In an essay this week, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh vowed to continue protecting the city's immigrant residents:
We will defend our friends, neighbors, and family members from any and all efforts to exclude them, harm them, or strip them of their rights. Boston is a city of inclusion, a city of compassion, a welcoming, diverse, global city. We’ll stay that way.
The road ahead may seem uncertain. But our values are unwavering, and our work is before us.
Although Boston is not formally a "sanctuary" city, Walsh and the City Council have directed BPD not to question or detain people based solely on their immigration status.
WBUR reports that if Donald Trump goes through with his threat to withhold federal funds from cities that don't roll over for ICE, Boston could ultimately lose $250 million.
Walsh says he's not yet thinking about where the city might be able to make up for lost federal funding, but instead said he will wait to see how things unfold after Trump takes office.
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Comments
I always love
By Ron Abbott
Wed, 11/16/2016 - 9:56am
How those with a lot always get those with a little to hate those with nothing.
Nicely stated
By Dave-from-Boston
Wed, 11/16/2016 - 1:13pm
Nicely stated
Time to call in favors
By anon²
Wed, 11/16/2016 - 9:57am
From all those buissinesses with sweet tax deals.
It be a shame if they were to go away.
$250m over what period of time?
By b from Ros
Wed, 11/16/2016 - 10:02am
It would be disastrous if it was yearly. If it was over 10 years, that might actually be manageable.
On the positive side - it could cut a lot of federal red tape. :)
Good question
By adamg
Wed, 11/16/2016 - 10:04am
'BUR didn't really get into that level of detail, but Walsh said that even in the worst case, he didn't think it would happen all at once. But that might be too rational a thought process.
I think it's annual
By erik g
Wed, 11/16/2016 - 10:17am
'BUR links the city budget in the article, though it's not an especially easy one to read. My initial takeaway is that the $250 million number might indeed be annual, but a lot of that money is tied up in things that the executive has no authority to withhold, like Title 1 and school lunches and IDEA funding. I mean, Trump is the kind of petty, vengeful madman who might very well try to pull special education funding to punish a city for thumbing its nose at him, but it would spawn a lawsuit that would last longer than his term of office.
New York is a sanctuary city
By Kinopio
Wed, 11/16/2016 - 10:26am
New York is a sanctuary city I believe. Can you imagine Trump screwing over his hometown like that? The guy is a total piece of garbage but he still plans to live there, so I doubt he would try such a thing. And if he is going to do this, he'd have to do it to all the cities.
Yeah right
By anon
Wed, 11/16/2016 - 11:04am
Trump doesn't love the poor people of the Bronx or Queens or wherever. He loves the NYC which is one of the capitals of the world full of globally important people and institutions because it makes him more important a player to be a 'someone' there. If Manhattan remains a home to the 1%, which it would, then he doesn't care about the rest of the city.
Yes, I can see it
By BostonDog
Wed, 11/16/2016 - 11:48am
At this point Trump and his cronies are set for life so his concern is zilch.
Most policies will be set by Ryan and Pence. They have no connection or concern about cities. If anything else, anything they can do to lower voter turn out and punish Democratic strongholds is fair game in their book.
Trump's BFF Chris Christie saw nothing wrong with screwing over his own NJ constituents in an effort to "punish" a mayor who didn't play by his rules. This is the sort of attitude we're going to see a lot of in the next four years.
By his cronies
By bosguy22
Wed, 11/16/2016 - 12:42pm
You mean every Republican and Democrat in the Federal Government right?
vengeance
By Sharon
Wed, 11/16/2016 - 3:22pm
On PBS’s Frontline back in September(?), Omarosa, who was director of African-American outreach for Trump’s campaign, stated one of the reasons (chief among them) for his decision to run, resentments. There are clips of her segment on youtube. Her statements, and how she delivers them, is a bit chilling.
“Every critic, every detractor, will have to bow down to President Trump,†she says. “It’s everyone who’s ever doubted Donald, whoever disagreed, whoever challenged him — it is the ultimate revenge to become the most powerful man in the universe.â€
Omarosa went on to say that he keeps a vendetta *list* of ego-transgressors.
So pretty much, blue states are screwed & it's highly-likely funding will be stripped anyway whichever way you slice it.. So the question is, are we going to cower?
Your headline is misleading
By anon
Wed, 11/16/2016 - 10:19am
"Walsh vows to protect immigrants"
Immigrants have nothing to worry about.
Illegal Immigrants with criminal backgrounds do
BPD vs. ICE?
By O-FISH-L
Wed, 11/16/2016 - 10:44am
President-elect Trump has stated the deportations will start with those who have committed crimes in addition to cutting the line to get here. Seems more than reasonable. Given law enforcement's overwhelming support for Trump and his immigration stance, does Walsh intend to send the Boston Police to interfere with ICE or will he keep the criminal illegals in his office like Assange in the embassy? Good luck!
"Deportations will start"
By APB
Wed, 11/16/2016 - 10:45am
"Start" is a deeply troubling word.
Go walk across the border
By CCD
Wed, 11/16/2016 - 11:27am
Go walk across the border into Mexico and see what happens.
Not troubling - inaccurate
By Jeff F
Wed, 11/16/2016 - 10:58am
People who are here illegally and commit crimes are already subject to deportation - and the rate that this happens has been going up under Obama's two terms in office. In fact, it's quite a bit higher than the rate under his predessesor.
So there is no 'start' here. People who think that Trump will be doing something new here are just blinkered - either from bigotry or ideology.
That is false. ICE is simply
By CCD
Wed, 11/16/2016 - 11:29am
That is false. ICE is simply letting people through and giving them a date to show up for court. Well guess what happens when they don't show up?
How about the numerous people that actually do get deported and somehow make their way back into the country to then commit additional crimes? That needs to stop.
Bingo
By Will LaTulippe
Wed, 11/16/2016 - 11:40am
It's not an immigration problem, it's an emigration problem.
citation? It looks like you're just making this up.
By Jeff F
Wed, 11/16/2016 - 11:44am
"Just letting people through"? As I stated above - blinkered by either bigotry or ideology.
Sanctuary Cities
By John-W
Wed, 11/16/2016 - 11:37am
Correct. And, the Sanctuary City thing is really an annoying term as it has no real definition. Legally there are many things that can be done to protect undocumented immigrants from unjust deportation and different cities will enact different measures. There is no "Certified Sanctuary City" sticker to put on your municipality's "welcome to..." signs like being a "Tree City, USA" member. This leaves the whole thing open to vaguely worded platitudes that pols cherish so dearly. It also leaves wiggle room for the orange, poo-flinging screech monkey President-elect to act tough but then not really follow through (and live with the consequences of pissing off businessmen who need cities to receive that money to function a certain way for them).
The question will be whether the OPFSM goes ham with very public, headline grabbing workplace raids à la Bianco factory in New Bedford or will it be less visible home raids. Will he follow Obama's lead and just be targeting people off a list (like all those who had enrolled in DACA) or is this just a big net and tough shit for all the by-catch?
And as far as the one note arguments about "If you're a LEGAL immigrant I don't see what the problem is" and discussions about "line-cutting," I'd tell those ethically challenged Inspector Javert's to GFY. Talking to you is like talking to a fucking wall.
"Interfere with ICE"
By anon²
Wed, 11/16/2016 - 11:25am
I snorted there, since ICE doesn't have the man power or funds to do their job as it is.
That's actually been a major part of sanctuary cities doing what they're doing; because ICE was trying to force state and city governments to do the feds job for them, without any funds to pay for large amounts of work required when you pull beat LEOs off town duties to become immigration enforcement.
I don't see that changing, because immigration is a harmless boogieman that serves a purpose. Further, congressional Republicans won't be funding ICE like needed for this type of enforcement, just as they won't be funding a wall.
Trumps about drown in the swamp.
He might want to speak with Obama first...
By whyaduck
Wed, 11/16/2016 - 12:38pm
Obama deported around 2.4 million. Not sure how many are left.
Federal Funding for Boston
By Axz
Wed, 11/16/2016 - 11:20am
Federal Funding for Boston lol , Boston will not receive any federal funding for the next 8 years, say good bye to new city vehicles, say goodbye to the plowing program the city uses to hire private owners to plow streets, say goodbye to other wasted services the city has. I see Cutbacks in the future and layoffs!!
How about federal funds for
By anon
Wed, 11/16/2016 - 12:47pm
How about federal funds for the GLX?
That's fine dear
By anon
Wed, 11/16/2016 - 3:35pm
We should start withholding every dollar in taxes that our state never gets back from the Red State Pork Trough and money spent to take care of people thrown under the bus by "minimal government" morons like BrownuptheBack.
Chinese investors are picking
By anon
Wed, 11/16/2016 - 12:29pm
Chinese investors are picking up the tab. They own Boston.
How do you tell a legal immigrant apart from an illegal one?
By Still anon
Wed, 11/16/2016 - 4:03pm
I'm the person who commented about loving a legal immigrant. That relative has been in the country - legally - longer than I've been alive.
A question for those of you who think it's only "illegal immigrants" who need to be afraid: how do you think we tell the legal & illegal immigrants apart?
If you think it's as easy as asking for documents like driver's licenses: do you think all citizens should regularly be stopped and asked for their proof of citizenship? How else are you planning on policing this?
It's very hard to not just assume, from my point of view, that you haven't really thought through what you're advocating. You seem to be assuming that it's easy to tell people apart and that seems racist to me. Prove me otherwise.
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