My name is Noah and I’m a volunteer organizer with the Salem Hub of the LUCE Immigrant Justice Network.
I’m here today to tell you that ICE is in our North Shore communities right now and we need all of you to stand up and fight back to protect our immigrant neighbors.
What does LUCE do?
We operate a hotline that many of you may have heard of.
Add our hotline number to your phone right now: 617-370-5023. You can call that hotline if you suspect you see ICE in your area and a trained verifier will respond to confirm if it’s ICE.
LUCE means light, which is why we work to document ICE’s presence and refuse to allow them to operate in the shadows.
Sometimes when verifiers show up, ICE will leave. Because they do not want to face accountability.
People can also call the hotline for mutual aid, for help when a family member has been abducted by ICE.
This is how we keep our communities safe.
This is how we fight the rumors that cause fear among our immigrant neighbors.
LUCE is an all-volunteer organization representing towns across the North Shore, an area where I have lived my whole life. When I say we are protecting our neighbors, I mean it.
ICE Is Here Now
In 2025, LUCE verified more than 1,100 ICE incidents across Massachusetts, including more than 150 in these North Shore towns: Salem, Lynn, Gloucester, Danvers, Peabody, Middleton, and Marblehead. These are just incidents verified by LUCE, so the actual number is much higher.
ICE is in our communities right now causing fear. They are kidnapping people in the street, but also from workplaces, hospitals, school pick-up and drop-off lines, and in courthouses.
We see almost daily reports of ICE in courthouses across the North Shore. According to reporting from WGBH, last year ICE kidnapped 600 people from Massachusetts courthouses – often quickly disappearing them to concentration camps outside of our state.
When ICE is in our communities it makes all of us less safe.
When ICE violates the rights of immigrants, it threatens all of our rights.
By now we all know that this administration is lying when they say they are targeting the so-called “worst of the worst.” They are simply targeting immigrants and people of color.
ICE is part of a larger system that exists to criminalize and over-police people of color.
A man from Lynn went to court for a broken taillight, was abducted from ICE, and quickly sent out of state before eventually being deported.
Many stories start with an unnecessary police interaction.
Also in Lynn, police were called to a domestic dispute. A brother and sister fighting over a phone. The teenage girl was arrested and taken from court by ICE before eventually being released.
This administration tells you they are arresting criminals. But what they are doing is targeting immigrants, and then calling them criminals simply because ICE has detained them.
People like to say our immigration system is broken, but it is working exactly as intended. Which is why ICE must be abolished.
Creating terror for immigrant communities is the point. The Trump administration is telling immigrants that there are no safe spaces for them in this country. But we can fight back. And we MUST fight back.
Three Actions To Take Now
I’m going to give you three quick things you can do today to help.
The first thing is to call and email your state senator—for most of you that is probably Joan Lovely—and urge them to support the PROTECT Act, which passed the Massachusetts House and is now being debated in the Senate. Among the many provisions, it would help limit courthouse arrests by requiring ICE to have a judicial warrant.
The second thing is to join LUCE. There are roles for everyone who wants to help. We need verifiers in the street, hotline operators, mutual aid coordinators, and people to help recruit and train new members.
And finally, please call the LUCE hotline if you suspect you see ICE. We outnumber ICE dramatically. We must harness our collective power to shine a light on their activity and their abuses so we can protect our neighbors.
This is a scary moment. Our communities are being terrorized by an unaccountable force.
But there is power in solidarity.
There is power in coming together as a community.
There is power in standing up and fighting back!
