Cambridge State Rep Says State Legislature Will Work to Protect Residents under Trump

The Massachusetts state legislature is preparing to use its power to sheild residents while looking to the state Attorney General as the “first line of defense” against executive orders signed by President Donald Trump in his first week of office, state representative Marjorie C. Decker said in an interview Thursday.

While acknowledging that a number of residents may be “in danger” given vows from the presidency to deport all unauthorized immigrants — of which Massachusetts hosts over 350,000 — and end birthright citizenship for others, Decker said the legislature “will be carefully digesting what these actions are” and “how they harm Massachusetts residents.”

“The first response to all of this is out of the Attorney General’s office,” said Decker, a high-ranking Democrat who represents parts of Cambridge.

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea J. Campbell has already joined two lawsuits seeking to block executive orders by Trump, including one with nearly two dozen other Attorneys General challenging Trump’s executive order to freeze federal funding. Both lawsuits landed major wins when federal judges quickly froze the orders in question.

“Attorneys general will continue to do our jobs to protect our residents and state economies, and hold anyone, including the President, accountable for causing them harm,” Campbell wrote in a press release.

While a flurry of executive orders targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, transgender people, and immigrants with a range of legal statuses have caused alarm among each constituency, immigrants in the state have been particularly on edge.

Fear of mass deportations has caused hysteria that local governments and nonprofits say they have been struggling to manage.

“A big part of the response right now is just making sure that people are as informed as possible, making sure that they know their rights,” Sekhavat said. “But it’s a balance of trying to do this without furthering their whole goal, which is scaring people.”

“There’s a lot happening right now, and that is with the goal of creating a lot of panic and confusion,” Decker said.

But Sekhavat said MIRA lacks adequate resources to “keep up with the demand” — a signal of how the Trump presidency may add to the strain on already-stretched immigrant nonprofits.

“Frankly, the truth is, resources are incredibly limited,” Sekhavat said. “They were incredibly limited long before this, but the demands are increasing.”

Yet the urgency of both the state and nonprofits to undermine Trump’s policy agenda is also increasing coordination between the two groups.

Decker pointed out that under Trump’s first term, the state legislature created a special committee to hear from advocates concerned about his presidency’s impacts on issues like reproductive rights. That resulted in the Roe Act, which codified abortions rights and access to birth control in Massachusetts.

Decker said it was possible a similar committee would be formed this time around, too, as Beacon Hill leadership decide committee assignments for the coming term.

In the meantime, they may be left waiting for what comes next in a prolific start to the Trump presidency.

“There’s a lot of things to prepare for, and it’s a question of what’s going to hit us first,” Sekhavat said.

—Staff writer Megan L. Blonigen can be reached at megan.blonigen@thecrimson.com.