In the latest incident in a series of demonstrations, a group of immigration activists presented a “Trump Award” to state Sen. Eileen Donoghue and claimed the Lowell Democrat canceled a promised meeting with them about a controversial tuition access bill.
“It’s a very important issue to many, and I think trivializing it with kind of a stunt, let’s call it, is unfortunate,” Donoghue told WGBH News Tuesday.
The activists want Donoghue to support a bill that grants in-state college tuition discounts for any Massachusetts student who has completed three years in, and graduated from, a local high school, regardless of the student’s immigration status. Donoghue has not decided how she will vote on the bill.
“When the time comes for a vote, I will make a decision as I do on any vote,” Donoghue said.
Around two dozen activists flooded Donoghue’s first-floor office at the State House Tuesday afternoon to present the “award” to staff members. The mounted certificate reads “The undocumented youth of Massachusetts present the Trump Award to Eileen Donoghue in recognition of your outstanding disregard for immigrant students during the 2015 Massachusetts Legislative year.”
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has earned the ire of many immigrant activists with his use of charged language about immigrant populations throughout his campaign.
“We were just here today because we believe that, as undocumented students, for her to call police on us, for her to cancel a meeting on us, and then for her to also stay silent and chose to stay silent on this bill … I think that is a disgrace, honestly,” student Valeria Dovale said to Donoghue’s staff during the demonstration.
“Standing like this … is similar to Donald Trump, and so we decided to give her the Donald Trump Award,” Dovale said.
Organizers of the demonstrations claimed in an email to the media that Donoghue “canceled a meeting with us that she agreed to.”
“The Senator’s response to us has been solidly anti-immigrant, and she has decided to stand with people like Donald Trump,” Carlos Rojas Álvarez from the group Student Immigrant Movement said, according to the email.
Donoghue tells a different story and called the “Trump Award” a “gimmick.” The senator said that even in light of the “stunt,” she will continue to consider the bill as a serious issue and will meet with other parties who may have an interest.
“We never canceled the meeting,” she said. “In fact, I guess, you know, they were the ones who said the meeting was canceled but we never canceled the meeting,”
On Oct. 8, activists were removed from Donoghue’s office by State Troopers after State House rangers called in police. Later in the day, more activists returned to Donoghue’s office and met civilly with members of the senator’s staff.
According to Donoghue, the initial Oct. 20 meeting had to be rescheduled due to a legislative committee meeting and the offer of an alternative date was rejected by the activists.
“We offered a date of Oct. 29. After a couple of days, they came back and said that wasn’t good. We also told them we’d work with them for another time and they chose not to follow up on that,” Donoghue said.
Donoghue says she still hasn’t decided how she will vote on the bill and wants to hear what more interested parties and the Board of Education decide about the issue.
