Town Council Deadlocks on VP Belcher Resolution

By Adam Swift

A resolution filed by Council Vice President Hannah Belcher at last week’s town council meeting asking that it affirm Winthrop as a welcoming and inclusive community that values dignity, rights, and contributions of all residents, regardless of their immigration status failed to pass.

The council deadlocked 4-4 on the motion, which Belcher filed in response to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detaining two members of the Winthrop community under circumstances that she stated have raised concerns about transparency, due process, and the impact on public trust and safety.

The resolution garnered debate among residents during the public speaking portion of last week’s meeting, with a number of residents supporting the resolution and calling for more transparency from the federal government, while others said the resolution was disrespectful to both local and national law enforcement.

On the council, councilors Joseph Aiello, Max Tassinari, and John DaRos supported the motion while Council President Jim Letterie, Suzanne Swope, Pat Costigan, and Rob DeMarco voted against it.

Several of those who voted against the resolution, including Costigan and Swope, said they were concerned it would put a target on Winthrop’s back and not make Winthrop residents any safer with the potential for new ICE raids in the Boston area in the coming weeks.

“By continuously reaffirming that we are welcoming and safe, to me, makes it not welcoming and safe,” said Letterie. “If we have to keep saying this over and over and over that we’re welcoming and safe and a great community, then are we, really, that we have to keep reaffirming that? I believe we are, I don’t need to reaffirm it.”

Letterie said that civil immigration is not a local issue.

“I think our police will say that and affirm that,” said Letterie. “I understand the intentions and Vice President Belcher made it clear it was not about ICE, not about Winthrop PD, but they were mentioned in the resolution. The Winthrop PD, and it has been said by people on both sides, that they are incredible, and we are incredibly appreciative that we can go to bed at night and we can feel safe.

“To have them even mentioned to continue to do their job, I think it’s a given the job they do for us and we should be lucky that we have them,” Letterie continued. “To think that at some point next week, next month, next year, if things continue, immigration service will probably be back in our town with or without our help. If and when that happens, I want to have an open line of communication with my police department and ICE.”

Belcher said she may bring forward a modified version of the resolution at a future meeting after speaking to some of the councilors.

“I wish I could take credit for making a grander statement or more of an impact because I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about this and how it’s playing out on the federal level that I did not (put) into this resolution because my job up here is not to represent what I believe but to represent what my constituents believe and what is best for Winthrop,” said Belcher. “When we are having this conversation, it feels a little bit like we have seen the forest through the trees but I want us to pull back and look at the trees for a second. This is about Winthrop, this is about affirming that it is a wonderful place with incredible law enforcement; and I feel so safe here that I want everyone else in this community to also feel that.

“The reality is, is that everyone in this room, whether we are behind the table or sitting out there, we know how to interface with our government, we know when the meetings are, or how to find when they are, or we know someone who does,” Belcher continued. “But there are swaths of people that live in this community who go about their business and don’t necessarily even know we have a council, let alone how to interface with it or that our police are wonderful and doing things for the right reasons.”

Belcher said the main reason she wrote the resolution the way she did is that while the council cannot change the federal government, it can let everyone in Winthrop know that their elected officials and law enforcement support them.

“It just says that we represent everyone with the same exuberance and the same excitement and the same dedication regardless of anything else,” Belcher said. “My intention is that it is very important that that be the takeaway from this. We are fortunate to have incredible local law enforcement.

“We live in a state with a lot of resources for folks who are just starting out in this country, and I feel very grateful for that,” she continued. “I have talked to a few pockets of residents here that are not native to the US and have various immigration statuses, and fear is very real.”