Immigrant Advocates Hold Picket Outside Patrick Book Signing in Protest of His Support for Secure Communities

Cambridge, MA - Last Friday, over 25 protestors representing several Boston area immigrant, labor and community organizations held a picket outside Gov. Deval Patrick's signing of his new memoir "Reason to Believe" at the First Church in Harvard Square. The demonstrators said they were there to criticize Patrick's support for Massachusetts' participation onto the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Secure Communities plan - which will share databases between local police departments and U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice in an effort to more easily identify undocumented immigrants.

Immigrant activists and allies believe that the upcoming implementation of the program will cause the arrest, detention and possible deportation of undocumented immigrants who are booked by local police for any reason - "regardless," as the immigrant advocacy organization Centro Presente put it in a recent press release, "of any other criminal record that they may or may not have." The picket was organized by several immigrant advocacy organizations including Centro, Boston May Day Committee, Jobs with Justice, AFSC, Colombia Vive, Mata Hari, Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition and Resist the Raids. The event concluded without incident. There were no counter-demonstrators and no arrests.

This article is a news brief.