Chicopee budget up 6% on personnel, police costs; mayor proposes $3M to defray taxes
Vieau also announced plans to use $3 million from the city's fee cash account — money raised in taxes from the previous year but not spent — to defray taxes in the next year.
The budget now goes to the County Council. Cities set tax rates in the fall.
The cost of health insurance drove a $3.4 million increase in the human resources budget, Vieau said.
The police budget went up $3.4 million, as well, because of the cost of technology and to pay for increases in collective bargaining contracts.
The new school budget reflects the minimum net school spending requirement of $123 million and the cost of the lease for the school administration building of $280,200.
Additional funding coming from the Stabilization Fund for Educational Purposes.
Vieau said this budget represents a transition from pandemic-era programs like American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, and Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, often called ESSER.
'I commend our school Superintendent Dr. Marcus Ware for his difficult task of being creative about how to still deliver top-tier education to our students while also dealing with the reality that ESSER funds are gone,' Vieau said. 'Dr. Ware, myself and our mutual finance teams also recognize that the current federal administration has taken and may continue to take away funding that we have relied on in the past.'
Residential retrofitting program turns on high-speed internet for Bay Meadow Apts. in Springfield
ICE takes two into custody in Amherst in crackdown on 'sanctuary' communities
With cannabis industry struggling, Western Mass. sellers and growers seek relief from high court
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The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
I was once an ICE prosecutor. What I see now in immigration courts is disturbing.
I hadn't heard the rattling of chains in a courthouse since 2012, when I was a prosecutor for the Department of Homeland Security at the Varick Immigration Court in New York City. Back then, shackles were reserved for individuals deemed a public safety threat or flight risk by ICE as they were being escorted from their holding cells. They often already had arrests or convictions. But in 2025, it's a whole new world. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and other elected officials have been arrested for bearing witness to immigration enforcement. Last month, ICE agents handcuffed New York City Comptroller Brad Lander at 26 Federal Plaza after he linked arms with an immigrant during what should have been a routine court appearance. Each day, ICE raises the stakes –– even targeting Americans who dare to show solidarity. I no longer work for ICE, but I still advocate for immigrants. And what I'm seeing representing clients at ICE check-ins and court hearings is seriously disturbing. Courtrooms that once served as venues for justice are now used to intimidate and remove those who challenge policy. President Trump's militarized immigration enforcement has produced shocking due process violations, chaos and widespread fear. The chains are back, but this time they serve a different purpose. Detainment is no longer about controlling security threats or managing who enters the country. Instead, courtroom arrests are part of a broader effort to restructure the immigration system by force and without debate or legislation. With each new policy, principled professionals inside the courtroom resign, leaving fewer voices willing to question what's happening. This quiet exodus should alarm us all, not just noncitizens. If no one within the system challenges this overreach now, we will soon witness the collapse of immigration courts as we know them. It is hard to ignore the growing sense of danger inside today's immigration courts. Since 2017, more than 300 immigration judges have resigned, retired or been pushed out, many citing political pressure and the erosion of judicial independence. Earlier this year, the Department of Justice abruptly fired 20 immigration judges, including five assistant chief judges and an entire incoming class, a purge widely condemned as politically motivated. Newer judges, trained under Trump-era protocols, now operate under intense scrutiny and are instructed to deny even the most basic continuances, including the standard 10-day extension attorneys typically receive to prepare a response. In April alone, immigration judges closed more than 11,000 asylum cases, a new record high. They also set another record: denial rates exceeded 80 percent. These denials often serve one purpose: to fast-track cases. This advances Trump's novel strategy of dismissing cases to expedite deportation, and to clear dockets to comply with ICE's removal quotas. The loss of judicial expertise coincides with a staggering funding imbalance: from fiscal 2023 through 2024, Congres s spent roughly $24 on ICE and Border Patrol for every dollar spent on immigration courts. This leaves judges overwhelmed and under-resourced, while enforcement agencies received hundreds of billions in support. With arrest quotas at 3,000 per day, and ICE surpassing its 41,500 funded bed spaces, the administration isn't seeking neutral arbiters. It is demanding compliant 'yes' judges to carry out its agenda of expedited removals. Fewer independent voices on the bench, rushed court proceedings and a courtroom culture that now prioritizes handcuffs over hearings have created another urgent crisis: There aren't enough immigration lawyers left to meet the needs of a ballooning docket. And the lack of oversight around ICE's tactics inside courthouses has had a chilling effect on those who remain. A national survey of asylum attorneys found that immigration lawyers experience levels of burnout and secondary traumatic stress higher than those seen in social work, prison care or nursing. Many report symptoms like depression, insomnia, intrusive thoughts and emotional detachment — signs that often mirror PTSD. For those representing unaccompanied children or trauma survivors, the emotional weight is compounded by a sense of moral injury — the psychological damage done by witnessing injustice while feeling powerless to prevent it. While data on government workers — particularly ICE attorneys — is scarce, the signs are troubling. There is no official count of how many have resigned or been pushed out, but those who remain face mounting political pressure and growing caseloads, and they are given no discretion. ICE's legal arm, the Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, is tasked with prosecuting millions of immigration cases, yet, unlike federal prosecutors in criminal courts, its attorneys operate with little public accountability. While the departures of immigration judges have drawn concern, attrition within the office remains unnoticed and unexamined. Yet its impact is felt as experienced, ethical attorneys quietly exit, leaving behind many who are less experienced or less ethical, and who at any rate are expected to implement policies without regard to their legality or the dictates of their consciences. One of them, James Joseph Rodden, an ICE attorney in Dallas, was recently exposed for running a white supremacist social media account while actively prosecuting immigrants in court. ICE declined to comment in late March on whether Rodden remains employed. We need courage from within the system –– judges, attorneys and officials willing to uphold the rule of law –– and meaningful reform to guard against the erosion of due process. When defenders of the Constitution resign and those like Rodden stay behind, loyalty to equal justice is replaced by loyalty to power. For the sake of our nation, we must do better. We must demand a system where immigration courtrooms are guided by principle. Veronica Cardenas is a former prosecutor with the Department of Homeland Security. She is the founder of Humanigration, a digital platform serving immigrants and their legal advocates.
Los Angeles Times
3 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Democrats, playing defense on immigration, see a flicker of hope in new polls
WASHINGTON — Democrats may not agree on a solution to the country's broken immigration system — but President Trump's crackdown in Los Angeles has finally given them a line of attack. A flicker of hope has emerged from a brutal polling environment for the party suggesting the public is torn over Trump's blunt tactics in the immigration raids. The recent set of numbers have been an outlier on an issue that has otherwise been Trump's strongest since taking office. 'Absolutely, sentiment is shifting,' said G. Cristina Mora, a sociology professor at UC Berkeley. 'You're seeing more dissatisfaction and less agreeance with the president's strategy on immigration enforcement.' Polls released over the course of the last month found that, while a plurality of Americans still support Trump's overall approach to immigration, a majority believe that ICE has gone too far in its deportation efforts. And a new survey from Gallup found record public support for immigration, with public concern over crossings and support for mass deportations down significantly from a year ago. Top Democratic operatives are testing new talking points, hoping to press their potential advantage. 'The only place in the world that Donald Trump has put boots on the ground and deployed troops is in America,' Rahm Emanuel, a veteran party insider who served under President Obama before becoming mayor of Chicago, said this week. 'In L.A., they get troops on the ground. That's the Trump Doctrine. The only place he's actually put boots on the ground is in an American city.' In Washington, efforts to corral Democratic lawmakers behind a unified message on immigration have been futile ever since the party split over the Laken Riley Act, one of the first bills passed this term. The law allows ICE to detain undocumented immigrants that have faced charges, been arrested or convicted of nonviolent crimes such as burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting. But last month, when the shock of Trump's military deployment to Los Angeles was still fresh, every single Democrat in the Senate joined in a call on the White House to withdraw the troops. The letter had no power or influence, and was paid little attention as the nascent crisis unfolded. But it was a small victory for a party that saw a rare glimpse of political unity amid the chaos. Now, Democrats are hoping in part that Trump becomes a victim of his own success, with focus pulled from a quiet border that has seen record-low crossings since he resumed office. In the House, Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Redlands) is leading an immigration working group, sources said, hoping to foster consensus in the party on how to proceed. 'The issue has gotten a little less hot, because the border is calmed down,' said one senior Democratic congressional aide, granted anonymity to speak candidly. 'Now the focus is raids, which is better terrain for us.' In May, Ruben Gallego, a Democrat who won a statewide race for his Senate seat in Arizona the same year that Trump handily won the state's presidential contest, released a vision for immigration policy. His proposal, titled 'Securing the Border and Ensuring Economic Prosperity,' received little fanfare. But the plan called for significant border security enhancements as well as an increase in visa and green card opportunities and a pathway to citizenship. It was a shot at the middle from an ambitious politician scheduled to visit Iowa, a crucial state in the presidential nominating contest, early next month. Yet it is unclear whether efforts by Gallego, a border state senator, to moderate the party's messaging on immigration will resonate with its base. Gallego was one of only 12 Democratic senators who voted for the Laken Riley Act. On the other side of the party, leaders like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, as well as Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, have focused their criticism on Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, with Mamdani calling the agency 'fascist' in its tactics. 'Democrats built the deportation machine that Trump has now turbocharged,' said Elliott Young, a history professor at Lewis & Clark College. 'The Democrats have an opportunity to stake out a humane and economically sensible position of encouraging immigration and welcoming our future citizens from around the world. The Republicans will always be better at cruelty and xenophobia, so better to leave that to them.' In her research at UC Berkeley, Mora still sees 'very strong support' across party lines for a pathway to citizenship, as well as for the constitutional preservation of birthright citizenship. But she is skeptical of an emerging strategy from a segment of Democrats, like Gallego, to adopt a prevailing Republican narrative of rampant criminal activity among immigrants while still promoting legal protections for the rest. Having it both ways will be difficult, she said. The Trump administration says that anyone who crossed the border without authorization is a criminal, regardless of their record once they got here. 'The Democratic Party is in this sort of place where, if you look at the Ruben Gallegos and that element, they're sort of ceding the narrative as they talk about getting rid of the criminals,' Mora said. 'Narratives of immigrants and criminality, despite all the data showing otherwise, are so tightly connected.' 'It's a tricky dance to make,' she added. Before Gallego's visit to Iowa, California Gov. Gavin Newsom visited South Carolina earlier this month, a transparent political stop in another crucial early primary state by a Democratic presidential contender. For Newsom, the politics of the raids in his home state have been unavoidable from the start. But the governor's speech in Bennettsville teased a political line of attack that appears to reflect shifting public opinion against ICE tactics. Linking the raids with Trump's response to the Los Angeles fires, Newsom noted the president was silent on the six-month anniversary of the devastating event, while that day ordering hundreds of federal troops into MacArthur Park in the heart of the city. 'Kids were taken away and hidden into the buildings, as they paraded around with American flags on horseback in military garb and machine guns — all masked,' Newsom said. 'Not one arrest was made.' 'He wanted to make a point,' Newsom added. 'Cruelty is the point.' The must-read: Newsom threatens Texas over power grab. He's blowing smoke The deep dive: Trump cuts to California National Weather Service leave 'critical' holes: 'It's unheard of'The L.A. Times Special: These California tech hubs are set to dominate the AI economyMore to come,Michael Wilner—Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here to get it in your inbox.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
How do ballot initiatives and recalls work in Virginia and more state headlines
The state Capitol. (Photo by Ned Oliver/Virginia Mercury) • 'How do ballot initiatives and recalls work in Virginia?' — VPM • 'ICE detains undocumented Virginia Tech student charged with assaulting police.' — WSET • 'Google partners with Youngkin and offers AI training courses to Virginia job seekers.' — The Associated Press • 'Virginia's $36 million relief deal clears toll debts for Portsmouth and Norfolk drivers.' — 13newsnow • 'Virginia Beach Fire Marshals seeks public help for illegal fireworks display at Oceanfront.' — WAVY SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Solve the daily Crossword
