use some system (like E-verify) to verify paperwork, or the business will lose contract with government and be fined. (Verifying immigration status for employees is the federal government’s responsibility, not our state’s job.)
- Fining higher penalties for being caught with false documents, for example from $50 to $250 for ID’s
- Denying access to assisted housing programs for undocumented people (This would leave many U.S. citizen children and family members homeless and increase government spending on motels, shelters and housing in the future.)
- Requiring stricter requirements for housing, social security and health benefits, documented or undocumented (This is redundant for undocumented peoples because they currently receive no social security, welfare nor food stamps, receive basic necessary health insurance and do not benefits in the federal housing projects and vouchers. This requirement would make receiving benefits for all, especially poor and lower income people, more difficult and stricter.)
- Creating an anonymous tip line to report suspicious people using false documents, business hiring undocumented people and people who are undocumented and mandating investigations of all no matter how uncredible the reports are. (This is a hateful part of the law, requiring neighbors to spy and report on neighbors, ex-partners, students and hearsay. This is putting the federal government’s job of immigration reform in the hands of the MA state investigators and in individuals’ hands which would bankrupt and use tax dollars to follow up on less than credible reports.
- Barring undocumented students from receiving In-State tuition. (This is redundant since MA undocumented students do not receive In-State tuition but it would block the five years of work that the Student Immigrant Movement has done to push for In-State tuition for undocumented students.)
- Blocking limited and basic health care for undocumented people. (This is hateful and dangerous for the immigrant community as well as public health, creating barriers to basic health care for all, which is a human right, and therefore putting us all at risk for higher emergency costs, communal diseases and sicknesses.)
We need to do something about these amendments and tell our Representatives and Senators that they do not represent what the people of MA want or need, we do not want Arizona in Massachusetts, we do not want the most hateful and anti-immigrant bill created in the last five years and we do not want to scapegoat our immigrant community for greater socio-economic issues. We need to do something because yesterday I was at the SIM planning retreat yesterday and I was in a room where my undocumented friends were crying:
Maria’s mother is diabetic and needs medication so if we let these amendments pass, her family will be forced to go back to Mexico and Maria an 17-year old, would be left in E. Boston without a family and attending her first year of college without her family’s support.
Maria is diabetic and if these budget amendments passed, she would be forced to leave UMass Boston and Revere, the only home she knows and to go back to Chile, a country that she doesn’t know and where she doesn’t know anyone.
Ella who is a student from Bunker Hill, is very worried. She spent her college savings to bring her sister from Guatemala across the border. After getting stuck in Mexico and trying SIX times, she successfully crossed when she was 8 months pregnant. Now Erika and her sister are taking care of the 1 month old baby. She is worried that if someone reported her and her sister, there would be no one to tell law enforcement that they are the baby’s guardians, that they need the baby to be with them and to take care of the baby.
Because our friends were hurting and thousands across MA are scared and already talking about the repression and the pressure to leave, we had to turn our fears into hope and action. Student Immigrant Movement is planning a campaign and is inviting all allies to join in sponsoring a sustaining all day and all night vigil in front of the State House that starts today and will not end until the Senate, House of Representatives and Governor Patrick address the amendments and understand that this is not what MA wants.
Will you please join our campaign “Mass Hope 2010” as a sponsor?
When you join, you and your organization can decide to what extent and capacity you can commit to the campaign. We need signatures on the petition and your name as a sponsor. We also need organizations and people to put on daily, weekly or special events such as interpreter trainings, organizing workshops, futbol games, language classes, etc. We also invite you to host your organizational meetings or workshops in front of the State House during the time of the vigil. As a whole campaign, we will communicate and make our decisions together. We will decide how to continue our vigil, have our events in front of the State House, how to mobilize and organize our communities and fight together!
Please let me know as soon as possible as the vigil started Monday June 7th at 5PM and we will have a media and community “kick-off” in the coming week.
All my best,
Lily