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When the mayor sheltered asylum seekers in City Hall and refused to turn them over to the feds

Ray Flynn recalls using his office to shelter Polish sailors who'd fled their ship when it docked in Boston.

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Good to know asylum seekers are now the same as illegal immigrants.

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Did you even read the article? Like down to the part where the feds were demanding Flynn turn the sailors over to their ship captains?

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It takes time to distinguish asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants who come here for a better way of life and less time to distinguish foreign nationals who overstayed their visa but fact is they want to be here too.

I appreciate Walsh's symbolic gesture to offer city hall as a sanctuary. It helps fight the fear the Trump administration is sowing. What counts is what the law permits local law enforcement to do including BPD, Suffolk Co Sheriff, State Police and Fusion Centers and what they do.

Currently, citizens and non-citizen immigrants alike are prosecuted for breaking our laws even in sanctuary cities. What sanctuary cities say is that local law enforcement will notify ICE if and only if the undocumented person who broke one of 175 laws that makes them a danger to the public, otherwise they are not reported. The purpose of this is to have a safer community where people come forward without fear.

Yesterday Baker said he opposes making Mass a sanctuary state so it looks like he soft-peddling full cooperation with Trump's deportation program while letting cities like Springfield and Somerville try the sanctuary city route.

Baker also has elected sheriffs in Bristol Co and Plymouth Co who are eager to work with ICE to do deportations.

It's not clear that across Mass. we'll have equal protection under the law ... thanks to our laissez-faire governor. That'll come to a head when mistakes are made during the roundup.

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skin color and geography. Funny thing is Germans, Italians Irish and Poles were looked upon in the same way at one time. Now their ancestors are the ones waiving the flag.

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What stopped the feds from just walking into city hall and taking the people back to the ship?

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ska-vru.

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Mayor Walsh deserves the same support today for the way he is trying to deal with a delicate immigration matter. When laws are unjust, whether they discriminate against people or violate their human rights, they must be challenged. - Mayor Ray Flynn

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Those illegal aliens peddling drugs and slitting throats, cutting off limbs in Eastie and surrounds won't be bringing up the gifts at Our Lady of Czestochowa this Sunday. There's no comparison to sailors fleeing communism to aliens already here illegally committing new crimes. Absurd.

What Walsh is advocating is that those already here illegally, who commit further crimes (Menino once called felony auto theft a minor crime) can find shelter in City Hall. For the former Vatican Ambassador, to equate the two drastically different situations smacks of the "Social Justice" Catholic theology that has led to empty Southie, Eastie, downtown and suburban Catholic churches converted to condos. Meanwhile much of pro-abortion Joe Biden's friends have six figure jobs at the chancery, now just an office building with a cross in Braintree since Chestnut Hill was sold off to pay for the gay priest scandal. Knock it off Ray, you lose credibility.

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Please, seek help.

A few notes:

1. The Poles were fleeing communism, and the economic (no money) and political turmoil (martial law as of 1982) it caused, just like many others are today.

2. Pedophilia does not mean gay.

3. Churches became available for conversion to housing because people actually had these things called sense and reason that triumphed over magic.

4. Me and a few of the guys I grew up with had these nasty names for people fleeing to the US for more economic opportunity. We called them Mom and Dad.

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What Walsh is advocating is that those already here illegally, who commit further crimes can find shelter in City Hall.

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1. Jerzy Popiełuszko (ya, I had to look it up to get it right) was murdered by the communist regime. So, ya, fleeing communism, but there was a real risk of getting killed at home.

2. OK, true. But, if it's pedophilia with little boys instead of girls, well...

3. "Churches became available for conversion to housing because people actually had these things called sense and reason that triumphed over magic."

If you mean the Church lost parishioners because they gave up the faith, or did not instill it in their children, then say so. Don't call it magic unless you wish to call out the Muslims flying sky god or the Jewish flying sky god.

4. Me and a few of the guys I grew up with had these nasty names for people fleeing to the US for more economic opportunity. We called them Mom and Dad.

I can assume you, like many others, can find their immigration papers in a drawer somewhere. My grandmother had a passport from the UK.

These guys jumping ship were taking a real risk, although by 1989 the handwriting was on the wall, so to speak.

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Well said, dmcboston.

1: Mr. Costello, you and Ray Flynn make a false analogy comparing the Polish fishermen fleeing Communism to the illegal aliens committing new crime and arrested here that Mayor Walsh seeks to protect.

2: I didn't suggest pedophilia means gay (you raised the issue) but facts remain that 80%+ of victims of male clergy sexual abuse were also male.

3: To compare Catholicism to a "magic" act is vile. In addition to the Lavender Mafia, the Church graciously allowed Holy Communion and photo-ops to partial birth abortion champions like John Kerry, Joe Biden and Ted Kennedy (Kennedy even had an elaborate funeral with two Cardinals). It's hard to square that when taking a "second collection" to pay for a bus to the Pro-Life rally in DC. Hypocrisy of Church leaders, not lack of faith, keeps many away.

4: Unless your parents came here illegally and became criminals, I miss the relevance.

5:. On the recent topic of personal attacks, I try to refrain from anything personal but enjoy a vigorous debate. I shrug off the frequent personal attacks against me. Sticks and stones, etc. I appreciate the many likes on my above post and the recent comment by Greg Cook that he values all opinions from Swrlly to O-FISH-L. As for the "fake cop" stuff, shhhh! Don't tell the retirement board, pension check is due Tuesday!

6. Erik G., I have no idea (do you?) what races were on board the Polish fishing boat but if they came illegally and committed new crimes, I would strongly support deportation, not hiding them under Walsh's desk.

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The one you were going to get at Reagan National Airport, which doesn't even have customs?

Nobody trusts your strange alternate facts anymore, dude. Game over.

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This is what is meant by gaslighting:

since Chestnut Hill was sold off to pay for the gay priest scandal.

Followed in a subsequent post with:

I didn't suggest pedophilia means gay (you raised the issue)

followed with

but facts remain that 80%+ of victims of male clergy sexual abuse were also male.

Which is it? Do you mean a gay priest scandal, a pedophilia scandal or a scandal of priests whose pedophilia included boys and girls? Even if 80% were involving boys you still have to account for the 20% - still a significant number - of priests sexually abusing girls.

The reference to Lavender Mafia is another ridiculous remark. That creates an illusion of some power elite that has the violence and force of the Mafia but whose ranks are filled with homosexuals. Same was said about the Trilateral Commission controlling the world (said LaRoachies) and many others have (and many still say) about Jews controlling the world's banks. Let's not forget about the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Referencing non-existent groups to create an illusion of some power that is a threat to others is a horrid lie and is evil. If evil is an independent force of the human psyche making these kinds of statements allows evil to win.

Of the other statements could you provide proof?

Meanwhile much of pro-abortion Joe Biden's friends have six figure jobs at the chancery

. Do you realize how crazy that sounds? Or absurd?

I do agree that comparing Catholicism to magic acts is a stretch. We can agree with that. It is a religion. It's not based on facts; it is based solely on ideas, rituals and rules. But when those ideas, rituals and rules becomes vehicles of bigotry it will loose adherents. Many Christian rituals and policy became part of the culture war instead of focusing on making this a better society.

The gaslighting of the first statements is what Trump et al. does. Standard propoganda: Either tell lies that have a kernel of truth (there were priests who molested boys) and imply that this arises out of a conspiracy that exists for unknown purposes but surely to do some kind of harm to the larger society (Lavender Mafia) or just tell abject lies loudly and repeatedly until they are accepted as facts (social justice led to empty churches).

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Rules of decorum, no personal attacks, etc. etc.--I'm on board, but it's gotta be a two way street. At some point, you may need to weight the cost-benefit analysis to the community here of letting Racist Grandpa have the podium whenever he wants to tell us how it's different when the immigrants are GOOD people, obvi, because they're white guys from Europe. As far as I'm concerned, things like this are every bit as hostile as me actually dropping F-bombs directed at knuckle-draggers like FISH here.

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I'm going to chime in..

"keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer"

At least if Fishy posts under his registered account, you can look at his name and know he's an idiot and just move on. If you ban him, he'll just come back as an anon (as many people have done once adam has removed their registered account). Sure adam can not allow the anon post, but some may still slip by (and poor adam for being forced to read his.. and others.. drivel)

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It's already been (allegedly) proven that he's lied about being a retired (therefore, former) LEO, what credibility does Fish have at all? The only reason I can see him posting here isn't to post alternative viewpoints, it's merely to incite vitriol and, quite literally, just troll. The way he plays a caricature just seems too suspect for me, because he's not even keeping his own facts about himself straight.

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Can we please just do away with this racist, transphobic, ableist troll? This goes well beyond differences of opinion regarding government policy. On nearly every single post about someone who isn't white/straight/Christian/abled/etc., I know I'm going to find him calling names and painting with a broad brush. And sometimes when a topic doesn't involve anyone suitable for him to go after, he shows up inserting some button-pushing off-topic comment about how it's all the fault of abortion or transgender folks or something that's not actually being discussed. He doesn't add anything to discussion, and the fact that you keep posters like this around makes me (and surely others) unlikely to want to share anything about my or my family's experiences relevant to topics that are discussed on the site.

I respectfully disagree with other posters who say to just ignore him. Silence equals consent.

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"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"

Although you make it pretty hard my bigoted friend.

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I'm sorry, why bring my neighborhood into your racist argument?

Haven't seen many sawed off limbs lying around on my walks through the area...but maybe I'm not looking hard enough.

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wing night is a gat dang massacre in the casa de scum

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I got Right Wing Troll Bingo!

Almost a blackout, actually!

Thanks, fake cop! Now I can get that Reagan National Airport customs stamp on my bingo card!

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I was to young in 89 to know anything about this, but its commendable of him to have done that. I don't have the same attitude towards immigrants that some do, I recall writing an essay in the 7th grade questioning the term 'illegal alien' but I digress. Right is right, and Walsh and leaders like him will go down on the right side of history with regards to this debate.

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History? Poland became independent of the USSR in 1989. The transition was bloodless (in contrast with, say, Syria). The right side of history would have them return to Poland and apply for a visa if they want to immigrate.

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Some of you may remember that ICE conducted a raid on illegal immigrants at a New Bedford factory in March 2007. You can google Deval Patrick Immigrant Raid and see the Boston dot com and other national coverage of the raid at the time - this is a link to a salon retrospective on the raid which adds historical perspective.

www.salon.com/2015/04/05/they_treated_us_as_if_we_were_murderers_the_tra...

No one wants to shield illegal immigrant murdering gang members. But reading about how families were torn apart, children left on their own, and the general cluster f**k that happened with this raid, it is very understandable to me that many if not most people in Massachusetts do not want to see a repeat of this type of action.

Arguments of rule of law notwithstanding, I'm proud that my great-grandfather walked from Canada through Detroit to become a US resident rather than going through the crap shoot at Ellis Island. And I don't see how raids of these types are going to Make America Great Again.

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From the ACLU:

* Even in places far removed from the border, deep into the interior of the country, immigration officials enjoy broad—though not limitless—powers. Specifically, federal regulations give U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) authority to operate within 100 miles of any U.S. "external boundary."
* In this 100-mile zone, Border Patrol agents have certain extra-Constitutional powers. For instance, Border Patrol can operate immigration checkpoints.
. . .
* In practice, Border Patrol agents routinely ignore or misunderstand the limits of their legal authority in the course of individual stops, resulting in violations of the constitutional rights of innocent people. These problems are compounded by inadequate training for Border Patrol agents, a lack of oversight by CBP and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the consistent failure of CBP to hold agents accountable for abuse. Thus, although the 100-mile border zone is not literally "Constitution free," the U.S. government frequently acts like it is.
. . .
Roughly two-thirds of the United States' population lives within the 100-mile zone—that is, within 100 miles of a U.S. land or coastal border. That's about 200 million people.
Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont lie entirely or almost entirely within this area.

What form can this DHS activity take? This happened last year in NJ:

Around 6 a.m. on Jan. 5, ICE agents knocked on the door of a New Brunswick home asking for someone named "Rodriguez." When the family inside refused to open and said no one by that name lived there, ICE agents forced their way in with guns drawn, said 14-year-old Anel Nieto, who was inside.
A family says ICE broke into their home Jan. 5 and Anel, who is a citizen, said immigration agents yelled at her and her father and told them to throw themselves on the floor. Five U.S. citizen children were in the home, the family said. Anel said she started crying and her father was consoling her with his hand when an agent allegedly told him to stop.
"My dad tried to lift his head and (an officer) put (his) foot on his neck and his head hit the floor. He had a bruise and I started crying more," Anel, a ninth-grader, said in Spanish. One officer pointed a gun at her mother, who was holding her 5-year-old sister, a U.S. citizen. Her 62-year-old grandfather was handcuffed and then released, according to Jorge Torres, founder of the ICE Free New Jersey campaign. The mother and grandfather are undocumented.

It may sadden some of you to know that these enforcement programs are legacies of the Clinton and Obama administrations.

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that some people probably dont care at all lmao

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it saddens me ... lmao

You seem very confused.

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That summary leaves out the fact that ICE arrested one of the men in the house for gang activity. It wasn't a completely random raid.

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While your summary leaves out any link to a source supporting your claim, and any explanation as to why ICE is not letting local police deal with gang activity.

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