Carver Democratic State Rep Candidate Sarah Hewins Backed Pro-Illegal Immigrant Bills
By Tom Joyce | October 8, 2024, 22:37 EDT
A Carver selectman with a history of supporting benefits for illegal immigrants launched a write-in campaign for state representative last month.
Sarah Hewins, a Democrat, is running a write-in campaign against conservative Republican John Gaskey, a Carver Planning Board member, after he defeated 22-year incumbent state representative Susan Gifford (R-Wareham) 59 percent to 41 percent in the Second Plymouth District primary.
While Gaskey is a staunch opponent of illegal immigration, as he told NewBostonPost last week, his opponent has backed bills that benefit illegal immigrants.
Hewins unsuccessfully ran for state representative as the Democratic nominee against Gifford in 2016 and 2018, getting 42 percent of the vote the first time and 43 percent the second time, according to the Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office. During her 2018 bid, she took stances sympathetic to illegal immigrants in a questionnaire from Progressive Massachusetts.
Specifically, she said that she supported providing driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, making illegal immigrants eligible for in-state tuition, and making Massachusetts a sanctuary state.
Here were her answers to those three questions from Progressive Massachusetts:
8. Higher Education Access. Would you support legislation to grant in-state tuition and financial aid to undocumented students?
Sarah Hewins: Yes. People’s immigration status should not deny them access to a future. The best way to prevent brain drain is to give people the means to an education in this country.
11. Safe Communities Act. Do you support the Safe Communities Act, which prohibits the use of state resources for mass deportations or deportation raids, limits local and state police collaboration with federal immigration agents, and prohibits state support for a Muslim registry?
Sarah Hewins: Yes. We should listen to our local law enforcement officials who do not support policies that make state and local officials responsible for enforcement of national immigration laws. Those national policies make local officials’ job harder, reduce cooperation from immigrant communities, and make us all less safe. The very idea of having “Muslim Registry” is morally abhorrent, historically ignorant, and any government involvement in such a scheme would be unconstitutional.
12. Safe Driving Act. Would you support the Safe Driving Act, which would remove immigration status as a barrier to applying for a license or learner’s permit?
Sarah Hewins: Yes.
Massachusetts enacted a law in 2022 that provided driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants and made them eligible for in-state tuition at public colleges and universities one year later. Additionally, over the last several years, Democratic lawmakers on Beacon Hill have pushed to make Massachusetts a sanctuary state. Their proposal would do the following: prevent Massachusetts law enforcement and court personnel from asking people about their immigration status; limit communication with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including not letting the federal agency know when people would be released from custody; and end so-called 287g agreements that let Massachusetts jails and prisons house federal immigration detainees.
Hewins is not on the ballot this year because she pursued a write-in campaign after Gaskey won the primary; she did so because there is no Democrat on the ballot this November.
“Like most people, Sarah assumed that Susan Gifford would win her primary and appear on the ballot. Susan has served her constituents well for many years,” Hewins’s campaign web site says. “While it’s true that Sarah has had disagreements with Susan over some policies, Susan and Sarah are in agreement on many important issues: the environment, seniors, children, veterans, affordable housing, and our local economy. That is why Sarah did not run in the primary and why she is not on the ballot.”
“Gaskey is against many bedrock issues that both Sarah and Susan support,” Hewins’s web site adds. “He has no accomplishments, minimal experience in Carver’s government, and no apparent knowledge of the rest of the district at all. Gaskey is simply not capable of representing the people of the 2nd Plymouth district.”
Gaskey will likely win this race, as being on the ballot provides him with a major structural advantage over Hewins. The district includes Carver, Wareham, and Precincts 3, 6, and 7A of Middleborough.
Sarah Hewins could not be reached for comment on Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday; NewBostonPost also asked Hewins for her position on the state’s ongoing migrant crisis. Gaskey’s campaign also couldn’t be reached for comment on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday.
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