An estimated 400-500 people attended a Jan. 11 afternoon vigil on the Town Common organized by Needham Resists, part of a national “ICE Out for Good” response to the Jan. 7 fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis.
Introduced by Needham Resists member Bill Paulson and speaking from the steps of Town Hall, U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss decried ICE for its actions and stated his intent to support an impeachment inquiry for U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for her response to the shooting.
“In an era when lies become political currency, the most radical and important thing that we can do is to tell the truth,” Auchincloss said.
Auchincloss said his review of the sequence of events led him to conclude that Good was not a threat to the ICE officer, as Noem maintained a few hours after the shooting occurred.
“For this administration to try to gaslight the American public within minutes of this assault is yet another demonstration that they do not care about due process. They do not care about transparent investigation. They do not care about the rule of law,” he said.
“You have my commitment to continue to be your voice and vote for the rule of law. And that starts with Kristi Noem. She has not given a single American the benefit or the dignity of due process. So it’s time for Congress to show her what due process looks like by launching an impeachment inquiry.”
Two Needham clergy also spoke at the vigil, the Rev. Katie Scudera of First Parish in Needham Unitarian Universalist and Rabbi Allison Poirier from Temple Aliyah. And resident Julie Bailit read a poem by Amanda Gorman, the nation’s first youth poet laureate.
“We are the first and oldest house of worship in our town, founded by English colonists, otherwise known as immigrants,” Rev. Scudera noted of her church, which dates back to Needham’s founding in 1711.
“As activists remind us, there is no illegal immigration on stolen land,” she said.
She then read from a Jan. 8 statement from the Unitarian Universalist Association that referred to Good’s death as “an act of state violence that has stolen a life and reverberates through an already wounded community.”
“We are in solidarity with immigrant communities in Minneapolis and across the country who live under constant threat of detention, separation, and death at the hands of the state,” the statement said.
Speaking later in the program, Rabbi Poirier noted, “My tradition teaches that, at the beginning of time, one human being was created alone so that nobody would ever be able to say, ‘my ancestors were greater than yours, therefore I am greater than you are.’”
“At this moment of creation, God transformed an unformed chaos into a world of order and beauty. But today, we see the world around us descending into chaos and violence,” she said.
The vigil was the fourth significant rally in downtown Needham held to protest the Trump administration. In addition to “No Kings” protests in June and October, Needham Resists organized an anti-Trump rally held on Labor Day.
Unlike the earlier events where attendees avoided utilizing the Town Common due to lack of a permit, the Jan. 11 gathering was allowed to use Town Hall steps and the common because town policy does not require permits for vigils.
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