Day: I was saddened to see Colarusso's Column

A Letter to the Editor from State Representative and Stoneham resident Michael Day:

I recently read the column entitled, “Sanctuary State; what would it mean to our community?”
written by Caroline Colarusso, and I was moved to write this response to it.

I was saddened to see this column, whose only purpose seems to be aimed at whipping up anti-
immigrant sentiment in our community by fear-mongering. I was also struck by the cynicism of the author’s attempts to demonize immigrants. In addition to insinuating that undocumented immigrants are violent criminals, Ms. Colarusso’s use of the tragic murder of Mollie Tibbetts is a crass attempt to capitalize on a horrific crime committed by an individual as proof that all undocumented immigrants are safety threats to “us.” This line of reasoning would be outrageous on its own. Yet, coupled with the dog-whistling against immigrants emanating from the White House on a near-daily basis, this type of rhetoric is dangerous and a stain on our community.

In the column, Ms. Colarusso once again resorts to citing to unnamed “experts” and groups that are known to misstate facts and publish inaccurate reports in pursuit of an extreme agenda. For example, Ms. Colarusso cites favorably to the Center for Immigration Studies in the column. A little research about that group shows that they are the “go-to think tank for the anti-immigrant movement” and were founded by John Tanton. Mr. Tanton also founded the hate group known as FAIR and is a proponent of the racist pseudo-science known as eugenics, which promotes improving the human species through “selective breeding.” Let that sink in for a minute.

It is worth noting that in June Ms. Colarusso falsely claimed that Massachusetts provides $1.8 billion in aid every year to undocumented immigrants, and then falsely claimed that those figures came from a report of the Massachusetts Auditor. Auditor Bump was moved to write directly to the Stoneham Select Board to correct these statements because, in reality, those figures came from a discredited report from none other than FAIR.

We deserve more than this level of discourse. We can and should have serious discussions about the nature of our state and national laws relating to immigrants and immigration. But resorting to hysterical predictions that our police officers will not be able to conduct background checks on criminal suspects or that undocumented immigrants have “more rights than legal Massachusetts citizens” are irresponsible at best, and at worst take a small-minded view of the world and our place in it. We can do better as a community, and I hope we emphatically reject this type of thinking.

Michael S. Day, State Representative, Perkins Street