MY APPROACH

 

This is personal: My grandfather immigrated from England and worked as a janitor while building a better life for his family. Growing up, my parents helped sponsor a Cambodian refugee family when our church couldn't do it directly, and I helped my mother with resettlement work, connecting families to services and building friendships that continue today. That experience was so rewarding that our family became a model for others the following year. Through four decades of involvement with refugee resettlement, I've seen firsthand how immigrants enrich our communities, drive our economy, and embody the values that make Massachusetts strong.

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I walked the walk on the Muslim Travel Ban: When the Travel Ban was announced, I didn't just oppose it. I organized. I stood alongside then-Attorney General Maura Healey when she announced Massachusetts joining the lawsuit against the Trump Administration. I then built a coalition of researchers and attorneys, produced a 100-page report documenting immigrants as job creators and community builders, and filed seven amicus briefs across six federal cases. At the Supreme Court, all four dissenting justices (Sotomayor, Ginsburg, Breyer, and Kagan) cited our work in their opinions. That is what I mean by action, not rhetoric.

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Pass the PROTECT Act and make it strong: The PROTECT Act (H.5316/S.3072) passed the Massachusetts House 134-21 and the Senate 37-3 and is now in conference committee. It bans new agreements that deputize local police as ICE agents, prohibits immigration arrests at courthouses, schools, hospitals, and houses of worship, bars law enforcement from asking about immigration status, requires employers to give workers 48 hours notice of ICE audits, and allows parents facing deportation to pre-arrange guardianship for their children. I call on our leaders to pass the strongest possible conference committee outcome. The Senate version goes further on sensitive locations and information sharing, and that is where I would land.

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Fund legal defense: I support the Immigrant Legal Defense Act, which funds legal representation for immigrants facing deportation in Massachusetts. When ICE comes for our neighbors, they need a robust defense.

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Protect workers regardless of status: Workplace protections must apply to all workers. I'll combat wage theft and exploitation, support labor organizing in industries with significant immigrant workforces, and hold employers accountable for violations. Exploiting undocumented workers is both a moral failure and an economic failure that undercuts wages for everyone.

 

Guarantee access to services and opportunity: Every person in this district deserves access to education, healthcare, and public services regardless of immigration status. I'll ensure immigrant families can participate fully in civic and community life and that sensitive locations remain safe.

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Champion immigrants as economic contributors: I spent nearly two decades building the Massachusetts innovation ecosystem at MassTLC. I know firsthand that immigrants drive our life sciences, higher education, technology, healthcare, and construction industries. The 100-page report my coalition produced documented this in detail. Attacks on immigrant communities are attacks on our economic foundation.

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Build broad coalitions: I'll bring together business leaders, labor, faith communities, educators, and advocacy organizations to defend immigrant families. My experience organizing research, legal, and business leaders around the Travel Ban showed that broad coalitions produce results that advocacy alone cannot.

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