Pressley, advocates pledge to coordinate legal aid moves
A group of nine migrant workers, including some who were working with permission in the United States but were nevertheless seized and hauled away in chains by ICE agents at an Allston car wash last month, spoke out about their ordeal on Monday afternoon during a roundtable discussion organized by US Rep. Ayanna Pressley.
Seven of the nine people seized by ICE agents during the Nov. 4 raid have since been released on bonds, but two remain in federal custody and may be deported.
Advocates and attorneys for the Allston Nine said more than $70,000 in donations have poured in to assist their families with rent and other needs as they remain unable to work and still face federal hearings about their status.
The incident is the most high-profile example in Boston to date of aggressive tactics by masked agents targeting Black and Brown residents without criminal records. In some instances, people seized by ICE are being shipped out of state and sometimes deported without legal representation or a hearing, advocates asserted during a press briefing.
In the Allston case, with coordination from City Councillor Liz Breadon and Pressley’s office, legal aid was brought to bear quickly enough to secure the release of seven of the nine, but only after persistent pressure. One of the seven who was on hand at Monday’s press briefing had been flown to a Louisiana detention facility before her attorney could secure her release.
Editorial— Racial profiling runs amok in Allston
“This took a coordinated community response to ensure that these workers were granted their constitutional right to due process,” Pressley said. “This [raid] was unlawful, unconscionable, and unconstitutional. I’m deeply relieved that my team… could work with our community members to bring seven of these nine workers home.
“But let me be clear [about] Donald Trump’s terror campaign, and that is what it is, because this was never about public safety. And none of us are safer in a terrorized state. This is stoking bigotry, racism, hate and terrorizing our communities, and we’re all being made less safe by this terror campaign.”
During an earlier roundtable discussion, several of the formerly detained workers described the mid-afternoon raid at their place of business as sudden, violent, and traumatic.
One man— a 67-year-old who had worked at the car wash for more than 20 years— said his passport, work permits, and other documents were seized by federal agents and have not yet been returned to him, leaving him and his family in a state of limbo and poverty.
He described difficult conditions in a Burlington ICE facility and then a Plymouth County prison, where he and others were incarcerated before their release earlier this month.
City Councillor Liz Breadon spoke during a roundtable discussion on Monday in Allston. To her left is Attorney Todd Pomerleau. Bill Forry photo
Another young man detainee— identified only as Jose— was seized, shackled, and jailed for days without legal counsel, even though his attorney says he was legally in the country with work permits. Jose turned 20 on the day he was released, according to Attorney Todd Pomerleau of the Massachusetts Deportation Defense group.
Several of the Allston Nine group recounted that they were pressured by ICE officials to sign documents waiving their rights to seek hearings or to authorize their deportation without any legal representation.
Pomerleau said that ICE officials who claimed that the round-up was simply a routine “audit” of a local business are lying.
“These are nine hardworking, God-fearing people stripped from their communities under the guise of mass deportation now,” said Pomerleau. “Not one of them has a criminal record. And the government lost seven cases in her own federal court and before an immigration judge. Not one lawyer from the Department of Homeland Security claimed that any of them had criminal records despite the rhetoric. So, let’s get the record straight: None of these people are criminal, illegal aliens. They are people deserving of dignity and respect.”
Pressley called the federal abuses “deeply alarming. A senior denied their medication, a young woman unable to shower or eat for days. People forced to endure harsh conditions in the lobby of a processing facility, not designed or equipped for living the inhumanity, the indignity, the cruelty of it all.”
Pressley later said the “federal agents are nothing more than glorified bullies masquerading as public servants. They are ripping men, women, and children from our communities.”
Stephanie Rosa Rodriguez, who works with the MIRA Coalition, said a new hotline has been set up in coordination with the Committee for Public Council Services to help people connect with legal aid.
“We know that with proper representation, immigrants in detention are ten times more likely to win relief from deportation,” said Rodriguez, who said the “centralized intake and a referral system…will work with detained and non detained individuals from Massachusetts.”
The number for the referral system is 508-505-4588.
Brooke Simone, a staff attorney at Lawyers for Civil Rights, called the Allston ICE raid “a discriminatory operation that was fueled by racism, that was carried out with violence and aggression. And that was designed to instill fear.”
“Despite what the Trump administration says, these are hardworking people. They were just doing their jobs, contributing to the economy, and providing incredibly needed services, all while supporting their families. And ICE agents stormed in, grabbed them and handcuffed them, and then confined them in detention facilities that were at least for one person a few thousand miles away from Boston,” she said.
Pressley added: “As these cases move through the immigration court, my office will continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with workers of the hundreds of families from across the Massachusetts seventh who have reached out seeking help.
“You cannot appease this administration. History has shown us that is not the way to beat authoritarianism or to beat a dictator. The only way to beat a dictator, and that is what we have in the Oval office, is with defiance.”
