Amherst Rallies to Protest ICE
Amherst residents gathered on the Amherst Town Common on January 11 to protest the actions of ICE in Massachsetts and Minnesota. Photo: Brooks Ballenger
On the sunny Sunday afternoon of January 11, an estimated 400 people gathered on the Amherst Town Common, carrying signs, singing and cheering on an assortment of speakers. The event was organized by Indivisible-West Quabbin to protest ICE abuses in Massachusetts and around the country. and the death of Renee Good in Minneapolis last week. Good was killed by an ICE agent while legally observing ICE actions.
Donations were collected for the statewide immigrant justice network, LUCE.
State Representative Mindy Domb stated her support for our immigrant communities and urged people to exercise their 1st amendment right to protest and to observe law enforcement. She stressed the need for kindness despite the discouraging environment we are living through. She encouraged people to attend the bystander observer training and hotline fundraiser for LUCE on Feb. 4 from 6:00 -8:00 p.m. at First Church, 165 Main Street in Amherst.
Spirited singing was provided between speakers by ShowUp//SingOut throughout the program.
Amherst Attorney John Bonifaz, President and Co-Founder of Free Speech for People, denounced the assaults, kidnappings, and arrests committed by ICE agents in Massachusetts often without warrants or legal authority. He ccalled on Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell, to investigate abuses by ICE agents in the Commonwealth. He also refuted the false claims by Vice President J.D.Vance and other Trump Administration officials that ICE agents have “absolute immunity.”. He stated that federal officials do not have immunity when they break the law. To cheers and chants, he listed the impeachable offenses of Donald Trump, and called for his renewed impeachment by Congress.
Max Page, President of Massachusetts Teacher’s Association, spoke of attending Vietnam War protests with his father as a young boy on this same Amherst Common, He told of how his father left Germany when the Nazis began attacking schools. He compared this to the recent attacks by ICE officers on students in schools in Minnesota as well as here in Massachusetts. Page stressed how proud he was of the fact that our public schools are open to all, with no restrictions based on race, immigration status, sexual orientation, religion, or any other category.
Reverend Rachel Hayes of the Amherst Unitarian Universalist Society spoke of her grief and anger at the murder of Renee Good. She urged people to not suppress their pain but to reach out to others. She praised the assembled for coming out in community.
ShowUpSingOut closed out the program with a rousing version of the Civil Rights anthem “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around.”