Good morning,
If you’re feeling like me these days, it seems increasingly difficult to focus on the positive. As Act on Mass' executive director, a big part of my job is keeping a sharp eye on the news, both within our state and outside. Although I love my job, I’ll admit that this part has gotten tougher in the last few months. Everywhere I look, our progressive values are under attack. Everywhere I look, state and national leaders seem unwilling or unable to stand up and protect them.
In this uncertainty, I am increasingly grateful for moments of connection and collective action. This week I was lucky to have a few moments like this: in an action meeting with Neighbors United Indivisible, which included some familiar faces from my hometown of Natick; at our Sunshine Week Action Hour Tuesday where folks from around the state joined us to take action for transparency; and at an activist fair in Quincy where more than 40 people gathered to learn about upcoming action opportunities. All across our Commonwealth, people are ready to get engaged to hold our leaders accountable and defend our democracy.
For similar reasons, I find myself really looking forward to our Growing Our Democracy event on April 6th. It will be so nice to come together as advocates for a better democracy, celebrate the arrival of spring, and get energized for our plans for the future. We are a people-powered movement and, it turns out, I am also a people-powered activist.
If you haven't gotten a ticket yet, I hope you can join us on April 6th! If you can’t, you can still chip in to help us reach our fundraising goals. Either way, you’ll be hearing a lot about our big plans for this summer in the coming weeks– so keep an eye on your inbox!
PITCH IN TO GROW OUR DEMOCRACY>>
And for those who have already contributed: thank you for your support of our work. Now for the Scoop!
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State House Scoop
As immigration raids and threats to free speech strike fear across Massachusetts, Gov. Healey warns: “bad for the economy”
This week was a hard one for communities across the Bay State. After Trump’s border czar Tom Homan threatened to “bring hell” to Boston, 370 Massachusetts residents were arrested by ICE over the weekend. ICE claims that 205 of those arrested have been charged with crimes. However, authorities have released details on the criminal records of only 14 unnamed arrestees, making this claim difficult to corroborate.
For the remaining 165, ICE admits openly that they were "collaterals” without criminal records. Testimony from the families of the impacted suggest that some of them actually had legal work authorization and have spent years here, but were still taken by Trump’s authorities. These arrests raise questions about respect of due process rights and strike fear in communities across Massachusetts.
On Tuesday, national attention was once again turned to Massachusetts with the abduction of Tufts graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk by plainclothes officers from ICE, apparently related to an op-ed she penned last year in a Tufts’ school newspaper expressing support for the pro-Palestinian cause. Before courts could intervene, Öztürk was removed to a facility in Louisiana without notifying her lawyer or family members. Öztürk's arrest is disturbing, not only for international students and other immigrants to the United States, but for all citizens concerned about our free speech rights.
ICE’s actions, as well as Homan's rhetoric, make it clear that the Trump administration is targeting Massachusetts and other blue states for its most punishing policy actions. Recent analyses also indicate that over 80% of federal grants canceled by Elon Musk’s DOGE were intended for districts that voted against Trump in 2024. The impacts in Massachusetts have and will continue to be staggering. Already, students in some districts are afraid to go to school for fear of immigration raids. Due to cuts to funding, many Bay Staters have lost jobs or will go on to. This crisis will require steady and compassionate leadership from our state leaders, to see our Commonwealth through and continue to protect our progressive values.
So, what do our leaders have to say?
Although Governor Maura Healey noted that the weekend’s deportations were “heartbreaking,” she seemed stuck in incredulity, remarking that ICE’s actions were not “consistent” with “what President Trump said that he was going to do, which was to focus on criminals.” She also repeated that Massachusetts is “not a sanctuary state” and that officials regularly collaborate with ICE and will “continue to cooperate.”
Later, when asked about ICE’s shocking arrest of Rumeysa Ozturk, Healey focused on the… economic impact? Quote: “It's a very bad thing for the economy if foreign students are afraid to come and study.” Who’s going to clue Governor Healey in that it’s a bad thing for all of us if the federal government is targeting legal residents for arrest based on the opinions they express?
Man, I’d like to take a time machine back to 2022 when Governor Healey was running for office on her record of “challeng[ing] President Trump’s xenophobic policies that targeted immigrants and refugees” and vowing to “end state and local law enforcement’s involvement in federal immigration matters.” We should have a governor that’s going to fight to defend our rights to due process and free speech– not adopt the administration’s harmful rhetoric.
Meanwhile, legislature wraps up its third month of inaction
And don’t get me started on the legislature. Our legislators are sitting on essential pieces of legislation that would further protect Massachusetts residents from events like we saw this week. We’re 3 months into the session. Lawmakers could be hosting hearings and meeting in formal session to pass laws to respond to the gravity of the moment. Instead, they’re… well, I’ll let State House News Service tell you:
“House Session Summary - Thursday, March 27, 2025 [paywalled]: The House met for seven minutes Thursday after a six-minute session Monday. Another informal session is planned for the coming Monday. The Legislature is taking a go-slow approach to work this term. Lawmakers were sworn in on New Year's Day and proclaimed themselves ready to go, but it took weeks for them to be assigned to committees and sponsors of thousands of bills are still waiting for those committees to begin holding public hearings. No bills were addressed at Thursday's House session.”
Translation: it’s so bad that even neutral reporting entity State House News Service is starting to remark on their inaction. Here, I’ll sprinkle on some non-neutral analysis: I would love to be paid a full-time salary for a job that requires 13 minutes of formal work a week!
What’s the hold up? Well, it seems that most committees are waiting for the conference committee to finalize Joint Rules before proceeding with scheduling hearings. This makes sense: both chambers passed versions of the Joint Rules that would make significant changes to committee operations, including changes to the timeframe of public notice required for scheduling hearings and a requirement to draft plain-language bill summaries. These changes involve some much-needed updates to the Joint Rules package that would improve transparency and public access to the work of law-making.
However, the extent of the delay seems unwise and, at this point, irresponsible– even without considering the array of looming crises we're facing under the Trump administration. Already, citizens waited 2 whole months while the two chambers ironed out their respective rules proposals in private backroom conversations between members of leadership. Once the House finally voted on its rules package at the end of February and committee assignments were made, some hoped that leadership’s promises of improved “efficiency” might finally come to fruition.
Then, the conference committee on joint rules waited a cool three weeks before having their first official meeting last week. Here, I must give credit where credit’s due: conference committee members shocked reporters and watchdogs by keeping that meeting open to the public and actually engaging in negotiation in the public eye. This demonstrates a continued awareness that the public will no longer accept their shadowy backroom practices.
It also led to a comical (and telling) mishap. Despite its public nature, the conference committee meeting was not livestreamed or recorded. When asked about it, Senate Majority Leader Cindy Creem stated: “I never even thought about it, actually, because I’ve never seen a conference committee open.” Senator Creem was first elected in 1999. Seems like it was high time for a bit of sunlight in conference committee operations!
The Joint Rules committee has said that their next meeting will also be open to the public (and hopefully recorded, this time). However, almost two weeks later, this meeting has yet to be scheduled. For the moment, scared Bay Staters looking for action from our elected representatives will be kept waiting.
With 14 fellow progressive organizations, we penned a letter to the conference committee members urging them to swiftly come to an agreement so that the legislature can get to work passing legislation. The transparency changes are essential, yes, but so is action in a moment of much uncertainty and fear. We wrote: “Massachusetts has an opportunity to serve as a beacon of stability and hope at a time of great chaos and fear for the nation and for the Commonwealth’s own residents. However, this bold vision cannot materialize until we get to work.” You can read our full letter here.
And, you can take action by contacting your own representative to underscore the urgency of this moment and letting them know it’s time to get to work. You can find more information and recommended scripts here.
TELL YOUR REP: "IT'S TIME TO GET TO WORK">>
Additional reading
Some interesting reporting that caught our eye this week!
- Waste not, want not? How Massachusetts became the only state to reduce food waste by Troy Aidan Sambajon for Christian Science Monitor --> National coverage of a legislative victory for MA: our laws on food waste
- Plumbers say droughts should spark interest in gray water bill by Sam Drysdale for State House News Service--> Plumbing groups visited the state house this week to push lawmakers to support a water recycling bill that has been filed every session since 2014, demonstrating that legislative inaction impacts many swaths of society in MA.
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Missed a Scoop or two? You can find a full archive of all past Saturday Scoops on our blog.
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Syd's Sprinkles
Syd’s Sprinkles: Massachusetts schools at risk
Trump’s attempt to dismantle the Department of Education via executive order comes as no surprise given that it was one of his major campaign promises. What is unclear for many of us is what the executive order actually means and has the power to do on its own. What is certain, however, is that without direct action taken by Congress, the department itself cannot be abolished.
With that being said, there are major aspects of the department that have been impacted by federal actions along with the general uncertainty that Trump’s administration has brought with it. So far, the Department of Education’s workforce was cut in half earlier this month, which already poses problems for efficiency in carrying out the department’s responsibilities, including allocating federal funds, researching education, and enforcing civil rights laws.
In terms of what is currently remaining in place, Title I funding, funding for students with disabilities, and federal Pell Grants are to be “preserved in full and redistributed to various other agencies and departments,” as well as student loan debt [paywalled]. Even with the former statement, it is still unclear whether or not Trump actually has the ability to do so from a legal standpoint. But with half of its original workforce, Trump’s condemnation of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, and with other agencies being investigated by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, even carrying out these tasks efficiently and equitably is quickly becoming herculean.
Half of the positions in the Office for Civil Rights have been cut and the entire Office of English Language Acquisition was terminated. Under these two offices, students who have a first language aside from English are at risk of inequitable learning conditions, students with disabilities will have their programs and funding coming from other departments, such as Health and Human Services, which don’t understand how to do so in a way that benefits all students, and with the entire Free Application for Federal Student Aide (FAFSA) team gone, students seeking opportunities in higher education are also at risk. How are funds and programs supposed to be allocated and equitably implemented when the workforce tasked with doing so no longer exists?
Another question which remains is what does this all mean for Massachusetts and its schools.
Currently, federal grants that schools receive are being put at risk. If they do not align with the administration’s ideologies, which include anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion, anti-LGBTQ+, and anti-comprehensive sexual education rhetoric among other things, this risk is intensified.
The state government has already said that they do not have funds in their budget to make up for the losses at the federal level when Trump carries out the threats that he has posed to schools.
The return of outdated and harmful discourses surrounding disabilities and students with them in public schools is also a very real threat that is already accompanying pushes for less funding toward special education programs.
A Somerville Teachers Union has already joined a lawsuit suing the Trump administration over “unlawful” actions which will “decimate crucial services for millions of students” [paywalled].
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Take Action
Mass-Care Lobby Day - April 1st
Our friends at the Massachusetts campaign for single payer healthcare will be hosting a Lobby Day April 1st. Federal cuts threaten healthcare access for millions of residents in Massachusetts– our legislators should protect our fellow residents and codify access to healthcare with Medicare for All.
Hands Off Massachusetts - Rally April 5th, 11 AM
Join Act on Mass and other progressive allies to stand up for our federal democracy and our state's values on Saturday April 5th. A lot is at stake, and we are strongest when we stand together– people power. Rallies will be happening around the country on this date, so come energized and bring friends!
Growing our Democracy - Act on Mass Spring Fundraiser, 4/6 3:30 - 5:30 pm
Join us to celebrate spring and democracy with our dear allies in Concord on Sunday April 6th and contribute to our people-powered movement!
JOIN US TO "GROW OUR DEMOCRACY">>
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That's all for this week. Enjoy your weekend and hope to see you at an action– or in Concord– in the coming weeks!
In solidarity,
Scotia
Scotia Hille (she/her)
Executive Director, Act on Mass