JALSA in Jewish Journal on Immigration Policy

Full article at this link.

Massachusetts Jewish groups aid migrants facing deportation

Inspired by social justice values from the Torah, Cindy Rowe runs a Boston-based nonprofit organization called Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action, or JALSA, as its president and CEO. One of the organization’s current projects is advocating for “Dignity Not Deportations” – legislation that would limit Massachusetts’ cooperation with federal immigration authorities seeking to deport undocumented migrants under the new policies of the Trump administration.

“We want to be on the right side of history,” Rowe said. “So many of us have stories in our family life about immigrant ancestors who needed to flee the countries they were in. Our country brought them in and they made lives for themselves. That’s why we are here today.

“Today, immigrants are not safe. They are fleeing economic devastation, political upheaval. We, in our Jewish values, this is what we do: We create welcoming environments for people in need of refuge, people who need safe haven.”

Since the Trump administration assumed power in January, it has ramped up actions against undocumented migrants, including through raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials. These raids have taken place across the United States, including Boston.

JALSA and other local Jewish nonprofits are fighting back. They are doing this by supporting legislative initiatives; participating in communitywide rallies; and partnering with other organizations that protect the rights of immigrants and migrants in the U.S., including those who are undocumented.

The “Dignity Not Deportations” legislation would immediately withdraw Massachusetts from a type of contract with ICE called a 287(g) agreement, in which state or local law enforcement personnel can be used to aid ICE, and from another kind of contract called an Intergovernmental Service Agreement, through which state and local facilities can be used for undocumented detainees.

Partnerships with similarly minded organizations are another way that area Jewish nonprofits are helping defend migrants in the U.S.

The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston (JCRC) teamed up with the Massachusetts Council of Churches and representatives of the state attorney general’s office and the Office for Refugees and Immigrants to hold a Jan. 28 webinar for over 1,200 faith leaders, including ministers, rabbis, and congregational leaders. The webinar addressed how faith leaders can assist migrants under the changing rules of the new administration, such as stripping the protection that houses of worship previously gave to the undocumented.

“There’s a long tradition of law enforcement not executing certain actions inside churches and synagogues,” JCRC CEO Jeremy Burton said. “We feel it’s important to protect the right to sacred space. There’s a real fear among immigrant populations about just going to church right now.”

In general, Burton said, “We’re certainly aware of what our partners in the immigration reform advocacy sector — for example, MIRA [the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition] or, for example, some of our church partners are telling us.”

In December, the Boston Workers Circle for Jewish Culture and Social Justice (BWC) joined over 50 partnering organizations for an anti-deportation protest outside the John F. Kennedy Federal Building in Boston.

“We’re here to support all sorts of immigrant organizations in opposition to all of this,” said Rebecca Zimmerman Hornstein, executive director of BWC.

She and other organization leaders interviewed pointed to Jewish values and history as motivations for their respective group’s work on behalf of the undocumented.

“The Torah says we are committed to welcoming the stranger into our midst,” Hornstein said. “Remember, we were ‘Strangers in the land of Egypt,’ welcome those outside our own community. It’s a very core part of Jewish tradition. I think the Jewish community really knows what it means to be vilified and scapegoated.”

The JCRC’s Burton said that his organization is motivated to defend immigrant rights through, in part, “a foundational principle of Jewish values of human dignity, B’tselem Elohim, we’re all created in God’s image. There is a long tradition by the American Jewish community of supporting the idea of America as a welcoming country for immigrants and refugees.”

Defenders of the current raids have pointed out they target undocumented migrants with criminal backgrounds. For example, a Jan. 22 raid in Boston detained an alleged Haitian gang member, Wisteguens Jean Quely Charles, whom ICE said had 17 criminal convictions in Massachusetts over a nearly two-year span.

“They’re not targeting people without a criminal history right now,” said Thomas Hodgson, a former sheriff of Bristol County and the 2024 Trump campaign chair in Massachusetts.

Regarding those with a criminal background, Hodgson said, “They’ll do everything they can to locate them and have them removed. With regard to others who do not have a criminal history, they can be — in the course of the proceedings — arrested being there. They’re subject, also, to being arrested. They’re also in violation of the law.”

Leaders of Jewish nonprofits were asked whether they draw a distinction between undocumented migrants with criminal and non-criminal backgrounds.

“[The] law is very clear,” Burton said. “A noncitizen convicted of a crime can be deported,” although there needs to be “due process for doing so. That was true before the most recent law [the Laken Riley Act] passed. It remains true. I would say there’s near-zero support in our network for convicted criminals — certainly [for] convicted violent criminals being here. Becoming an American is a privilege.”

JALSA’s Rowe cited a May 2024 analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice, “Debunking the Myth of the ‘Migrant Crime Wave’,” which reported that undocumented immigrants have lower incarceration rates than native-born Americans, historically and in recent years.

“They are more law-abiding than your average U.S. citizen,” she said. “I make the analogy, you’re pointing to the one example, not looking at the millions of families, millions of people in the country, building lives for themselves and for their families, getting workforce training, English language training, entering professions we need people for in our communities … filling our economic needs in this state.”