I read Rep. Ashe’s comments in the recent 12/21/17 issue of The Reminder under the title “Ashe calls flyers distributed in towns ‘propaganda material’” referring to the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance flyer that many of us received in our mail boxes. The flyer concerned H-3269 - the so called “Safe Communities Act.” In the article Rep Ashe stated that “it has nothing to do with making Massachusetts a sanctuary state” and “ I just ask them that they do a little research…”
The bill speaks for itself. Below are some excerpts quoted from H-3269’s 11 pages :
• Lines 48 – 51: No officer or employee of any agency, executive office, department, board, commission, bureau, division or authority of the commonwealth or any political subdivision thereof, shall use funds, resources, facilities, property, equipment, or personnel for immigration enforcement purposes ….
• Lines 67 – 68 No officer or employee of a law enforcement agency shall arrest or detain a person solely for immigration enforcement purposes…
• Lines 95 – 97 . If the person in custody declines the interview, no law enforcement agency shall allow United States Department of Homeland Security agents to conduct the interview…
• Lines 117 – 119 Law enforcement agencies shall not otherwise notify the United States Department of Homeland Security about a person’s pending release from custody and shall not respond to requests from the United States Department of Homeland Security for publicly-available information regarding a person in custody, including requests pursuant to federal form I-247N…
• Lines 127 – 128: Law enforcement officials shall not transport a person who is in local custody to any facility in order to place the person into United States of Homeland Security custody …
In spite of “Safe Communities Act” cynical and misleading title, in what world can it be construed as being beneficial to our community safety to prevent law enforcement officers from enforcing immigration laws? And, exactly how is it beneficial to our community safety to permit undocumented foreign nationals who have broken our immigration laws free access to our state and its taxpayer provided benefits, rights, and privileges?
I am disturbed by Rep. Ashe’s allegations that those who sent the flyer are on some unnamed “hate group list” ( I thought lists like that went out with Nixon)… and “They’re a tea-party Republican group”... I could find no mention of “wall” or “sent to build the wall” in the text of H-3269 as rep Ashe suggested.
I would strongly suggest to Rep. Ashe that he withdraw his support of the so-called “Safe Communities Act” and leave the spinning and innuendo to fake news and Internet trolls.
Phillip Grant
Hampden
