Carrying baskets filled with pasta, granola bars, maxi pads, and other essentials, a group of activists approached the entrance of the Burlington, Mass. ICE facility last Tuesday, April 28, hoping to deliver the goods to detainees. Among the group of around 45 demonstrators were two Lexington residents — one of whom was arrested.
Tuesday was the third attempt to deliver care packages to the Burlington ICE facility. Previous attempts last September and December also ended in arrests.
The Burlington facility is the Boston Field Office of ICE, which oversees all of New England, so it has become a focal point for protesters from around the region. Some of the people arrested on Tuesday had traveled from Maine, angered by “Operation Catch of the Day,” an ICE initiative in the state launched earlier this year.
“You have people coming from out of state to our town trying to stop this, and I think having that Maine to Massachusetts shows that this is affecting people throughout New England, and throughout the country,” Josh Model, a Lexington resident and activist who was arrested during the protest, said.
At around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, the protesters arrived by shuttle at the green patch across from the parking lot of the facility. They split up into three groups, according to Lexington resident Bruce Neumann, the president of the Lexington Refugee Assistance Program (LexRAP), who also participated in the protest. The red group included those willing to get arrested, yellow was willing to get close to the facility door but preferred not to get arrested, and the green group stayed back. Model was part of the red group, and Neumann was part of the yellow group.
Before attempting the delivery, protesters read aloud letters to the ICE agents and detainees while singing protest songs. In addition to expressing their support for the detainees, the activists said they recognized that the ICE agents’ role was part of a larger system.
“We wanted to make a gesture of support as opposed to antagonism to the ICE agents, saying, ‘We know you’re human beings. We know you’re doing this job, but we don’t like what you’re doing,’” Neumann said.
The red group walked up a ramp connected to the door while the yellow group carried the care packages.
According to Model, as they neared the door, a guard approached and said he would call the police and the group would probably be arrested.
“And we said, ‘We know’,” Model said.
The guard went inside and locked the door. One of the protesters knocked; no one responded. Others continued chanting and singing.
Then Burlington police arrived and informed the group that they were trespassing. All but 12 of the protesters withdrew to the grassy area where protesting has generally been allowed.
The remaining protesters were escorted away from the building and across the street. Police collected their IDs and said that if they left right away, they would not be handcuffed or taken to the station.
But some of the protesters felt they still had a mission to complete. They began walking back toward the building. That’s when police started handcuffing people.
“I had a job to do, which was to deliver the food. So, I saw a basket that had been put on the side, I picked up the basket, started going back towards the door, and then the police arrested me,” Model said.
In total, 11 people were arrested.
Despite knowing that arrest was a possibility, Model sounded surprised by the reaction.
“We were doing something meaningful together, and the reaction from ICE was so over the top,” Model said. “You have these people with baskets of food that they shut the building down, and it’s kind of this ridiculous, over militarized response, this huddle, like we’re in a war. And we’re not, we’re on a mission of care.”
Meanwhile, an officer spoke to the rest of the support people.
“He scolded us. He said, ‘first of all, you know, when you bring an item like a basket with food, we have to assume that it might not be safe’…And secondly, he said, ‘this operation took police manpower away from very important other work’,” Neumann said.
Neumann said that they may not be able to change what ICE is doing, but every little action contributes to a larger movement. It is a moral responsibility to “disrupt normal patterns of authority,” he said.
“Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, ‘I want to get arrested,’” said Eric Segal, an Arlington resident who was arrested in a previous attempt to deliver care packages. “I just think it’s important for us as citizens to draw a line somewhere and say this is completely unacceptable. This is not what America is about.”
The 11 arrested activists were released a couple of hours later.
“Empathy, that is the core message,” Model said. “Don’t do this to people who just want to make a life here. Don’t be cruel.”