Stoneham voter responds to 'New Immigration Policy Proposed'

A letter in response to Stoneham Board of Selectmen member Caroline Colarusso.

On August 9, the Stoneham Patch published a post by Caroline Colarusso, a member of the Stoneham Board of Selectmen and 2014 and 2016 Republican candidate for State Representative.

In that post, Selectman Colarusso praised the “RAISE Act,” a bill introduced in the United States Senate earlier this summer. If passed into law, the bill would radically reshape U.S. immigration policy in a wholly regressive direction, establishing language tests and income thresholds those applying for legal permanent resident status.

As a dual citizen of the United States and Ireland, the son of a legal permanent resident, the friend of many immigrants and an employee of an immigration advocacy and education center in Boston, I could spend a long time picking apart many of Selectman Colarusso’s vague arguments. However, I want to take a moment to specifically address her dishonest suggestion that stricter immigration laws will help towns like Stoneham by reducing the cost of public benefits programs. This simply is not true.

The National Immigration Law Center explains that ever since 1996 reforms to federal immigration and welfare laws, immigrant enrollment in public benefits programs has dwindled rapidly. It’s not easy for undocumented immigrants or legal permanent residents to gain access to public benefits, even when times are tough. Moreover, it is a blatant falsehood to suggest that money “saved” by cutting down on federal benefits programs would substantially benefit a town like Stoneham, which is largely funded by the municipal and state budgets.

However, beyond the practical impacts of dangerous and regressive laws like the RAISE Act, we should also consider their moral and ethical impacts. People in Stoneham ought to recognize the essential centrality of immigration to the American experience: how many parishioners at Saint Patrick Parish, the largest religious congregation in town, are first- or second- or third-generation descendants of Irish or Italian immigrants? Those immigrants came to our country and our community to improve their lives and the lives of their children. Did each of these New Americans speak English, or hold lucrative jobs? I would hazard a guess that the answer is no.

I challenge Selectman Colarusso to recognize that she is a representative for the whole town, and that her language, referring to undocumented immigrants as “illegal aliens” (an outdated and offensive term that dehumanizes and criminalizes our friends and neighbors), is unacceptable and unbecoming of a public servant. What kind of town do we want to be, Stoneham? Should we open our doors or close them? Should we build bridges or should we build walls? Should we embrace the Statue of Liberty or an ill-conceived border wall? The Stoneham that I want to live in values all of its people equally, and throws open every opportunity for the advancement and betterment of every person who chooses to live here.

Thomas Dalton, 35 Bow Street, Stoneham