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Worcester moves City Council meeting to Zoom after weekend of protests against ICE, Worcester police
A Worcester City Council meeting and a budget hearing scheduled for Tuesday will both be held over Zoom, the city manager said.
Citing “public safety concerns,” Worcester’s city manager announced that City Hall will close to the public at 5 p.m. Tuesday and that government meetings scheduled for that night will be held exclusively over Zoom.
The move comes after a weekend that saw multiple protests over the arrest of a Worcester mother by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers last week and Worcester police’s arrests of two people present during the ICE operation.
On Thursday, May 8, ICE agents arrested a Worcester woman originally from Brazil. Neighbors and other Worcester residents including City Councilor Etel Haxhiaj formed what Haxhiaj called a “human ring” around the woman as ICE agents closed in.
Worcester arrests
The scene devolved into chaos, with video showing officers aggressively arresting the woman’s screaming 16-year-old daughter and a woman who apparently tried to interfere with the teen’s arrest. Both are now facing charges from Thursday’s incident; the Department of Homeland Security said the woman arrested by ICE was charged in February with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and assault and battery on a pregnant person.
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Friday saw a protest of several dozen people outside Worcester City Hall in response to the arrests. At a press conference that same day, Haxhiaj and other local leaders denounced ICE’s operations in the city and critiqued Worcester police’s involvement in Thursday’s events. On Sunday, around 1,000 people gathered at Worcester Common for another protest.
The decision to move Tuesday’s meetings to Zoom was made “out of an abundance of caution,” City Manager Eric Batista’s office said in an announcement Monday.
The Worcester City Council and the council’s Standing Committee on Finance are both scheduled to meet Tuesday night.
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“In order to ensure active public engagement, remote participation for both meetings is available through the City Council’s Zoom link,” Batista’s office wrote.
A spokesperson for Batista did not immediately respond to a request for information about what prompted the closure and whether City Hall will be open later in the week.
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