A LIFETIME OF SERVICE TO MASSACHUSETTS
Constituent Service
“I’m here as a cheerleader for Ted Kennedy. He always comes through. When other people can’t deliver, Teddy’s there.” – Mayor Thomas M. Menino (Boston Globe, Kennedy is Bay State’s working Man. Scot Lehigh and Frank Phillips, 4/9/99).
“Kennedy is best known as a legislative powerhouse, a tireless legend at courting allies and cutting deals, and as the battle-scarred face of the nation's most famous political family. But out of the spotlight and behind the scenes, his constituents say, the senior senator and his staff have cut through red tape to change countless individual lives, advocating for even the narrowest personal needs with a ferocity and attention to detail that still inspires awe in those on the receiving end decades later.” -Jenna Russell (Boston Globe, Legions he aided now praise Kennedy Ordinary people recall his extraordinary help. Jenna Russell, 5/23/08).
"There are people who can fight, and [Kennedy] is one.”- Natalya Katz, Jewish immigrant from the Soviet Union, who Kennedy helped secure visas for her and her family (lives in Cambridge). (Boston Globe, Legions he aided now praise Kennedy Ordinary people recall his extraordinary help. Jenna Russell, 5/23/08).
"He was the only person who helped us. For once, someone cared what had happened to my brother."- Julie Primeau, sister of a commercial diver killed while working on a construction site and who was rebuffed for months by investigators. Kennedy’s office stepped in and provided reports. (Boston Globe, Legions he aided now praise Kennedy Ordinary people recall his extraordinary help. Jenna Russell, 5/23/08).
Russian Immigration Issues
In the time of the Soviet Union, thousands of Soviet dissidents were banished to Siberia and placed in prison camps. Senator Kennedy was able to negotiate the release of many Soviet Jews as well as hundreds of writers and artists, including author and Nobel laureate Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
Immigrant Rights
“As the head of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition in Boston before coming to the Forum, I witnessed the deep personal commitment Senator Kennedy felt for immigrants and for fixing America’s immigration laws. After a devastating raid in New Bedford in 2007, Senator Kennedy and other leaders met with family members who gathered in the basement of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church as hundreds streamed in. The families huddled around Senator Kennedy asking him for help finding parents and loved ones who had been taken away by armed federal officers.
“We will miss his humor, his strategic sensibility, and his ability to keep us moving forward whatever the obstacles. He taught us that the fate and possibilities of all of us are fully intertwined with the fate and possibilities of the least of us. Both political parties and every American, regardless of status or station, can honor Senator Kennedy’s life and legacy by recommitting ourselves to making the United States of America the most welcoming, free, egalitarian, and successful nation on earth.” - Ali Noorani, Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum
