BOSTON — Massachusetts Senate President Karen Spilka compared President Trump’s nationwide crackdown on illegal immigration, and ICE carrying it out, to the Holocaust while speaking at an “Immigrant Day” celebration Wednesday at the State House.

“I’ve been open and honest that this moment, what is happening across our country, reminds me of what my family experienced in Poland in the 1930s leading up to World War II,” Spilka said while speaking to a packed Gardner Auditorium in the State House basement.

“When people targeted my family with violence because they were Jewish,” she said. “Like this government today, even targeting now because of people’s looks, their accents, the way they speak, and that is unacceptable.”

Spilka made the comments during the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy (MIRA) Coalition’s annual Immigrant Day celebration, joining several other state Democrats in denouncing operations carried out in Massachusetts and across the country by ICE, DHS and the Trump administration.

“What we have witnessed right here in Massachusetts and across our country in recent months has been deeply disturbing to not only me, I say to all of us here today, and that’s why you are here. Families are being torn apart without due process, individuals detained without clear cause, communities living in fear for those who are supposed to support and uphold the law,” added Spilka.

“What ICE is doing is not public safety. They’re using fear to divide people and destabilize communities and destabilize states at the same time, especially the blue states,” she said.

The senate president also boasted about Beacon Hill’s work with MIRA, including using taxpayer dollars to fund defense attorneys for illegal immigrants in Massachusetts.

Gov. Maura Healey also spoke at the event, blasting ICE and President Trump for stoking “fear and anxiety” across Massachusetts, adding that the nationwide illegal immigration crackdown is keeping people from attending work, doctor’s appointments, school and more.

“All because of the actions of this federal government. I know that we’re not tolerating that here in Massachusetts. It’s not just that that’s not who we are as Massachusetts, it’s not who America is. It’s what we’re here for,” said Healey, going on to indirectly reference Congressman Seth Moulton’s illegal immigrant guest at the State of the Union Marcelo Gomes da Silva, and a recent case involving a teen girl picked up by ICE.

“Little kids taken away from their parents, mothers and fathers taken away for their kids; United States citizens picked up, detained, and mistakenly deported; and others with lawful status treated the same way. People flown out of state under cover of darkness without due process. Just last week we saw a 14-year-old girl outside a church taken by ICE officials. High school and college students picked up on their way to a practice or to class,” Healey said.

Earlier this month, the Herald reported that Gomes da Silva was referenced in 2021 Milford Police reports involving “sexual assault and juveniles.” Gomes da Silva was picked up by ICE agents in May on his way to volleyball practice and held at the Burlington facility for a week.

This as ICE last week blasted the Boston Globe and other local media outlets for reporting that the 14-year old girl, mentioned Wednesday by Healey, was not detained by ICE, but instead was taken into protective custody after agents found her with two illegal immigrants suspected of being gang members who had no relation to the girl.

Healey’s words came just a week after she joined Attorney General Andrea Campbell in launching an online portal for residents to report “potentially illegal” activity by ICE agents conducting operations in Massachusetts. When asked by the Herald if she plans to somehow prosecute federal immigration agents with information collected from the portal, the governor implied that she may.

“My job is to protect public safety here in Massachusetts and opening that portal is part of it, so that people have a way to communicate what they’re observing and if ICE agents are engaged and things are unlawful, then expect them to be held accountable,” Healey said.

Meanwhile, the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security took up the Protect Act (H. 5158) — which would ban federal immigration officials from making civil arrests in Massachusetts courthouses, among other measures — hearing testimony from immigrant advocates, fellow lawmakers and Massachusetts sheriffs for the second time this month.

The committee did not vote on whether to advance or kill the legislation during the hearing.

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