http://www.boston.com/news/local/articl ... st_boston/

Healey camp opens office in East Boston
By Russell Nichols, Globe Staff | June 25, 2006

East Boston lies only a couple of miles from Beacon Hill across Boston Harbor. But some Eastie residents feel that for years, the distance has divided the neighborhood and the state officials who govern it.

That's why when Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey , the Republican nominee for governor, opened her campaign satellite office on Saratoga Street yesterday, some 125 supporters and about 10 protesters came out in the rain to see her.

``There was no one you could turn to back in the day," said Anthony Mazzola , 35, a cook at a pizza and subs eatery next door to the office, who grew up in East Boston. ``It'll be good to have someone in the neighborhood close by."

The satellite office, the first that Healey has opened away from her main headquarters on Merrimac Street, will be used for phone banks and sign storage, a campaign hub this side of the harbor for residents from the neighborhood and surrounding areas.

The group of supporters filed into the office on the first floor of a brick building for pizza and cheese puffs. Healey shared her campaign ambitions, her political stances, and her appreciation for the community members who have backed her over the years.

But not everyone welcomed Healey, a leading opponent of granting in-state college tuition rates to undocumented immigrants. A small group of students and residents opposed to her stance on that issue stood across the street, holding signs that said ``Kerry Healey No Friend of East Boston Youth" and ``East Boston Kids Want To Go To College Too."

We're pretty much here because immigrant youth cannot go to college because of her," said Carlos Santos , 20, of East Boston. ``We want her to have a reality check with herself coming to our neighborhood, a very immigrant neighborhood."

Healey said she supports legal immigration, but believes that illegal immigrants are squeezing state workers out of jobs and ``hurting the economy."

``We all came from immigrant families and all our families did it the right way," she said. ``They worked hard and they went through the process, and they came here. My grandparents came through Ellis Island. I am 100 percent for legal immigration, but we need to make sure people play by the rules."

***Just fired out an email to her thanking her for her stance for legal immigration and that I hope if elected governor of MA she will continue to stop the incentives that draw them to our state. East Boston has a large illegal alien population which is why they want in-state tuition for illegals. They can protest all they want but they are not going to get it. No more freebies for illegal aliens in MA