Category: News
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FANG Collective works to ‘shut down ICE’
Activists disrupt a meeting being held between ICE officials and Plymouth County Sheriff Joseph D. McDonald in March 2019. Photo courtesy of FANG Collective As Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sweeps through immigrant communities, disrupting lives and breaking up families, some local law enforcement agencies in Massachusetts have solidified their desire to help ICE into…
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Mass. protests round up of Cambodian residents
Tammie Christopulos of Lynn was in the shower last Saturday morning when her doorbell rang. She knew what it was: a deportation order for her husband, Saray Im, who was born in Cambodia but has lived in the United States for the last 35 years. “My husband is not a threat to anyone in the…
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How climate change is driving emigration from Central America
Clouds of dust rose behind the wheels of the pickup truck as we hurtled over the back road in Palo Verde, El Salvador. When we got to the stone-paved part of the road, the driver slowed as the truck heaved up and down with the uneven terrain. Riding in the back bed of the truck,…
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Hounded: Demonstrators decry Greyhound’s cooperation with ICE
Demonstrators have rallied to deliver a letter to Greyhound Lines, Inc., at its new loading zone in Portland’s Old Town neighbourhood, demanding the bus company stop allowing federal immigration enforcement agents to board its vehicles in order to check passengers’ immigration statuses. But whether Greyhound has any choice in the matter is unclear, with Greyhound…
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And then they came for…
Last week Donald Trump’s Council on Economic Affairs released a report on homelessness that, like brings to mind his and his administration’s mindless rants about immigrants before last fall’s elections. The report at times reads more like invasion of the walking dead instead of how to address the needs of human beings. I’m not going…
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Rapid rehousing: The problems with this solution
Several families who have received rapid rehousing subsidies marched with advocates on May 9, 2019 to voice their concerns about the program. Meeting at the Virginia Williams Family Resource Center on Rhode Island Ave., they marched nearly two miles in the heat to the headquarters of the Washington D.C. Department of Human Services (DHS), where…
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Japanese American incarceration and present-day migrant camps: Perspectives of 3 survivors
The haunting images of children caged in chicken wire, warehoused in government facilities surrounded by armed guards are chilling reminders of the U.S. government’s treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Three survivors reflect on the present in the context of a common past. ‘We’re repeating history’ Joni Kimoto never shared much with her daughters…
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Request for ‘Clean Sweep’ Records drags on
Spare Change News reporter Andrew Quemere is trying to get a closer look at “operation clean sweep” through a public records request, but the city has been less than forthcoming so far. The city of Boston is unlawfully dragging its feet in providing records related to the so-called Operation Clean Sweep—a series of police raids…
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Addiction is a Disease
In recent weeks I have grown tired, and sometimes angry, at the way people who abuse drugs are being discussed; from the goings on down on methadone mile, to the lynch mobs posing as neighborhood meetings, to the outrageous videos and posts on Facebook from Bostonians, to politicians both in and running for office. They’re…
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How Trump incites violence: Understanding stochastic terrorism
Three years ago, on 9 August 2016, Rolling Stone magazine published an article by Drexel University Law Professor David Cohen on stochastic terrorism and the messaging coming from the Trump campaign. At the time, stochastic terrorism was a relatively obscure academic term, but his column helped propel it into today’s lexicon, and recent events have prompted discussion…