BURLINGTON — A small, grassy area across from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Burlington was packed with people Wednesday morning as they recognized the one-year anniversary of Bearing Witness protests.
When Jared and Laurie Berezin started “Bearing Witness” to what they saw as injustice being perpetrated by ICE, the protest consisted of just the two of them.
Now the Wednesday protests frequently draw crowds in the hundreds, including this week when the Berezins and the crowd of demonstrators celebrated one full year of standouts.
“One year down, and as many as it takes to go,” Laurie Berezin said to the crowd.
She described what spurred the two of them to stand outside the ICE building to protest: a video she and her husband saw of an incident in New Bedford in which ICE agents broke the window of a car with children inside to detain a man who was said to be in the U.S. legally.
“We decided we could no longer stay silent about the injustices being committed in our name, with our money, in our state, to our neighbors,” said Laurie Berezin.
When it was just the two of them, she said agents would display a middle finger or swear at them while they remained silent. As the demonstration grew in the weeks that followed, that behavior stopped, Laurie Berezin said during one protest in June.
Throughout their time outside the building, she said they have seen lawyers for detainees be denied phone calls or access to the building to speak with their clients. At the same time, reports emerged of poor conditions for detainees inside, including a lack of sleeping space, overcrowded conditions and little to no privacy for things like using the bathroom.
“We were bearing witness to such an obvious violation of the Fifth and 14th Amendments, which state that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law, central to which is having access to legal counsel,” said Laurie Berezin.
Jared Berezin said the Trump administration “would have us believe that the only way to love America is to hate everyone who wants to become an American.”
“This twisted patriotism is based on lies and hate, and we reject it now, and always,” said Jared Berezin. “It is because we love this country that we care about the human and constitutional rights of everyone, and yes, we want immigrants to stay in our communities.”
Brooke Simone, an attorney with Lawyers for Civil Rights, said the Trump administration’s claim of targeting only the “worst of the worst” criminals “couldn’t be further from the truth.”
“The majority of those arrested had no criminal history whatsoever, no charges, no convictions, just lives and families being upended and completely torn apart,” said Simone.
She said her organization filed a complaint against ICE earlier Wednesday on behalf of seven employees of an Allston car wash who were arrested in November, and described their eight-day detention inside the Burlington field office.
“For those eight days they slept on the floor in what resembled a prison cell. The toilet was in the same room they were locked in with no privacy. They were given very minimal food. They described these meals as being similar to dog or cat food,” said Simone, also describing inadequate hygiene products and the detainees not getting enough water.
While there was celebration of how far the demonstrations have come in one year, the crowd turned somber as the names were read of 44 ICE detainees who died while in custody nationwide since January 2025. While the names were read, demonstrators held up signs with those names, their country of origin and the day they died.
Jamie Hinson-Rieger, the senior minister at the First Parish Church in Bedford and a member of the Bearing Witness organizing committee, said inside the facility “human rights and constitutional rights are meaningless.”
“We’ve been here bearing witness week after week for a year now because the work that goes on here should never be accepted as ordinary,” said Hinson-Rieger. “Inside that building right behind us, ICE agents and [Department of Homeland Security] officials plan their daily hunting trips, cover their faces and deploy across New England to abduct our neighbors.”
Standing at the edge of the road with a sign saying was Doug McCalmont, of Arlington, who has been coming to the Bearing Witness protests nearly every week for about eight months because of the “treatment of the immigrant community.”
“It’s horrific. The fact that they are housing people in a facility that is not allowed to house people,” said McCalmont.
“I think it is a sheer abuse of power … It is horrific, frightening. I have two adult daughters who are going to grow up in this [expletive],” he said later.
Next to him was John Brayton, of Haverhill, who said he was “deeply concerned about everything the administration is doing.”
“Especially the violation of human rights against the immigrant community, but just the idea that we have ICE agents acting as thugs on the street. Minneapolis was the the worst of it, but it is all over the country, and it is just awful,” said Brayton.
In a statement Wednesday, a DHS spokesperson downplayed the number of deaths of ICE detainees under the Trump administration.
“Consistent with data over the last decade, as of April 16, death rates in custody under the Trump administration are 0.009% of the detained population. As bed space has rapidly expanded, we have maintained higher a standard of care than most prisons that hold U.S. citizens—including providing access to proper medical care. For many illegal aliens this is the best healthcare they have received their entire lives,” said the DHS spokesperson.
DHS said the Burlington office is “a processing facility, not a detention facility.”
“Illegal aliens are quickly processed and transferred to permanent housing at a detention facility,” said the DHS spokesperson. “All detainees are provided with proper meals, water, medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their family members and lawyers. In fact, ICE has higher detention standards than most U.S. prisons that hold actual U.S. citizens. It is a longstanding practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody. This includes medical, dental, and mental health services as available, and access to medical appointments and 24-hour emergency care.”
DHS said being detained by ICE “is a choice.”
“We encourage all illegal aliens to take control of their departure with the [Customs and Border Protection] Home App. The United States is offering illegal aliens $2,600 and a free flight to self-deport now,” said the DHS spokesperson. “We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way to live the American dream. If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return.”
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