A PORTUGUESE VERSION of the state’s unemployment insurance portal was released Tuesday, nearly seven weeks after the Baker administration promised quick action on translations of the portal into several languages other than English and Spanish. The Portuguese version was released with no formal announcement and only after lawmakers and advocates had been pressing for it […]
Immigration
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Boston hearing focuses on language barriers
BOSTON CITY COUNCILORS Julia Mejia and Ed Flynn held a hearing Friday focused on the language barriers non-native English speakers are facing during the coronavirus pandemic. Fittingly, the hearing was the first to be translated into Spanish, Haitian Creole, Cantonese, and Mandarin as it was being conducted. Mejia has a personal connection to the effort. […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Judge orders COVID-19 testing for ICE detainees
DECLARING THAT A lawsuit filed on behalf of immigration detainees was likely to succeed in demonstrating “deliberate indifference” to their risk of contracting COVID-19, a federal judge ordered coronavirus testing for all federal detainees being housed at the Bristol County Jail. “I require everyone be tested, from the sheriff on down,” said US District Court […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Recordings of detainees at Bristol jail released
AN ADVOCATE FOR TWO immigration detainees at the Bristol County Jail released two phone recordings from inside the facility briefly describing the confrontation with Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson and his deputies Friday night. The recordings add some context for what happened. The advocate provided the recordings on the condition the detainees not be identified. […]
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Several probes launched into violence at Bristol County Jail
SEVERAL OFFICIALS and agencies are launching inquiries into the violence that erupted at the Bristol County Jail on Friday night, sending three immigration detainees to the hospital and causing $25,000 worth of damage. The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General, Attorney General Maura Healey, and the state Senate Post Audit and Oversight Committee said they would look into […]
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Hodgson said he confronted detainees himself
BRISTOL COUNTY SHERIFF Thomas Hodgson said on Saturday that he was front and center in the violent altercation between corrections officials and immigration detainees over COVID-19 testing and ridiculed calls for an outside investigation by US Rep. Joe Kennedy III and others. The sheriff said the situation began when around 10 detainees being held at […]
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Violence at Bristol County jail over COVID-19 tests
ICE DETAINEES being held at the Bristol County jail on Friday night resisted efforts to transport them as a group to be tested for COVID-19, but what happened next was unclear as correction officials and reports from inside the facility gave conflicting accounts. According to Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson’s office, the sheriff was “rushed” […]
Posted inHealth Care
In COVID era, medical interpreters in heightened demand
AS AN INTERPRETER at Massachusetts General Hospital, Laura Cantera enables physicians to do their jobs by allowing them to communicate with their Spanish-speaking patients. A native of Uruguay, the 47-year-old Cantera works at the hospital but because of COVID-19 infection concerns spends most of her time interpreting doctor-patient interactions by phone. She often finds herself walking patients, who often have never used the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Judge seeks COVID-19 test data on ICE detainees
US DISTRICT COURT Judge William Young is ordering the Bristol County sheriff’s office to begin submitting reports on the number of immigration detainees in its custody who have been tested for COVID-19, and the results. Young, who has released 47 Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees from Bristol County’s Dartmouth facility as a result of an […]
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Trump bars immigrants seeking permanent residency
PRESIDENT TRUMP CONTINUES to rehaul immigration in the name of coronavirus. He signed the much-anticipated executive order barring some immigration to the United States Wednesday night, saying it needed to be done to protect American jobs. “By pausing immigration we’ll help put unemployed Americans first in line for jobs as America reopens, so important,” Trump said […]