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Boston, MA
Boston protesters march in anti-ICE rally fueled by 1-year anniversary of Trump’s inauguration
Local News
The rally followed a series of nationwide walkouts earlier in the day and brought hundreds of protesters to Copley Square.
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Copley Square Tuesday for a protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) coinciding with the one-year anniversary of the second Trump administration.
“I think that issues are always going to come up and change, but our analysis is always pretty clear, which is like all of these different attacks,” Boston Democrats Socialists of America co-chair Bonnie Jin told Boston.com. “Whether it is the illegal intervention in Venezuela or the militarism that we have seen in our streets in Minnesota, it’s all connected to this attack on working people.”
Using the bitter cold weather as a motivator, organizers led protesters in a chant of “It’s cold out, but the struggle is hot.” The sub-freezing temperatures later became a tongue-in-cheek segue into chants of “F— ICE.”
Representatives from the Boston branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Boston Democratic Socialists of America, and the LUCE Immigrant Justice Network delivered speeches. Students from Cambridge Rindge and Latin School and Somerville High School who participated in the walkouts also spoke out.
“Whether it’s ICE terror in our communities, attacks on healthcare and SNAP, wars abroad, they think that using force and strength and bullying is going to beat us into submission,” Joe Tache, a PSL organizer, said in his speech. “It’s not going to happen because the truth is that is not strength; it’s cowardice masked as strength.”
Organized by the Boston PSL , the rally followed a nationwide series of walkouts earlier in the day. On the steps of the Boston Public Library, speakers condemned Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts, the killing of Renee Good by an ICE agent, and the strike on Venezuela and capture of its president, Nicolás Maduro, by the US.
After hearing from the speakers, protesters marched through Boylston Street and around Boston Common while participating in chants that ranged from defiant (“We want justice, you say how? ICE out of Boston now”) to optimistic (“One year longer, one year stronger”).
Reflecting on how the United States has changed since Jan. 20, 2025 gave many protesters a fresh wave of anger and disgust. For protester Stephen Downey Jr., the one-year point of the second Trump administration was as good a time as any to declare that enough is enough.
“I’m tired of this fascist regime,” Downey Jr. told Boston.com. “I’m tired of this rapist and pedophile and 34 [time] convicted felon sitting in office, ruining everyone’s lives, taking everyone’s health care, and everyone just supporting it. It’s time for us to stand up now and make a choice before it’s too late.”
President Trump holds up an executive order to limit mail-in voting as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick looks on in the White House’s Oval Office in March.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
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Alex Wong/Getty Images
President Trump’s executive order to limit voting by mail has hit a legal hurdle.
On Thursday, a Boston-based judge blocked parts of the order that, at least so far, has not directly affected mail-in voting for this year’s midterm primary elections.
The legal fight, however, is likely to continue. The order pushes the boundaries of Trump’s authority under the Constitution, which gives state legislatures and Congress — not the U.S. president — the power to set the rules for federal elections.
The Trump administration is expected to appeal the new ruling by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, a nominee of former President Barack Obama, as a separate appeal of an earlier ruling by another federal judge moves forward in a similar set of lawsuits based in Washington, D.C.
Among other directives, Trump’s order from March calls for the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Postal Service to create lists of adult U.S. citizens or eligible voters in each state. It also calls for USPS, which is independent of a president’s administration, to deliver mail-in ballots only to people on those lists.
In response, USPS has proposed using information from state election officials to create voter lists. Postmaster General David Steiner told lawmakers Wednesday that under the proposal, the Postal Service would not deliver the mail ballots of any states that refuse to turn over their absentee voter lists to the federal government.
For the D.C.-based cases, the judge found in late May that it was too early for an emergency ruling that would block directives that the Trump administration has yet to carry out. Democrats are appealing that judge’s ruling to the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia.
Editor’s note: USPS is a financial supporter of NPR.
Edited by Benjamin Swasey
Local News
The boy was stabilized and flown to a Boston hospital, police said.
A 13-year-old boy was flown to a Boston hospital after he was found unresponsive in a swimming pool at a home in Beverly on Wednesday afternoon, police said.
Police and firefighters were called to a home on Parramatta Road after bystanders pulled the boy from the pool, the Beverly Police Department wrote in a press release.
Bystanders administered CPR until first responders arrived, according to police. First responders continued CPR and other “life saving measures,” police said.
An ambulance took the boy to Beverly Hospital where he was stabilized. He was then taken by medical helicopter to a Boston hospital, police said.
The incident is currently being investigated by Beverly police, the department said.
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Boston, MA
Federal judge in Boston bars Trump from implementing proof of citizenship requirement to vote – The Boston Globe
A federal judge on Wednesday permanently barred President Donald Trump’s administration from implementing most of his first executive order on elections, part of which sought to require people to show documentary proof of citizenship when they register to vote.
The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Denise Casper in Boston effectively converts a preliminary injunction she issued a year ago, in which she temporarily blocked many of Trump’s efforts to overhaul elections, into a permanent ban.
Casper rejected the administration’s argument that the lawsuit to block the changes brought by Democratic state attorneys general was premature because the rules had yet to be implemented. Instead, she agreed that the Constitution gives states and Congress the authority to regulate elections, and that Trump’s requirements violated the separation of powers.
The Constitution “does not grant the President any specific powers over elections,” she wrote.
Among other proposed changes, Trump’s order would have required people to provide documentary proof of citizenship when registering to vote, prevented mail ballots from being counted if they arrive after Election Day, even if they were postmarked by then, and punished states that failed to comply by withholding certain federal money.
It was the latest in a string of rulings against the elections executive order Trump signed just months after taking office for his second term. He has since signed another executive order on elections, seeking to create a national voter list and limit mail balloting. That directive also faces multiple legal challenges.
Last fall, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., overseeing a separate challenge to the first election executive order by civil rights and Democratic Party-aligned groups blocked the government from taking steps to include the proof-of-citizenship requirement on the federal voter registration form. That judge later barred the Secretary of Defense from requiring documentary proof of citizenship when military personnel register to vote or request ballots.
In an apparent nod to the difficulty of implementing a proof-of-citizen requirement by executive order, Trump is pushing legislation in the Republican-controlled Congress to create such a mandate. The SAVE America Act has passed the House but has stalled in the Senate, leading Trump to advocate for eliminating the filibuster that is blocking the legislation.
On Wednesday, he abruptly cancelled the expected signing of a bipartisan housing bill, saying he won’t sign legislation until Congress passes his proof of citizenship requirement for voting.
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