Soon after President Donald Trump was sworn in for a second term, he signed several executive orders to set his agenda into motion. Public officials across the United States—including those from Massachusetts—were quick with their reactions.
On Monday, Mass. Attorney General Andrea Campbell filed a lawsuit alongside 17 other states challenging the legitimacy of Trump’s order, stating that it violates the 14th Amendment of the Constitution and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952.
“Birthright citizenship in our country is a guarantee of equality, born out of a collective fight against oppression, slavery and its devastating harms,” Campbell said in a press release. “President Trump does not have the authority to take away constitutional rights, and we will fight against his effort to overturn our Constitution and punish innocent babies born in Massachusetts.”
Boston is reportedly on a list of American cities to experience immigration raids in the coming weeks. Tom Homan, Trump’s nominee for border czar, said Boston Mayor Michelle Wu was not “very smart” for vowing to defy Trump’s deportation orders. While preventing I.C.E. raids is largely out of the state government’s jurisdiction, school officials in Worcester, the second-largest city in Massachusetts, said officials would not be allowed in its schools without a criminal warrant.
In the first hours of his second presidency, he delayed a TikTok ban, withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization (WHO), and declared a state of emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Samantha Montaño, a Mass. politician representing the Jamaica Plain, Mission Hill, and Roxbury neighborhoods, said many of her constituents did not vote due to the Biden administration’s position on the war in Gaza. Trump has taken a more hard-line stance on the conflict, stating “all hell” would break loose if all captives were not returned by his swearing-in. Elise Stefanik, Trump’s nominee for U.N. ambassador, said that Israel has a “biblical right” to claim the West Bank as its territory.
“My thoughts reflect those of my district,” Montaño said in a statement to The Beacon, “[of] deep fear and concern about what [Trump] will do and who he is empowering to do these things.”
Montaño said there will be “irreparable” damage done to communities across the U.S. and hopes that the American people are not “too limp to stand up to the challenges that lie ahead.”
One executive order signed by Trump establishes that the federal government would recognize male and female as the only genders. A further order seeks to dismantle all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs instituted by the Biden administration.
John Moran is a state representative and member of the LGBTQ+ community who represents parts of the South End, Roxbury, Back Bay, Newmarket, and Dorchester neighborhoods. Moran filed bills at the beginning of this year’s legislative session to prevent book bans in Massachusetts, protect the privacy of members of the transgender community seeking medical treatment, and increase in-home care for constituents with HIV/AIDS.
“I will work every day to do everything I can to protect the most vulnerable,” Moran said in a statement to The Beacon. “As an LGBTQ+ legislator, I feel that I need to be proactive in protecting my community.”
While serving as Mass. attorney general from 2015 to 2023, during Trump’s first term, Governor Maura Healey sued his administration nearly 100 times. During her State of the Commonwealth address last Thursday, Healey briefly acknowledged the transfer of power between Biden and Trump without mentioning either man’s name.
“I assure you we will take every opportunity to work with the federal government in any way that benefits Massachusetts,” Healey said. “And I also promise you we will not change who we are.”
Among the more than 100 executive actions signed by Trump on his first day in office, one of the most controversial aims to end birthright citizenship, a right enshrined in the U.S. Constitution for more than 100 years. Trump ordered that no federal departments may issue citizenship documents to people whose parents were not lawfully present or only had lawful temporary status in the U.S. at the time of their birth. This measure, however, cannot be terminated without an amendment to the U.S. Constitution by an act of Congress.
This year’s presidential inauguration fell on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The two have coincided on three other occasions—Reagan’s 1985 swearing-in, Clinton’s 1997 inauguration, and Obama’s second inaugural in 2013. Moran says King’s teachings will guide his legislative work in the coming years.
“Even on the most trying days, I will do my best to seek the light and lead with love,” he said. “Most importantly, rather than amplify Trump’s hate, I want to help, in Dr. King’s words, ‘build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear’ so that I can help us continue to move forward.”
