Thread: MA: Tea Party activists urge change

Tea Party activists urge change
Back Senate measure barring illegal imigrants from public benefits

By Maria Sacchetti, Globe Staff | May 22, 2010

QUINCY — About 100 Tea Party activists rallied last night to demand that the state Senate pass an amendment barring illegal immigrants from receiving public benefits, weeks after the measure narrowly failed in the House.

Amid US flags and signs saying “Tea Partiers for common sense,’’ activists crowded into a modest hall decorated with silk flowers and party lights and said lawmakers should reflect the voters’ will.

An independent poll this month found that 70 percent of Massachusetts voters surveyed, including most Republicans and more than half of the Democrats, support the GOP proposal that failed in the House a few weeks ago. Only 17 percent opposed it and the rest were unsure, according to the poll by Rasmussen Reports.

“Wake up America. We’re here,’’ state Representative Jeffrey D. Perry, the Sandwich Republican who sponsored the House measure and is now running for Congress, told the standing-room-only crowd at the American Legion Post 95, to applause. “I really thought that the folks in Washington and Beacon Hill had heard us. . . . But they have not heard.’’

The debate over illegal immigration in Massachusetts was reignited after Arizona passed the strictest immigration law in the nation last month. Critics railed against the Arizona measure, among them the Boston City Council, which passed a resolution to cut business ties with Arizona.

But the Arizona law also inspired critics of illegal immigration to raise their voices. Though the Rasmussen Reports poll suggested that Massachusetts voters would not favor such an extreme measure, the crowd applauded the law yesterday and said the Bay State should take steps to protect citizens, as well.

Though it was billed as a rally, the Tea Party crowd was low-key, and included a group of mostly white, middle-aged workers sipping coffee or $3.25 beers. They listened to the speeches and MC Todd Feinburg, a WRKO-AM talk radio host, and whistled when speakers criticized Governor Deval Patrick, a Democrat, and applauded Arizona for passing its law.

“There’s only so much money that the government has,’’ said Bob Rowland of Weymouth, a municipal public works supervisor who attended the rally. “It should be going to people that are here legally.’’

Christen Varley, president of the Greater Boston Tea Party, told the crowd that she was married to a legal immigrant from England and did not think it was fair for illegal immigrants to get benefits.

“Enough is enough,’’ she said.

Perry’s measure would have required anyone receiving public benefits to be checked by the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlement program, or SAVE, to make sure they are here legally. The goal is to prevent illegal immigrants from gaining access to public housing, unemployment benefits, welfare, or workers’ compensation.

Though the measure failed in the House, Perry said the Senate could include it in the budget before the spending plan is sent to Patrick for approval.

Advocates for immigrants said Perry’s cause is misleading because illegal immigrants are already ineligible for public benefits. They accused Perry of capitalizing on national attention regarding the issue for political gain.

’’This is just a cynical ploy,’’ said Eva A. Millona, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. “Bringing it up at this point in time is just to gain points and drive votes their way.’’

Massachusetts is often viewed as an immigrant-friendly state, and the vast majority of immigrants are here legally. But a deeper look shows that there is ambivalence, too.

Efforts to grant illegal immigrants in-state tuition and driver’s licenses have stalled in the Democrat-controlled Legislature.

The number of Massachusetts businesses that have voluntarily enrolled in E-verify, the federal database that checks the immigration status of new employees, has soared from 483 businesses in 2007 to 3,130 businesses today, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

In January, the state elected Scott Brown, a Republican who opposes amnesty for illegal immigrants, to replace the late US Senator Edward M. Kennedy, a key author of immigration laws and a recent champion of legalizing the 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States.

Officials estimate that there are about 190,000 unauthorized immigrants currently living in Massachusetts, about 1 in 5 of all immigrants in the state.

Perry has made illegal immigration a centerpiece of his congressional campaign. In late April, the Democrat-controlled House narrowly defeated his proposal only a year after it had soundly rejected it.

Patricia Montes — executive director of Centro Presente, a Somerville nonprofit agency — said legal and undocumented immigrants are vital to the state’s economy and are routinely exploited. About 20 workers a week arrive at the center to say that their supervisors refused to pay them or that they were injured on the job but lack health coverage.

Immigration issues also made headlines in Massachusetts earlier this week when President Obama’s aunt won asylum after living for years in public housing in Boston in defiance of a deportation order. Also, two of the three Pakistani nationals arrested last week on alleged immigration law violations in connection with the attempted Times Square bombing lived in Watertown.

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Advocates for immigrants said Perry’s cause is misleading because illegal immigrants are already ineligible for public benefits

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They are also ineligible to be in the United States but that has not stopped them.