State Senator Mike Barrett

Pictures from the Concord Democratic Town Committee’s September meeting, for which I was the featured speaker. Topics of discussion included immigration, data privacy, and climate change.

For the third time in four years, Lexington High School has taken gold at the National Conservation Foundation’s annual Envirothon. This year’s competition focused on ways to manage forest ecosystems impacted by climate change. Over the course of a week, students completed a series of exams and delivered presentations to a panel of professionals. Impressive stuff. Congratulations to the Lexington team: Jocelyn Chen, Caroline Ehmann, Tomer Elkayam, Eileen Ho, and Erin Suh.

George Pappas, an experienced immigration lawyer and a PhD in philosophy to boot, accepted an appointment to a judgeship in a federal Immigration Court in Massachusetts. A resident of North Carolina, he and his wife began a long-distance relationship so he could take the post. Now he and a raft of his colleagues in immigration courts across the country have been summarily dismissed.

Pappas told the Lowell Sun, “Many of us uprooted from far away places to do this job. Some people bought a house, integrated their family, and then they got fired. They had a mortgage to pay, they have family here, and this has happened across the country. Many of us have relocated to become judges from different places and we’re just thrust out onto the street.”

Pappas will land on his feet. He’ll move back home and resume his private practice. But the federal court in which he served, located in my district, in Chelmsford, may not be as resilient. Once home to 18 judges, by the end of August it will be down to 6. The backlog of unresolved cases is, predictably, exploding.

Courtesy of his long reach from Washington, immigration czar Stephen Miller is disappearing due process. Who knew you could kidnap the Constitution? Thank you, Lorena Betts of Chelmsford Connected, for setting up the conversation with Judge Pappas before he returns to North Carolina and we lose him.

A key piece of the state budget signed this summer flew under the radar: a new program to boost legal services for low-income immigrant families.

The Hall of Flags in the State House features the official flags of every city and town in Massachusetts. Well, almost. Turns out, Carlisle’s flag was never put up. Until now. Carlisle residents Barbara and Alan Lewis, Marybeth Stevenson, and Beverly Heath helped create a replica flag to present to the Commonwealth so it could take its rightful place in the Hall of Flags.

I joined Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, Rep. Simon Cataldo, Select Board Chair Scott Triola, Select Board members Barney Arnold and Travis Snell, Town Administrator Ryan McLane, and dozens of Carlisle residents at the flag raising ceremony. The event included remarks from state and local officials, a telling of the flag’s history by Scott Evans, and a terrific musical performance.

In Concord Center, I joined Chelmsford’s Rob Kanzer and other patriots to protest the President’s subversion of the checks and balances that kept America great.  Loved the home-made signs.  They drew raucous approval from the people driving by.  Huzzah!