GRP members issued a statement and joined with others outside the StateHouse this winter to vociferously oppose the possibility of MA signing on to the so-called “Secure Communities” program.
Deval Patrick has announced that he will NOT sign on.
Credit to those who demonstrated–and to our Governor. It’s a controversial issue, I’m pretty sure the majority are in favor–and he did the courageous thing here.
See, there are no demons. And see what happens when we all work together?
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The people that deserve credit are the organizers, activists, and members of groups like Centro Presente that initiated the opposition to this program in a public way (AFSC, ACLU, several national orgs, etc also deserve a pat on the back).
I wouldn’t call what Patrick did “courageous”. If he was the first Democratic governor to do it (Quinn in Illinois and Cuomo in New York beat him) I would say “thank him for leading the pack”. The commendable facet to this is that he is breaking with Obama on the administration’s enforcement push. Luckily the immigrant rights movement united to take this program out and its strategy is showing here and elsewhere.
Patrick has been pro-immigrant on some very important issues, like healthcare funding for legal immigrants and in-state tuition for undocumented students (i.e. he already lost the anti-immigrant vote and a good chunk of moderates on those issues). Doesn’t mean he has delivered on those public stances perfectly, and with this he sat on his hands while S-Comm was being implemented in Boston despite opposition from immigrant allies.
There are no demons, I shook the guy’s hand two weeks ago for supporting legislation on another issue, but there are no saints either. Working together and collaboration is great, but power is what matters. The immigrant rights movement has suffered some big defeats lately and this kind of victory shows its strength and continued potential.