Cambridge Day, May 2025
The world’s collective witnessing of George Floyd’s murder sparked the uprisings of 2020. In March the world watched as Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts graduate student living in Somerville, was abducted by masked, plainclothes Ice agents. Her “crime”? She spoke up about an issue she cared about, the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza. Rumeysa’s abduction and many more abductions of ordinary working immigrant people compelled us to examine whether sanctuary city laws truly protect us.
On paper, Cambridge and Somerville are sanctuary and welcoming cities – committed to protecting immigrants, resisting federal overreach and upholding justice. And while current policies often fall short of those promises, we believe our cities have the tools, values and people power to close the gap between what we say we are and what we hope to be.
