Newton Mayor Fuller: Families Belong Together

NEWTON, MA — On Monday evening folks gathered outside Newton City Hall as part of a local prayer vigil for those asylum seekers separated after they crossed the southern border into the US. Mayor Ruthanne Fuller, the Newton Interfaith Clergy Association, and several other groups gathered alongside residents to express their feelings on the issue that has captured the US recently.

Fuller addressed those gathered, here's what she had to say:

"We stand here today with the Newton Interfaith Clergy Association, the Cooperative Metropolitan
Ministries, and the Newton Human Rights Commission, joined in our shared shock and our deep
disappointment about a policy of our own U.S. Government that separated families at our border. We
feel dismay at a befuddled bureaucracy that is taking so long to reunite Moms and Dads with their
babies, toddlers and youngsters.
This is not who we are.
This is not what we stand for.
That is not where we’ve come from.
And these are not the values we hold so dear as we stand together here in the good City of Newton.
I see people in Newton coming together today and every day to stand for our core principles of respect,
diversity and acceptance.
I see people in Newton coming together today and every day to support families and children.
I see people in Newton coming together today and every day trying to live our lives with 100 percent
tolerance, not zero tolerance.
These are the things that make us who we are, and Newton the city we love. As we stand together here
today, let us hold on to those core principles. Let us use our offices, our titles, our voices and our votes
to create policies that represent who we are, people who are dedicated to 100 percent tolerance.
I have joined with Mayors across the United States, Republicans and Democrats, from cities large and
small through the U.S. Conference of Mayors. We are united in our call to the Administration to return
quickly the thousands of children separated from their parents, to create transparency on what is
happening in facilities in our cities holding these children, and to develop safeguards to ensure that the
separation of families never again is part of our national immigration policy. I repeat, the separation of
families can never again, be part of our national immigration policy.
Families belong together. Let’s all of us say this together, families belong together."

Photo courtesy Newton Mayor's office.