What’s happening in Burlington is inhumane.

   

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IMPORTANT ISSUES! THESE ARE NOT SOLICITATIONS!

Last week I paid a visit to the ICE Field Office in Burlington, MA to conduct some real-time oversight.

This ‘Field Office’ is detaining people for days at a time in an office building designed to process people for no more than a matter of hours.

My colleagues and I have been demanding answers and investigation into this facility for nearly a year with no sufficient answers — so it came time to take matters into my own hands.

What I observed was inhumane and completely inadequate to house people overnight.

I left with my position unchanged: We need to defund and abolish ICE.

A number of my constituents, like Rümeysa Öztürk, have been unlawfully processed and detained in facilities like these. Torn from their families and forced to endure cruel conditions – treated less than human at the rogue, lawless hands of ICE agents.

People have died in facilities like these.

We’ve been able to free a lot of people and reunite them with their families, but invisible wounds from this trauma remain.

Look: ICE has only existed since 2003. Immigration enforcement should not be happening under DHS.

ICE’s work clearly has nothing to do with law and order since they are actively violating people’s constitutional right to due process, and, in many instances, their civil and human rights, too.

And it certainly has nothing to do with public safety if they are sowing terror, trauma, and chaos.

I’ll keep using all the tools available to me to conduct oversight on facility conditions, demand real protections for our neighbors that have been detained, and call for ICE to be abolished. I never expect you to, but if you’re able, help power this fight by giving $10 or whatever you can.

Onward,

Ayanna

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The Download: Flood disclosures poised to step into legislative limelight next year

 

Hi Reader, GivingTuesday is here, and it’s one of the most important days of the year for CommonWealth Beacon. Across Massachusetts, thousands of people rely on our reporting to make sense of the news. And today, we’re asking everyone who reads, trusts, and benefits from our journalism to help power what comes next. Since 1996, we’ve dug into the issues that shape life in the Commonwealth, including housing, transportation, climate, education, public health, state politics, and more. If you’ve ever gained clarity from one of our stories, relied on our newsletters to stay informed, or shared an article with a friend or colleague, you’re already part of our community. But here's the big reason today matters: Every donation made today is MATCHED — dollar for dollar — through NewsMatch. That means your gift goes twice as far to sustain independent, nonpartisan reporting across Massachusetts. And we’re aiming high. We’re working to raise $10,000 before midnight. Hitting this goal secures critical funds and helps ensure we can keep our journalism free for everyone, not behind a paywall. Whether you’re a long-time reader, a past donor, or someone who simply values having a trusted source of state and local news, today is the day to step up. Will you help us reach our GivingTuesday goal and support fact-based reporting in Massachusetts? GIVE TODAY Thank you for reading, sharing, and supporting CommonWealth Beacon. You make this work possible today and every day. Laura Colarusso Editor Joe Kriesberg CEO & Publisher P.S. — Prefer to give by mail? Checks can be sent to 11 Beacon Street, Suite 500, Boston, MA 02108. We also gratefully accept donations through donor-advised funds via our EIN: 04-3271457.

New from CommonWealth Beacon NEW CODCAST: Jennifer Smith and Chris Lisinski break down all the latest legislative and ballot measure news on the latest Codcast episode that’s out now. Get the rundown on a potentially record-breaking number of initiatives that could make next year’s ballot and why Massachusetts lawmakers went into Thanksgiving with little more than a whimper.  GRADUATION: Gov. Maura Healey cheered new high school graduation requirements recommended by a state council, potentially setting up a showdown with a major teachers union that is arguing the new framework “defies the will of the voters.” Sam Drysdale at State House News Service has more.

‘People have a right to know’: Flood disclosures poised to step into legislative limelight next year    December 2, 2025 By JORDAN WOLMAN

Denise Kress has been living for 35 years with the Belle Isle Marsh as her backyard.

But as more severe storms hit over the past decade, her life has been consumed by the marsh in ways other than its natural beauty: thinking about water, preparing for its encroachment, laying down bags of sand, living through flooding, and recovering from its wreckage. It’s meant two totaled cars and five repaired or replaced electrical and heating systems, and weeks spent in a hotel in the winter of 2018 after flood waters breached her basement twice in two months and then froze so that you’d need a “pick axe” to navigate it.

Through all this, she’s stayed.

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But Kress occasionally ponders what it will look like, when the day comes, to sell her house just over the Boston border in Winthrop, given all the flooding the property has endured.

“I can’t worry about it because there’s little that I can do about it,” Kress said when asked if she’s concerned that disclosing her home’s flooding history could impact its value. “But I would want the next owner to know. People have a right to know.”

She’s quick to add, though, that even if she had known all the flood damages and insurance price hikes that would come in her 35 years in Winthrop, she may not have changed a thing anyway: “If I had to do it all over again, I probably would,” said Kress, who finds comfort in the vast marsh that drew her to the property originally.

Such are the complications facing Massachusetts, a high-cost coastal state seeing some of the fastest-warming ocean temperatures in the world and increasing rates of precipitation that are exposing its aging stormwater drainage systems, dams, and culverts.

Gov. Maura Healey aims to direct a new influx of cash to address those very issues through her nearly $3 billion environmental bond bill, which includes $308 million to upgrade high-risk dams and flood control systems and nearly $100 million for coastal initiatives like seawalls, jetties, and beach nourishments. But as flooding touches more Massachusetts households, she’s also proposing a new requirement to steer people out of harm’s way in the first place: mandating flood risk disclosure when property owners sell.

READ MORE

More Context ‘Water doesn’t know property lines’: Where Massachusetts’s climate and housing crises meet (April 2025) Coastal flood maps leave homeowners in the lurch (May 2023)

More from CommonWealth Beacon BALLOT BATTLES: With the first major signature deadline behind them and another looming, proponents and opponents of a possible record dozen ballot initiatives brace for the next series of hurdles. Jennifer Smith looks ahead at possible legal fights and legislative maneuvering as courts, lawmakers, and the public prepare to sort through a California-level number of ballot referendums.    COURT IN SESSION: An alliance of unions, school districts, and now a major disability rights advocacy group is suing to block President Trump’s efforts to dismantle the US Department of Education. The group expanded its lawsuit last week to include objections to recent interagency agreements to shift the department’s responsibilities to other Cabinet-level agencies. Shauneen Miranda of the Rhode Island Current has more.   OPINION: The way Cambridge elects its leaders paved the way for zoning changes that often stall in other communities, write housing policy analysts Andrew Justus and Alex Armlovich. They dive into how the coalition-based structure of the city council under its proportional representation voting system made the city’s recent ambitious zoning reforms possible.

What We're Reading BLUEPRINT: President Trump’s efforts to take over a small college in Florida offer a roadmap to his push for higher education institutions in Massachusetts and elsewhere to conform to conservative values. (MassLive)  ICE: US Rep. Seth Moulton said that “inhumane” conditions still persist at a Massachusetts ICE facility. (WBUR)  SCHOOLS: Three new superintendents have taken the helm at three different school districts on Cape Cod, thrusting them into new communities, funding shortfalls, and even a little controversy. (Cape Cod Times – paywall)  WU: Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has appointed an interim chief of streets to replace her bike lane-friendly predecessor. (Boston Herald – paywall)  SALARY: Taunton’s auditor is set to get a $50,000 pay increase starting this December. (Taunton Daily Gazette – paywall)

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