BOSTON/East Boston - Deportations, ongoing labor disputes, raising the minimum wage, health care, student loans, workplace safety, social security, housing foreclosures, bank debt, drivers’ licenses, and community investment were just some of the issues raised on May Day in East Boston.

The traditional workers’ holiday was part protest and part community celebration with many families with young children gathered at Liberty Plaza listening to music and watching an acrobatic performance, but also bearing placards saying “Immigration Reform Now” and “Stop the Attacks on Working Families.”

BOSTON/Faneuil Hall - As part of a coordinated effort to push Congress in the direction of progressive immigration reform, the Service Employees International held a rally and march in Boston on Saturday. The event is one of many to be held across the country in support of reform beneficial to an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Joseph Kennedy III (D-Mass. 4th District) addressed approximately 500 supporters at a packed Faneuil Hall.

BOSTON/State House - Over 75 immigrants and allies from religious, labor and community organizations held a vigil in front of the Massachusetts State House against Mass. Senate Bill 2061/House Bill 3913, "An Act to Enhance Community Safety", for several hours on Tuesday in hopes of pressuring legislators to kill it in committee. The event was organized by Centro Presente.

Cambridge, MA - Last Friday, over 25 protestors representing several Boston area immigrant, labor and community organizations held a picket outside Gov. Deval Patrick's signing of his new memoir "Reason to Believe" at the First Church in Harvard Square. The demonstrators said they were there to criticize Patrick's support for Massachusetts' participation onto the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Secure Communities plan - which will share databases between local police departments and U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice in an effort to more easily identify undocumented immigrants.

BOSTON/State House - Advocates for immigrant rights and many other social justice causes gathered in the cold in front of the Massachusetts State House yesterday to speak out against what they called "racism" and "racial profiling" in the Secure Communities Program.

BOSTON/Government Center – Members of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Alliance Coalition (MIRA) and the Student Immigrant Movement (SIM) today urged MA Senator Scott Brown to vote yes in support of the DREAM Act (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) legislation when it comes up for a vote this week in the Senate. Brown has indicated he would oppose the legislation which provides a way to citizenship for young immigrants who agree to attend college or join the U.S. military.

BOSTON/Downtown Crossing - Over 300 immigrant students and allies held a rally at St. Paul's Cathedral today in support of the DREAM Act - a federal bill that would provide some undocumented immigrant students a path to legal residency in the US. Organizers from the Student Immigrant Movement hoped that the show of force would help convince Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) to join the rest of the Mass. Congressional delegation in backing the bill. SIM invited Brown to the rally, but he did not attend.

BOSTON/State House - Over 100 immigrant students and allies held a rally at the State House on Monday to push Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) to back Sen. Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) recent inclusion of the DREAM Act into the National Defense Authorization Act as an amendment, and vote in favor of the NDAA with the DREAM Act language intact.

BOSTON/Chinatown - Student Immigrant Movement organizers and supporters held a press conference at the encuentro 5 movement space last Wednesday to announce their participation in a national campaign to push for passage of the DREAM Act - a bipartisan bill that would grant some undocumented immigrant students conditional legal status and a path to citizenship. Currently, students of undocumented immigrant parents in many states - including Massachusetts - are not eligible for government financial aid or in-state tuition rates at state colleges. Even if they excelled in public K-12 schools.

BOSTON/Back Bay - Hundreds of immigrant advocates and supporters held a rally in Copley Square on Saturday to protest the controversial Arizona anti-immigrant law SB 1070 and a local appearance by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer at the annual meeting of the National Governors Association. Following speeches by several activists, the attendees marched in sometimes driving rain to the Sheraton Boston where they picketed outside the governors' meeting for a short time - surrounded by heavy security.