With immigration-related arrests rippling through courtrooms, and agents patrolling TSA lines at airports around the country, the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Massachusetts is palpable.
However, one Pittsfield-based armored vehicle company, Lenco, has silently held the state’s largest contract with ICE throughout the past year.
Lenco, which Berkshire Eagle executive editor Kevin Moran said is a “point of regional pride and economic stability” in Pittsfield, employs about 150 locals, and supplies tactical vehicles for police, military officials and other federal agencies. While Gov. Maura Healey suggested that the company cease its $5.2 million worth of ICE contracts, Lenco has not changed course.
“What you’re seeing is this collision between a community’s economic interests and its values, especially in a region that’s been very critical of federal immigration enforcement,” Moran said. “And the big question that it raises is: How responsible is a company for how its products are ultimately used?”
One institution struggling with its own economic interests is Amherst’s Hampshire College, which faces loss of accreditation due to low enrollment and massive endowment debt. The school is known for its experimental liberal arts curriculum and illustrious alumni network, which includes documentary filmmaker Ken Burns and writer Jon Krakauer. New England Public Media’s Jill Kaufman said rising tuition rates could cause Hampshire’s brand of education to go extinct.
“As schools become more expensive — as young people are saying, ‘Maybe I don’t get that college degree, maybe I go into the trades’ — what is going to be appealing?” Kaufman said. “How are schools like Hampshire College going to say, ‘Look, you’re artistic, you want to do hands-on? Come here!’ [when] it’s a lot of money?”
Meanwhile, on April 13, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is set to speak in Boston at a 20-year celebration of his landmark “Romneycare” health care law, a bipartisan bill that implemented near-universal health care for state citizens. However, when President Barack Obama implemented similar policies through the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, Romney, a Republican, famously distanced himself from the legislation he helped pass and became Obama’s opponent in the 2012 presidential election.
Though Romney would eventually lose his White House bid, his reform solidified Massachusetts’ place as the highest-insured state in the nation.
“The people who were behind Romneycare realized that the eyes of the entire country were on them to see: How [were] they going to be able to figure out how to provide universal health care access?” said Gin Dumcius, editor at MASSterList.
“And part of that was actually through proposals from [right-wing think tank] the Heritage Foundation… The Republican party shifted considerably to the right when Obamacare came about, and Romney himself started running away from [RomneyCare].”
All of this, plus a surprise shakeup at the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the latest from the service-plaza debacle, on this week’s Massachusetts news roundtable.
Guests
- Jill Kaufman, reporter at New England Public Media
- Kevin Moran, executive editor of the Berkshire Eagle
- Gin Dumcius, editor at MASSterList.
Stories featured on this week’s roundtable
