Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

NEW BEDFORD — Market Basket suspended dozens of workers from its store on Sawyer Street this week – a direct result of recent “operations” by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

According to the Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores, 47 workers at the New Bedford Market Basket were let go this week shortly after being asked to give Social Security cards they originally used to get their jobs. A spokesperson for Market Basket confirmed that it was the result of an ICE action.  

“ICE conducted operations recently in New Bedford at Market Basket and took enforcement actions against some employees,” the spokesperson said in an email. “This happens from time to time in the regular course of business.”

The Light also asked the spokesperson in an email to confirm the number of total employees, the number of suspended employees, the date on which they asked employees for Social Security cards, and whether other locations were being audited. The company spokesperson declined to answer those questions.

On Friday, after publication, the spokesperson issued an updated statement:

“The employees were suspended as a result of a Homeland Security investigation dating back to 2023. The employees have an opportunity to be reinstated pending updating their working papers.”

Thursday’s action comes after Todd Lyons, acting director of ICE, told CBS News that the agency would begin targeting employers of undocumented immigrants as part of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign. 

Adrian Ventura, the executive director of CCT, said this is a moment he was worried would come.

“This is sincerely my biggest fear,” he said in Spanish. “It’s also my fear when it comes to the fishing industry.

“They’re going to use documents as weapons,” he continued. “I call this a document raid.”

Workers ‘suspended’

Elizabeth said her alarm bells first went off about a month ago, when management at the store asked employees for the Social Security cards they used to apply for their jobs.

“I’ve worked there for two and a half years,” said Elizabeth, a Guatemalan woman who asked to use a pseudonym due to fears around her immigration status. “They never asked for that before.”

The action — formally called an I-9 inspection though often referred to as an audit — was likely triggered by a Notice of Inspection to the employer to review the I-9 forms of their employees. All employees are required to fill out and show proof of permission to work in the U.S., be it with a passport or combination Social Security card and driver’s license. By law, the employer is required to have available the I-9 forms of all current employees and maintain those of all former employees for three years.

According to guidance from ICE, if the audit finds that an employee is not currently authorized to work in the U.S., the employer can no longer provide them work. But, according to Jennifer Velarde, a New Bedford-based immigration attorney, this is not something employers generally do of their own volition.

“Usually a company is concerned they might have to pay penalties and they might have an attorney at a law firm working to help them extend the audit,” said Velarde.

Elizabeth said there were rumors of ICE agents walking around the store in recent weeks, a credible fear in a city where at least 42 immigrants have been detained by the agency as part of a national mass deportation campaign. The most recent arrest occurred on Monday. None of the suspended workers have yet been reported as detained.

Elizabeth said she realized what was happening after work Monday when she saw a friend leaving in tears.

“A colleague told me they were firing people,” she said. “They called them into a meeting in the morning and said they were suspended.”

In that first group of seven to eight workers was a 22-year old woman from Guatemala, who said the move was unexpected. 

“It was sad for me,” said the woman, who requested anonymity due to her immigration status. She said she is married with an infant child at home. “They didn’t give us any warning and took me by surprise.

“I asked if they were going to help us find work and they said ‘no,’” she continued. “Where am I going to find work? No one is hiring now.”

Ventura said CCT is looking into whether the move qualifies as a violation of the Warn Act, a law in Massachusetts that requires employers who let go of 50 or more workers at a time or employ 500 or more employees at a site give them ample notice and help with finding new work. 

So when Elizabeth, who is 40 with two daughters, aged 14 and 8, received a call at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, her first day off after six days of full-time work at $15 an hour, asking her to come in, she knew what was coming. That didn’t soften the impact though. 

“[A Social Security card] is not just something you can go buy,” said Elizabeth, who added that she is currently in the process of seeking work authorization. “[The company] knew the whole time about our status.”

“I felt it was unjust,” Elizabeth said. “Management didn’t seem to even think of us as people. They treated us like we were disposable. Like we were garbage.”

Ventura said that what most disturbed him was the secrecy.

“They called them in and spoke so beautifully, saying they could come back once they had Social Security cards,” he said. “But that’s not true. They got rid of them forever.”

ICE fears

Velarde said she believes that current immigration policy has a lot to do with the Market Basket suspensions.

“This is a Catch-22 for a lot of the people working here,” she said. “But it could be triggered, especially in this environment, on a large scale.”

She added that recent appropriations to ICE means there will be more prisons and more beds to detain immigrants, leaving large swaths of the population vulnerable, especially those who work in industries such as hospitality, leisure, restaurants, supermarkets, and fishing.

“Where are they going to get the people [to fill the prisons]? At workplaces like Market Basket and the fish houses,” she said. “It makes me sad because they are people that have to feed their families and now they have no work and they feel trapped.

“If we keep going at this rate where companies are concerned about ICE. It’ll have a big impact on small cities like us.”

That’s a question Michael Goodman, a professor of public policy at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, has been pondering. 

“Forty-seven workers at Market Basket, it may not be as easy to backfill that number of workers as some folks may believe,” he said. “I think the impact for New Bedford for employers will be concentrated in certain areas where there are foreign-born workers whether they are documented or undocumented.”

Though there are no studies available to examine the impacts of recent immigration policies on New Bedford’s economy specifically, a recent report from the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, estimates that current immigration and enforcement policies would reduce migration inflows and shrink the economy by between .31 and .38 percentage points in 2025.

“If the administration manages a higher deportation rate and a policy climate that is even more hostile to immigrants than we currently project for the low scenario, the macroeconomic consequences would be more adverse,” the report reads. “It is also possible that a low scenario or a more extreme outcome would disrupt specific labor markets, supply chains, and civil society in unpredictable ways beyond what we have modeled here.”

Goodman said that he could easily see that happening in New Bedford.

“This creates anxieties and concerns in worker communities where they might be mistakenly identified as undocumented,” he said. “There may be a discouraged worker effect where people are discouraged from working in environments where they might get the scrutiny.”

He added that the lack of safety in the community will spread outward and begin to affect employers’ ability to hire people as well.

“These stories spread within communities that feel most vulnerable and have cascading effects that are difficult to measure,” he said, adding that the drop in income, spending, and even customer experience due to a smaller workforce could lead to knock-on effects throughout the local economy. “Simply enforcing the rules more strictly is not making anyone safer and will not create jobs for native workers that were not already there.”

One of those who is not discouraged though is Elizabeth. She said that despite the hard times, she intends to grind through the difficulty. She has two natural-born U.S. citizen daughters who need her.

“I’m going to look for a new job and I’m determined to stay,” she said. “Maybe I won’t have a better life, but perhaps my daughters will.” 

Email Kevin G. Andrade at kandrade@newbedfordlight.org

Editor’s note: This story was amended on Friday, July 25, 2025, to add an additional after-publication comment from Market Basket.

99 replies on “New Bedford Market Basket suspends 47 immigrants after I-9 audit”

  1. Silly DeMoulas brothers. They should have donated to Trump like the fish house owners. ICE leaves them alone. But not landscapers, painters, or car wash workers.

    1. Fish house workers are hired by temp. Agencies. So it doesn’t fall back on the seafood producers.

    2. Every place i have worked ran a electronic I9 search to make sure I had a right to work in the USA.
      That is the law. No one should hier anyone without that.

    3. When these 47 unfortunate folks go to “update their working papers,” they may well be loaded into a van and shipped to god knows where. Some of them may head underground rather than be rounded up like a herd of suckers. Vaya con Dios.

    1. Joe, how can they be paying taxes when they are asked to produce a social security card that do not have? I know as a US citizen, I never worked at a job without supplying my social security number and proper ID. Unless of course, babysitting or under the table.

      1. The money still goes to social security under a false number. They can’t collect any og the money that goes in. But thanks for admitting that you too defraud the system by working under the table.

      2. Whoever is registered to the card they used in obtaining the job gets the credit. And yes, taxes are taken out of their pay!

      3. “Undocumented”, BTW, doesn’t necessarily mean that government doesn’t know they are here. Undocumented immigrants pay billions in taxes each year using a government issued TIN. Look it up. Paying taxes is a way for immigrants to build their needed documentation toward citizenship (which takes years). Those workers at a company like MB may not have social security cards, but at least some of them likely have a TIN. The company is issuing a paycheck and the taxes are coming out.

      4. CAC, MB collects, and pays, all income and social security taxes due on all of their employees.

  3. She’s determined to stay as an illegal immigrant in a country that doesn’t want or need her family here. Just imagine the cost to tax payers to educate the children, and the cost of medical care for all of them, what’s NOT fair is the added taxes people like me are forced to pay to support these criminals who crossed our border illegally and depend on the tax payers for everything they need.
    GO ICE, ERO, Tom Homan, and President Donald Trump!!! MAGA

    1. Apparently you missed the part where these people are working at a job where taxes are taken out of their paychecks. If you are paying their taxes as well as your own , that is one thing. But they pay taxes from which the get no annual tax return.

        2. I think you mean highlighted! Nothing is illuminated. Unless I’m color blind. Be careful, wrong words can lead to trouble. Especially with those who troll the comments. Like me!

      2. To Joseph Quigley,
        You’re right, they do have federal, state, and social security taxes withheld from their paychecks. What they don’t have is heath insurance, they don’t pay property taxes that funds the fire department, Police department, and EMS, garbage collection, and more.
        Due to their low wages, they also they also send their children to New Bedford public schools where ESL teachers are now a requirement, not a luxury, also, the schools provide free breakfast and free lunch to all students. All of that adds up with the costs passed on, and paid for by the city, state, and federal government. If you pay any tax at all, you’re supporting illegal immigrants now, and the next generation, and that’s completely unacceptable.

        2. Many illegal immigrants across the country pay property taxes. Unfortunately, just like any American , they cannot afford to purchase a home. In my eyes, they should be in a better position because they work, when many Americans do not work with children and are on welfare. It should be…. You have a job and a steady income? Welcome to America!

        4. Anyone who rents indirectly pays property taxes. The property owner doesn’t absorb school, city, and county taxes. It’s included in their rent.

        5. Renters don’t pay property taxes. Property owners do. So if any of these people own property then they do in fact pay property taxes. I feel like that’s a point you should have known after a basic financial literacy class. You can get one for free (not taxpayer funded) on khan academy. The free food at school (where children are REQUIRED to be) is funded by the fair tax, which I promise you’re not paying.

          You should be advocating for a higher minimum wage in the state, because those social security taxes are based on wages and the payments which you probably get right now are directly correlated with wages. So higher wages benefit you.

          All in, they’re paying YOUR way, not the other way around. Education is so fundamental. Be better.

      3. You do know they claim multiple dependents and barely have taxes taken out of their checks. They never file so they are never audited.

        2. They never file because they only pay into. They have TIN taxpayers identification number. When they become legal they then will have to file for tax time and may then get some back. Their are different types of TIN’s.

      5. Where does it say that they were taking taxes out? You are assuming. If they don’t have the legal papers then they should not be working. MB should be fined heavily for this. If these people presented false papers to get a job, then they should be arrested. Period.

        1. Correct, the person stated MB knew, but if they had a TIN, (there are different forms of TIN’s, some are legal) they would still be illegal. But would be paying taxes. Remember they are allowed to get a driver’s license, no questions if they are illegal. A way to keep people on the road that are aware of rules, but they did break the first rule of coming in illegally. Truth is I’d take any of them over my old US citizen neighbors. He sewed anyone he could. Husband and wife were slackers. Both worked for the school dept. Waste of taxpayers money.

    2. As is the usual when people complain about immigrants, they often have misleading information. The djt admin. is about as crooked as it can be. They are the benificiaries of taxpayer $$$ largess paying less taxes as they accumulate millions of $$$. $trump properties pay outrageous sums for the room and board of the Secret Service people as they “protect” this fake prez. Masked ICE people are criminals with credentials accousting people without cause other than they’re different.

    3. If your tax dollars went to social programs and universal health care instead of bombs, you’d have a different attitude. You wouldn’t be constantly looking around to see who’s getting something you’re not because everyone would be getting something. If only you criticized your tax dollars going for perpetual war instead of building a decent society, it would be a different world and youd be a different and contented person. There’s plenty of money if spent in the right places. $15 an hour in the richest country in the world? Shameful!

      1. Unfortunately, my tax dollars do go to social programs, Welfare, SNAP, Medicaid & Masshealth, and I’d much rather see my tax dollars spent on the military, and all the men & women who serve their country.
        You mention $15 per hour for a job being shameful in the richest nation in the world, but you didn’t mention that’s the starting wage for people who don’t have an education, for those of us who did put the work, time, and effort into getting an education, we don’t have a problem with money, my wife and I earn a combined $214,000 in salary, plus an annual bonus, healthcare, dental, vision, six weeks paid vacation, 13 paid holidays, and 5 paid sick days.
        Everyone has the same opportunity, but you have to work for it, and for those who don’t want to work for it, you don’t get much, and you shouldn’t expect much, specially “Universal Healthcare”, that’s a joke, specially for the people who do nothing, and pay nothing wanting to see the same doctors that people who pay for healthcare. 60% of society isn’t obligated to feed, clothe, house, and provide healthcare for the 40% who didn’t bother to get an education, what’s next, a new car, a new home, a ten day vacation annually? Those are earned, not gifts.

        1. AMEN Brother! I’m a first generation US Citizen, my dad was born in St Calixte, Quebec but served in the US Army in WWII to gain his citizenship. We are all given opportunities, but they come with expected requirements such as legal citizenship. The Biden administration opened the floodgates to gain a willing electorate. Unfortunately they all became law breaking opportunists seeking their American dream. Now they are all in a position of unexpected hell with the probability of being sent back home or jailed. We all have to accept accountability of our actions, it is their own actions of illegal entry into our country that has put them into these positions of uncertainties. Maura Healey has done more to hurt them by allowing this state of illegalities to perpetuate their false sense of security. Thank God for President Trump for bringing peace to our mad world and fixing this country to greatness again. Thank God!

        3. These immigrants were working. The US Labor rate participation keeps falling, we have surging population of folks claiming disability, which is incredibly evident in New Bedford, and we choose to target the people that are actually working, actually starting families, and actually propagating family values that many American families have either found restrictive to their “lifestyle” or “imposing morality” on them.

          We are targeting people who are no different than the grand parents of the grandstanders who now cheer for their deportation. Sorry bub, unless you’re Native American your folks came from somewhere too.

      1. Because this is how you get things done in the richest country in the world! On the backs of immigrants!

    2. Because there was an abundant supply of cheap illegal labor depressing wages. Now Market Basket will have to compete with other companies for legal workers with higher wages or go without.

    1. It’s ridiculous to think Market Basket didn’t always know the status of these workers. They exploited undocumented workers and everyone, including its customers, were okay with it as long as they got what they wanted. That’s the sham of these raids. They are just disposable people to many. The people celebrating this will complain to the manager when they have to wait even longer to get their groceries or pay more for their seafood (it’s coming).

  6. What do you think was really going to happen ? ? ? When for four years the liberal democrats supported open borders and let in over 20 million undocumented immigrants from all over the world into our Country. In Massachusetts their is no one to blame but the Governor and the elected politicians that have supported her and turned the commonwealth into a sanctuary state putting illegals before Veterans, Seniors, Families, Children, and Hard Working Americans. It’s of utmost importance that Maura Healey never gets re-elected as Governor of Massachusetts.

    1. It’s amusing that no one bashing here undocumented people here has taken a moment to consider how Market Basket keeps its prices low — exploiting workers. They knew the status of all those workers from the beginning. I’m sure that the people complaining here will continue to shop at Market Basket.

      2. It’s over their heads. People aren’t very educated, especially the anti immigration crowd who may be less educated than the illegal immigrants they complain about.

      3. I wonder what Shaw’s (with their much higher prices) pays their cashiers and those stocking the shelves.

    2. Absolutely. People expect no consequences or pushback after 4 yours of essentially open borders. Out tax dollars paying for housing, food, education. This is the result. Democrats are the reason for the deportations. Republicans are just bringing us back to baseline.

    5. Jeff wasn’t sure where this comment was going. But as usual, well said! Jeff Rogers for Mayor!

    6. Couldn’t agree more Jeff, the days of tax and spend are ending, wait until people see their has & electric bills this winter, I guess they’ll expect us to pay our own bills, and pay theirs too.

  7. I-9 audits are a common ICE practice that the Obama administration began enforcing during his presidency. At the time, the policy was sold as the most humane way to enforce illegal immigration. Multiple New Bedford seafood companies (see the below link) were fined hundred of thousand of dollars and workers were let go during that period. Apparently the liberal media and local illegal immigrant advocates want what was once termed as “compassionate” enforcement policies now stopped? How much more do these people want to make the NB area a stronger magnet for illegal immigration?

    https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ice-fines-massachusetts-companies-hiring-unlawful-employees

  8. These sob stories get old. Follow the darn law. No sympathy. Not caring about you, your kids or that you don’t know what you will do now.

  10. Market Basket is a large enough, regional company that can hire lawyers and lobby on its own behalf for immigrant visas for workers. But if they choose to hire people on expired student and tourist visas, or who basically bum rushed through the border over the last four years like this was their brother’s bedroom, well that’s too bad.

    1. I happen to love our immigrant community. They may not have come here legally, but if they are model citizens and work hard for a better future, and raise their children to be the same, then they should have a direct path to citizenship and not have to be deported . It has happened in the past. One example is when Ronald Regan became President. He knew the importance of a diverse community with multiple cultures as what makes us strong as a nation.
      I believe the illegals who are violent offenders should be deported. But the hard working ones, the ones who replace your roof, clean our homes, and work a variety of service positions should be allows to stay.
      Instead, our current President wishes for all of them to be gone and at the same time turn us against each other.
      I am a thankful, proud American who was born in the U.S., Served my country in combat like many other immigrants who were not U.S. citizens but hoped to some day become an American.
      One upon a time, my Portuguese grandfather was a deserter and moved to Brazil so he did not have to serve in the Portuguese Navy. He waited five years in Brazil so he could obtain a Visa to come to America. He overstayed his tourist Visa and never became an American Citizen. Thank God he stayed , married my grandmother and they had 10 children! My grandparents paid taxes, owned property and were model citizens even though my grandfather was illegal. He died shortly after my parents got married and I never knew him. Today I empathize with the immigrants. There here. Let’s tighten up the border so no other illegals enter. I agree with that. Most of these immigrants came here for a better life. Let’s deport the violent ones. But the nice waitress I have at a local restaurant or at Market Basket should be allowed to stay. She is here and trying to be a model citizens. Let’s give her a direct path to citizenship.
      Oh! And my Portuguese grandfather? He was your Great-Grandfather who was married to Anna Braga. I thank them every time I visit their grave.

  11. This is an easy fix. Get documented, get a “real ” SS number. Be entered into the U.S. workforce legally. Build a better life for your family. Help support the U.S. that you love.

    1. You make too much sense for the minions to get the real deal to just get it right! God bless the USA! A Veteran too!

  12. “[A Social Security card] is not just something you can go buy”…..
    We know from the Michael Bianco case, that is not true.
    “[The company] knew the whole time about our status.”
    We also know from the Michael Bianco case, likely that is true as well.
    “Forty-seven workers at Market Basket, it may not be as easy to backfill that number of workers as some folks may believe….”
    Not for fifteen bucks an hour.
    I for one have no trouble with ICE going after employers who knowingly hire illegals.
    Reminding the audience that Bianco established the employer knew the workers were illegal, and helped the illegals get false documents.

      2. Excuse me, city workers starting in the school dept, clerks are only making 1.89 more than the 15.00 hrly wage at MB. That’s for a city job. Not sure what you think people are making, 15.00 is good.

      3. Not everyone has a family they need to support. Lots of people have always worked minimum wage jobs.

  14. So many uneducated comments. I can’t wait to see the time where we will have all this work and NOT ONE US CITIZEN want to do them, let’s keep moving with this. Who wants to work for MB for 15/hour. They are hiring now. Lol

        1. I guess you haven’t heard: the Demoulas are engaged in another family fight over who’s going to run the company. Arthur T. — who saved the day 11 years ago when workers and customers went on a summer-long strike — has been outmaneuvered by his 2 sisters who have big plans for personal wealth-building. Now that Arthur T saw that the 2014 buy out loan was paid off last winter, the girls want to get rid of him and are taking steps to make sure he doesn’t instigate another strike like the 2014 one.

    2. Well New Bedford Public School clerks started at 16.24 an hour in the begining of their contract in 2023. So 15.00 at Market Basket is pretty good. Anyone thinking the wages are higher need to apply for a job. A basic job, a job that someone has to do. When I was in Catholic schools students made fun because my dad worked at a cardboard factory. Alden Corrugated, we all need to use boxes, not so funny now is it.

  15. Market Basket should no better then that they are a good buisness to work for . But they need to follow working labor rules just like every company. Sham on them for even hiring people without the correct documents. Any employer has to do ther due diligence it’s the law.

  17. I am sickened by some of the hateful, ignorant comments in response to this article.

    First, what makes anyone believe that they are somehow supporting these undocumented WORKERS? The fact that they are working means they are paying their own taxes, both federal and state income tax. They pay sales tax and property taxes…yes PROPERTY taxes. When any person pays rent, a portion of it enables landlords to pay the property taxes.

    Secondly, the suggestion that they choose to come here illegally is without basis. Most undocumented workers have tried every legal means available to them, but our government has made it nearly impossible to do so.

    Thirdly, you, as a taxpayer, are being subsidized by the BILLIONS of dollars in taxes collected from the labor of undocumented workers that never goes back to them. Undocumented workers contributed $650 million to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and $59.4 billion to the IRS in 2022 alone, according to The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) Ask yourself where that money goes each year.

    Legal residents reap substantial benefits from undocumented labor in food service, agriculture, construction, and hospitality industries, and, according to The Pew Research Center consists of 8.5 million workers.

    Many undocumented workers have two jobs. The work they perform is often grueling, dangerous, and essential to our economy. (e.g. local fish processing plants where temperatures are frigid, and oftentimes, require long hours in hazardous conditions.)

    Lastly, it is clear to me what’s going on. Having an easy scapegoat to blame for the state of our economy is nothing new. People are frustrated. They’re angry. And justifiably so, but I guarantee that those 47 hardworking Market Basket employees that were fired are not the cause of the dire state we find ourselves in.

    1. Your 100% right when the Governor and state politicians spend millions of dollars on illegals (Free Health Care, Free Cash / Monthly Stipends, Free Housing, Free Day Care, Free Food, Free Clothing, Free Cell Phones, and Free Transportation) before taking care of our Veterans, Seniors, Families, Children, and Hard Working Americans, it definitely will make people angry.

    2. Amen! This government has effectively made immigrants the scapegoats to deflect from the real issues. Those at the top of this economic mountain do not pay their fair share of taxes, putting the burden on all of us at the bottom or middle. Welcome to the new Gilded Age.

    4. What you say is properly true.
      I question the companies if they are doing everything legally as to paying the taxes of the those employees that didn’t give SS number that is theirs. I would love to look at their books to make sure it is going to the government.
      But what no one is mentioning is the people who is legally living here. Statistics show that most of the time voting in a midterm election is about 40 percent. Then on then on presidential elections it goes to about 60 percent. So many of you don’t want to vote in the primaries but that is important also. That is where you can make the change and put new blood into the system. That is the only way you are going to change things. Voting only in the general elections. You lost your chance to change who you would like to see in office. Then most of the time you end up with the same choices.
      We are one of the lowest percentage rate in the world who vote.
      Start taking pride in your country and vote in all elections that should be a privilege to you not a burden.
      Without everyone voting then you can expect change and get back to the USA that we had before.

    6. Ms Souza, you make some excellent comments and points.

      However I must differ with your second point: “Secondly, the suggestion that they choose to come here illegally is without basis. Most undocumented workers have tried every legal means available to them, but our government has made it nearly impossible to do so.” As something comparable, I’ve tried every legal means now to get my neighbor to chop several of his trees down in order to enhance my view, with no success…can I now chop them down?

      If anyone has ever been to a Naturalization ceremony you would have seen people from all walks of life and from many diverse countries taking an oath to the US. They waited to enter the US legally, took all necessary steps and procedures, paid all their fees, passed a two part English and civics test, swore an oath and are now legal. These folks have never had to live in the shadows, looking over their shoulders. They havent had to support criminal organizations by paying illegal document vendors for fake SS cards to work at Market Basket, the proceeds of which will eventually got to criminals in larger US cities such as NYC, Boston, LA , Chicago and then laundered overseas to other or like criminal organisations. Overseas organizations will in turn will invest that money continuing the illegal immigration enterprise…some money will go to illicit trade, human smuggling, human trafficking. However, those who legally migrated here don’t have to support these organisations. Somehow that seems to be lost on people who condone illegal immigration?

      The above are some of the reasons Congress sets quotas on how many people can immigrate legally. If that needs to be changed, it should be done at the legislative level.

    7. Amen!
      Honestly, reading some of these heartless comments is like listening to the fools who call into the local radio station and whine all day!

    8. You are 100% incorrect. These illegals drag everything down in the state. They get free food, rent, health coverage and on and on.
      If they cant get in legally well then they should not be here. I
      The cost of illegals in this state has been devestating and far outweighs any of these so called contributions.
      Imagine how much wages would go up if ALL illegals left the country. It would be a boom for the working man. No more undercutting the competition with low wagers and paying the majority under the table.
      The sooner they get them out of the country the healthier our country will be.
      Ironic that there were 47 suspended….

  18. Our country was built on legal an illegal immigration , maybe we should help rather hinder ,unless they are detriments to our country !

  19. MS SOUZA, AGREE 100 PERCENT WITH YOUR THOUGHTS.
    THIRD GEN. AMERICAN HERE, I AM PLEASED AND APPRECIATE MY OUTSTANDING GOOD FORTUNE. DEPORT HODGSON..MILLER..MELANIA. DON’T USE THE GALLOWS ON PENCE, GO ONE PAY GRADE HIGHER.

  20. If they do have a SS number and no card. You can request one off the website. MB pays minimum, always has, hard to find people to work for this money. It is my understanding a company only verifies a document from list A and list B or passport was presented when they were hired. There is no electronic check. These employees appear to be asked because they used a SS number. They now want a copy of the card.

  21. Thank you Dawn for that comment. What I see around me is just a lot of anger, anger that is fueled by misinformation—i.e. commentary presented as facts on Fox News and so many opinion based social media platforms. There is this pervasive notion that immigrants are “line jumpers” those who are getting ahead of the rest of us by breaking rules. Really? 15 dollar an hour wages with children to raise and feed? Are we that callous? Are they stealing our food? Taking benefits from our children? What about those who steal from us by not paying their fair share of taxes. They built their wealth using our publicly educated workers, our infrastructure, our roads, our police and first responders to protect their wealth? Are they not to blame when they tilt our elections to favor their interests with draconian tax cuts that benefit the wealthiest? It is so easy to point a finger at the least of us and blame them for all our inequities. We must wake up and name the beast. It good old greed and its out of control in our country.

  22. I kept waiting for someone to comment on the real people responsible for this immigration problem. Congress, the spineless fools running the government that can’t make even the simplest decisions. Sit down and come up with a reasonable immigration policy that gives people the opportunity to become citizens and responsible members of our country. This can’t happen until Congress decides it what’s that to happen. Keep voting for the same tiered old fools and nothing will change. Oh ya by the way the tax payers of Massachusetts shelled out over one billion one hundred million dollars last year caring for illegals. That’s from the governor herself. Crossing the border in the dark of night is a crime always has been until recently. We need immigration laws that work for today’s issues. Good luck with that.

    1. Yet we have veterans going without. Children no having meals and many homeless. Next time you see someone hand them an application for a job in the NBPS, there are always many positions open. Remember they don’t discriminate! Good luck with that!

  23. Tell the ACLU that they feel so strongly about illegal immigrants and their so called right, pass the check over to them and pay for their medical care, their rent, clothing, and reimburse the tax payers who have to pay the extra rent, clothing and every.

Comments are closed.