So what was I doing in the offices of the Immigrant Families Services Institute (IFSI) in Mattapan Square at 8 o’clock on a recent Saturday morning? Well, the day before IFSI had organized the Charting the Path Forward conference, attracting many hundreds of people worried about the situation of Haitian immigrants with Donald Trump as president. IFSI is an incredible group that helps in so many ways the many thousands of refugees from Haiti who have come to Boston.

Our president is trying to end the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) legal immigration program for 1.2 million immigrants. Under TPS, people from 16 countries who suffered major natural disasters or major violence at home can come here for their safety. After their arrival, TPS remains in place until the foreign government certifies that conditions are safe for people to return.

Is there a more dangerous country in the world today than Haiti with gangs in control? But that’s not stopping our president.  Meanwhile, the Boston based Lawyers for Civil Rights are suing to stop the termination of the TPS program.

But back to what happened at that Charting the Path Forward Conference the day before, when the several hundred people divided into a number of smaller groups and moved the chairs around while I was talking to someone in another part of the room.  When I had to leave, it took me a while to find my coat but I finally did. But that night I put my hands in the pockets of the coat and felt some car keys.  I had taken the wrong coat and someone was stranded without being able to start his or her car. I fortunately was able to connect to him through the IFSI group. And he was an immigrant leader I’d heard speak at the conference and had wanted to meet. So it was a little providential that I took his coat. At least for me; less so for him.

I then proceeded to the annual Mary Ann Brett Food Pantry fundraiser held at St. Margaret’s Church of Our Lady of Calcutta Church at the corner of Columbia Road and Dorchester Avenue.  Jim Brett, who organizes the event with a big team, is a champion of disability rights who runs the New England Council, supporting economic development in the region. 

For breakfast there were two kinds of sausages, bacon, Irish black pudding, eggs, Irish soda bread, so it was a meaty affair for a great cause. And a great assortment of good people were there for that.  I thought I’d bought a ticket on line but couldn’t remember.  The kind ladies at the ticket table took my name and said they’d track me down if I hadn’t actually paid. I can deal with that.

On the way out of there, I signed on by Zoom to the board meeting of Justice at Work. I’m on the board of this group that defends civil rights by representing immigrants organized at workplaces by a network of Immigrant Workers Centers located across the state. There are some employers who do not pay the wages their immigrant workers are due and/or make them work in unsafe conditions. They explicitly or implicitly use the threat of reporting them to ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) to prevent complaints.  But lots of immigrant workers, aided by these groups and by the state’s attorney general, still band together and stand up for their rights.

Next, it was on to the IBEW Union Hall on Freeport Street, where several hundred more immigrants had gathered for the Building Justice for Workers Conference to talk about their rights and challenges in these times.  One vow was that “all people are undocumented” in the sense that President Trump is coming after all immigrants whether legal or undocumented and all citizens who give any support to them. I got to talk to several old colleagues from current and past issues.

After that, it was riding the Red Line to a meeting of about 100 people from the metropolitan area in Cambridge under the banner of a group called “Arise and Resist.” That meeting focused on organizing efforts such as against the trillions of dollars Republicans want to make in budget cuts while at the same time passing big tax cuts that almost all go to the wealthy. 

Last, but not least, I made my Saturday food shopping rounds. To the Dorchester Food Coop (a great place on Bowdoin Street built by thousands buying $100 shares), then to the Daily Table low-price food store in Codman Square, and then to Star Market in Lower Mills. And in between two of these, I left off Frank’s coat at the director of IFSI’s house in Hyde Park.  You could map all these stops on that Saturday, but it might make you dizzy. It did me a little.

So there’s a lot of running around to do in Dorchester when President Trump is “flooding the zone” with terrible proposal after terrible proposal.

Lew Finfer is a Dorchester Resident and Director of MA Action for Justice (massactionforjustice.org).