Mass. immigration advocates say for many, it's 'emigrate to another country or die'

BOSTON — The situation at the border is immoral and inhumane, U.S. Senator from Massachusetts Ed Markey said Friday.

“When I came to this country, I was only 13. I didn’t decide to come here,” Yessenia Alfaro said at a news conference hosted by Markey. “It was either migrate to a different country or die.”

Alfaro, the director of the Chelsea Collaborative, says in the weeks since U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions implemented his zero-tolerance policy, immigrant families seeking asylum here in Massachusetts are afraid to proceed with their cases for fear of being separated from their children.

Last month, more than 650 children were separated from their families under the policy that prosecutes anyone crossing the Mexico border illegally.

“And they had legitimacy in the ways they can win these cases,” Alfaro explained.

Immigration advocates also point out this not the first time Massachusetts has seen the effect of this type of border policy. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained hundreds in a raid on a New Bedford textile plant in March 2007.

Kids were left at daycare, came home to empty houses or were forcibly removed from their parents.

“We are still hearing today -- after 11 years -- children being traumatized,” Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Association Executive Director Eva Milona said.

Senator Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts) and immigration advocates called the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy immoral and urged bipartisan support for the keep families together act filed by 32 democrats.

“We have enough money in the United States to makes sure that these children are not treated in such an inhumane way,” Markey said Friday. “The President and the Republicans do not want to work on comprehensive immigration reform and they use that as an excuse to hold these young children hostage.”

Congressional Republicans say they're considering legislation to end the practice. And house speaker Paul Ryan has said he doesn’t support separating migrant children from their parents.

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