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© 2021 The Somerville Times. All rights reserved.
An open letter to the community from Joseph A. Curtatone, Mayor of Somerville, MA and
Ben Echevarria, Executive Director of The Welcome Project, Somerville, MA
In the wake of the election, our phones have been ringing off the hook. We’ve heard from parents who fear they will be rounded up while their young children wait for them at home. We’ve heard from women, Muslims, members of the LGBTQ community, and students of color fearing intensified discrimination. We’ve heard from people who believe equality and decency are core American values at risk. This is the heartbreaking part of the election: the sheer number of people who feel like the Trump campaign was predicated on breaking faith with one another.
Political parties win and lose. Yet this election has made people question whether our leaders desire to maintain a diverse, tolerant society. The message we jointly want to send to those whose confidence has been shaken is this: Our city—Somerville, Massachusetts—will not waver. Others, including our Governor, are also standing firm.
Somerville will stand with you regardless of your race, creed, color, sex, nationality, legal status, religion, gender identity, or sexual orientation. So if you are afraid, or if you feel targeted, don’t go into isolation. Reach out. And if you want to help or speak up or share you skills to support others, reach out. We’re putting together resources and support. We’re doubling down on our advocacy. And we will need each of you and your voices to continue to move forward as a community.
President-Elect Trump has threatened to pull federal funding from sanctuary cities. Somerville has been a sanctuary city since 1987. And Somerville will remain a sanctuary city. We will not turn our back on our neighbors. Our diversity is our strength. Since we became a sanctuary city, our crime rate has dropped more than 50%. In fact, our crime rate for every type of violent crime is below the state and national averages. Our local unemployment rate is just 2.2 percent.
So for anyone who claims that cracking down on sanctuary cities has something to do with high crime or a stagnant economy, Somerville stands as a flashing, neon billboard for how wrong that thinking is. Data shows more of the real story. Research shows that not only do new immigrants commit fewer crimes than native-born Americans but that neighborhoods with higher immigrant populations tend to have less crime overall.
Unfortunately too many people get bad information on what a sanctuary actually is. No one who commits violent, felony, or serious crimes gets a free pass here. We do cooperate with immigration on those cases. Rather sanctuary means that our local police and agencies don’t profile our residents to run immigration checks on them. One-third of Somerville’s residents are documented immigrants. These are our neighbors. We will not treat them like suspects at every turn. Sanctuary means we don’t hand over persons for deportation for civil offenses like driving with a broken tail light. That breaks up families and fuels a broken immigration system. Sanctuary also means that when undocumented persons are victims of or witnesses to crime, they don’t have to fear deportation if they come forward. That keeps our community safer.
How much federal funding could we lose? A lot. Currently Somerville receives approximately $6 million in recurring federal funds per year for things like special education, school lunch programs, substance abuse prevention, and homeland security. That constitutes about 3% of our annual budget. Additional grants for programs such as housing are also sought each year. If we lose this funding, we will tighten our belts, but we will not sell our community values short.
Mind you, our hope is that once our new president reviews accurate information, he will not cut this funding. It would be a reckless policy. The economic engines at the heart of ten of the eleven largest metropolitan areas in the nation are sanctuary and Trust Act cities. Those ten areas are home to more than 78 million people, roughly one-quarter of our entire U.S. population. In all, there are more than 320 sanctuary cities in the United States, plus 32 counties and four states that limit local law enforcement’s involvement in federal immigration enforcement. Good luck having a working economy if you pull federal funding from them all.
Yet the wave of fear washing over people extends beyond immigration issues. The Trump campaign put diversity in its crosshairs. If cities have to make a stand for basic human decency, then we’re going to make that stand. We saw a presidential campaign based on fear and a desire to ostracize anyone who could be categorized as different. That may have swung an election, but it provides us with no roadmap forward. Tearing communities apart only serves to tear them down. We’re going to keep bringing people together, making sure we remain a sanctuary for all. We are one community. We’ve got values that work. We know what makes America great.
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Too bad El Mayor is not standing by the lifelong elderly & middle class residents who have lived in Somerville all these years and are being forced out by his multitude of fees/taxes. Be it via eminent domain, increase in water bill fees, etc. All developer friendly.
There is no other city where the amount of tax exempt property is heading toward 60% of the total land area (4 Square miles). There are tax exempt churches, etc. that have not functioned their original purpose that gave them the tax exempt status. (No regular Sunday service, funerals).
If you are elderly or middle class, all your hard work to own your home for decades is being taking away by the mayor’s fiefdom to
serve his own personal agenda. He boasts of the new Partners Healthcare and garage facility, yet failed to mention Partners gets a tax exemption on this property. He suckered the Board of Aldermen into a $25 million bond that we, the taxpayers are responsible to pay for infrastructure on land that the developer was responsible to pay.
When both sides run for president they say many things to get in. Not many are ever carried out and I have seen many of them. He is not president yet and a real plan is not yet presented to comment on.His focus from his speeches is on the cartel and criminals which would seem like a good thing to me and to other decent people. Like all other presidents we have to give the person some room so see what they are really going to do before we get into the “Chicken Little” bit. I can remember as far back as Eisenhower and I have little faith in what is said before taking oath. And besides, both sides spent most of their time trading insults and the like that very little ever got said about the things we need to do to get this country’s problems on track.
Very well stated. If things go as they seem to be headed it’s going to be an ugly fight to preserve our rights and freedoms. I’m glad to see our civic leadership is on the right side of the fence.
The mayor says “Since we became a sanctuary city, our crime rate has dropped more than 50%” – um duh, you basically stopped counting immigration violations as a crime so of course your crime rate dropped.
And 2.2% unemployment is unsurprising since illegal immigrants cannot claim unemployment.
Cherry picking data Mr Mayor.
We are either a nation of laws or we are not. What other laws can we choose not to enforce?
Hear, hear. Somerville is one of the places where America was created, and I’m glad to be here to stand up for American rights and principles.
Got out just in time! Suckers! 🙂
Nation of Laws – The data isn’t cherry picked, its all there for your review. The crime we all care about, the ones that that directly effect quality of life – violent and property crime – have all declined hugely in the time period in question. On Unemployment if the people you are worried about is legal citizens the 2.2% unemployment figure should have you smiling.
Can we all get sanctuary from the mayor’s policy of the taxes, fees and fines directed at the motorists in this city? After all, if the mayor can cherry pick from the laws he has sworn to support, can’t we citizens?
Notice how the mayor will tell you how many of Somerville’s immigrants are documented, but he won’t disclose how many are “undocumented”, or ILLEGAL. If they are here ILLEGALY they are breaking the law, plain and simple. Good on Trump, it’s about time someone puts a stop to the gravy train and egregious abuse of our tax dollars.
To those whining about taxes – go tell the Villens that moved to Stoneham in the 1990s how much you house is worth now and watch them turn green with envy.
The only ones whining are the Democrats…. you guys have lost over 900 (!!) legislative seats since your hero Barry took office. Some legacy you got there. And now you have lost the Presidency. Back to the ol’ drawing board, as they say.
Somerville is not a sanctuary for immigrants when the Mayor’s policies of hyper-development and gentrification are already driving them en masse from the city. We don’t need Donald Trump to harass immigrant (legal and undocumented) residents out of our community when City Hall is already doing such a fine job of it.
There’s a big difference between losing and being robbed. So, here’s the ol’ drawing board – please sign and share:
http://pac.petitions.moveon.org/sign/demand-a-recount-in-wi.fb48?source=s.icn.fb&r_by=6233743
Do you think your pal Trump will be as tough on the Nazis in this country as he is on SNL and Hamilton?
900 seats. Too funny. I guess the voices in your head just make up their own — stuff. Well have fun while you can. Hair boy is about to have his — better end — handed to him, while all you racist whackos wake up to how badly you’ve been conned. Loving every minute of it.
Many of us don’t want Trump, but the ones who do are already beginning to see what we’ve been seeing for years. He’s started to back out on promises he made his supporters and changing his tune.
Hillary Clinton may not be the most likeable person for whatever reasons people feel, but there is no denying she is 100% qualified to run this country, and has actually done things in the past to help people and would do so again. Trump has never done anything for humanitarian reasons.
She’s been verified to have 2 million MORE votes than Trump, yet she’s been denied the position. 2 MILLION. Another typical case of a qualified woman being passed over for a man who’s less qualified than she is.
I never believe 100% of what any candidate promises to do if elected. They aren’t monarchs, they have no actual power to do what they want unless they are allowed to by the Senate. That’s how our country works. We were founded by people who escaped the tyranny of a monarchy and made sure that no one person could have absolute power as President of the United States.
If anyone voted for Trump actually believing he could do 100% of what he promised, then perhaps they deserve to be disappointed that he’s suddenly changing his attitude. Maybe he was just as gullible in believing he could actually do whatever he wants, and is only know understanding that it doesn’t work that way.
How can you put your faith and trust in someone who has zero military or political experience and behaves in such an unprofessional manner? If Trump himself was going to hire someone to be CEO of one of his companies, do you think he’d hire someone who just came off the street and had NO business experience whatsoever just because they claimed they could make his company better? Of course not. But that’s exactly what’s happened here.
Hmmm…
http://www.politicususa.com/2016/11/23/trump-hit-thanksgiving-surprise-green-party-files-recount-wi-mi-pa.html