Addressing the Massachusetts Due Process Emergency

Massachusetts is confronting a due-process crisis of statewide scale: an estimated 6% of the Commonwealth’s residents—about 442,000 people—are undocumented or live with an undocumented family member and are therefore vulnerable to immigration enforcement actions that often proceed without judicial warrants or bond hearings.

During the first year of Covid in 2020, approximately 5% of the Massachusetts population became infected. This galvanized the governor and legislature to take emergency actions. Our current crisis demands the same response.

Immigration enforcement that violates basic legal rights puts 6% of the State’s population at risk, but our legislature is not acting like there is a crisis. The Safe Communities Act has been bottled up with little visible support from top legislative leadership. Last year, inaction killed the bill with no vote and no indication of who was responsible. There are reports that legislative leadership considers this to be a federal matter and not a top state priority. People concerned about safety and due process in our state are pulling out all stops to get the bill on the floor this session, but the outcome is in doubt.

That would change with the 2026 election and four ballot measures that would reform the legislature’s anti-democratic stance that has insulated it from public outrage. One would make the legislature subject to the public records law. Currently, it is impossible to tell who opposed a bill or why it was killed. Making records public, as they are for every other aspect of state government, would end this process of hiding who kills these proposals.

A second one would do away with the leadership patronage system. Right now, every member of the legislature is beholden to the leadership for appointments to even minor committee posts that increase their legislative salary. Cross the leadership, you don’t get paid. This is an outrage, and people can quickly overturn the practice.
Legislators for life: Another proposal would be to create top two all-party primaries, as exists in California, so that the top two vote getters are the ones who advance to the general election, regardless of their party. Currentl, primaries are low turnout affairs where most voters who are enrolled as independents can’t even participate. This would change the system to appeal to voters rather than to parties, would be the key to winning elections and would give Massachusetts more competitive and meaningful legislative races.

Finally, a proposal for same-day registration would also allow for more participation by those who are energized by an issue or campaign but failed to register before the voting deadline.

The common thread of these proposals is that they advance democracy in our state. Yet our leadership sits silent and does nothing while masked thugs terrorize our communities and threaten to disappear family members who are 6% of our state population.