The Joint Committee on Public Safety heard our advocacy and made favorable recommendations on the House side versions of our priority decarceration bills, and part of Prisoner Legal Service's  Dignity and Freedom Campaign.

Take action to learn more and support these bills here!

This Wednesday March 18th, there will be another hearing at the State House for the PROTECT Act. While this bill represents some movement towards action from our leaders, many advocates are concerned it is not strong enough as is to protect our communities. Here you can find a action guide and more background information to understand the limitations and other efforts that we believe would have a stronger impact. (Or join our Action Hour to do this with others!)

HUD has proposed the Mixed Status Rule, which would reverse decades-long protections allowing undocumented family members — who receive no federal assistance and often pay higher rent with lower wages — to live with their documented relatives in public housing. This rule will increase their exposure to ICE and CBP enforcement, and NO family should be forced into that danger. Learn more and take action here!

Concerned community members have witnessed escalating numbers of violent ICE arrests at MA courts. This is one of many ways in which our state’s public institutions are being used as deportation traps. Our state government has a responsibility to do everything in its power to stop its courts from being used as staging grounds for detaining our community members. 

Take Action and sign this petition from LUCE here!

The Trump administration has pledged to deport millions of our friends, family members, employees, and neighbors around the country, including here in Massachusetts. This would tear our communities apart, trample on our fundamental freedoms, and devastate our economy.

To carry out its agenda, the Trump administration has vowed to dramatically increase immigration detention and to co-opt local officials as additional manpower. Indeed, the administration immediately issued Executive Orders that attempt to fulfill this promise. Without mass detention, there can be no mass deportation.

State officials cannot change federal immigration policy, but basic constitutional principles make clear: they don’t have to voluntarily contribute to its cruelty. The Dignity Not Deportations Act will help guard against the abuse of power by federal ICE agents, ensure that our Commonwealth remains true to its values, and continue to safeguard state resources.

UU Mass Action’s partners, Families for Justice as Healing and The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls, continue to work toward ending the incarceration of women and girls.

The 2025-26 policy priorities are the Prison Moratorium, Elder and Medical Parole, Decriminalizing drugs, and the MA Survivors Act. Take action here!

Donate here!

BIJAN is reaching out again now because our funds are dangerously depleted due to ICE’s violence in our state, which has impacted unprecedented numbers of people.  Please donate today! 

So far in 2025, the Beyond/BIJAN Bond fund has more than DOUBLED the amount we paid in bonds in 2024. To date this year, we have paid 

• $965,000 in bonds, freeing 123 people. 

• $62,055 in commissary ($20/month) to directly support people in Massachusetts snatched from their communities and caged by ICE. This allows them to make phone calls, buy soap, clothes and needed supplies, send mail and try to get by while detained.

• $79,345.50 in emergency crisis response funds for families impacted by a detention or deportation. 

Despite the current administration’s efforts to end immigration bond and keep people in “mandatory detention,” lawyers are fighting back, filing habeas petitions and challenging court rulings . So we are paying more bonds, allowing people to pursue their immigration cases from the community instead of facing deportation. Without your donations, we will soon have to pause paying commissary and bonds. Please donate today, and consider becoming a monthly donor to increase your impact!

Since we are an all-volunteer network, we have no staff to pay, no rent for an office, and no overhead. This means that every dollar of your donation goes directly to help our immigrant friends and neighbors in this moment of trauma and crisis. Thank you for being part of this essential work and for choosing freedom!

Expanding private jet emissions will be devastating to our climate. See below for opportunities to take action!

1. Resolution: We are calling on Unitarian Universalist congregations in MA to adopt a Resolution urging Gov. Healey to stop private jet expansion at Hanscom Field airport or anywhere.  Learn more here! For questions, contact: faith@stopprivatejetexpansion.org  In the meantime, please take action as an individual by signing this petition to the Governor.

2. Petition: Sign this petition to the Governor!

The End of Life Options act (S.1486) is in the Senate Ways and Means committee.  This bill give a person with a prognosis of less than six months (as confirmed by two physicians) the right to be prescribed a medication that they could take at end of life if their quality of life becomes intolerable. Please contact president of the senate, Karen Spilka by email or at (617) 722-1500, and your own senator to let them know you support this bill and would like them to let leadership know that their constituents want to see this enacted.