CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — A handful of protesters were locked up Thursday night after camping out in a Cambridge office building. The protesters were part of a Jewish activist group speaking out against Amazon's business with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Homeland Security.
In total, 12 people were arrested for trespassing. It was a peaceful protest and it ended in the company's lobby, right below Amazon's offices.
One by one, officers began bringing out the plastic handcuffs for protestors who refused to leave 101 Main Street, the Cambridge office building that houses Amazon.
The protest was organized by the group "Never Again Action." Hundreds of Jewish activists marched from Boston into Cambridge and filled the lobby below Amazon's offices.
"It's so important to stand up and put our bodies and ourselves and our conveniences on the line to try to stop 'business as usual,'" said Elizabeth Weinbloom, a spokesperson for Never Again Action. "To tell tech, that they need to stop doing business with ICE."
Weinbloom said companies like Amazon provide the software and technology necessary to track undocumented immigrants.
"We are here to make sure everyone knows that Amazon and its subsidiaries are working with ICE, that Amazon is profiting off [of] putting people in our communities into prisons, into jails, into boxes and deporting them," she said.
In July, "Never Again Action" shut down Boston traffic over the Trump administration's immigration policies along the southern border. In August, they lined up outside a Rhode Island detention center. A jail employee later resigned after attempting to drive into the crowd.
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"We have a special obligation to the people who are oppressed, to the people who are marginalized," said Alexander Solomon of Brighton.
"You must stand with immigrants," said Jose Luis Santiago, a Mexican activist. "If you say you stand with immigrants, you must take action, and this is just the start."
Boston 25 News did reach out to Amazon for a response for Thursday night’s protest but did not hear back by time of publication.
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