Anti-ICE Protestors Demonstrate in Needham Center
February 2, 2026
• Needham joined communities across the country in protesting against the Trump administration’s immigration actions.
Needham protestors gathered around the Town Common Saturday afternoon in opposition to federal immigration enforcement. The demonstration was one of hundreds nationwide calling for “ICE Out of Everywhere.”
Needham Resists, a local activist collective, organized the protest of about 200 people.
The protests come in the wake of two fatal shootings by federal officers in Minneapolis over the last several weeks. Signs at Needham’s protest memorialized those killed — Alex Pretti and Renee Good — and pictured melting ice cubes and calls to end violence. Needham Resists also held a vigil for Good earlier this month.
Bill Paulson, a co-organizer of Needham Resists, held a sign that read “no secret police,” with images of a Nazi, storm trooper from “Star Wars” and who he described as a plain-clothes federal officer. Paulson contrasted the Needham Police Department with ICE agents.
“It’s important to say that we all respect and admire the people that dedicate their lives to policing in our country, and we have an amazing police force in Needham. They’re well-trained, they’re constantly trained, and they know how to de-escalate… These people are thugs,” he said, pointing to the photo on his sign. “They’re not police officers. They’re ripping people off the street, U.S. citizens. They’re just taking people based on how they look. I mean, this is Nazi Germany kind of stuff.”
Needham Police Chief John Schlittler met with the Select Board last Tuesday to discuss department policies and guidance relative to federal immigration officers and how they may interact or engage should they come to town. The board decided to review said policies.
At the state level, Gov. Maura Healey signed an executive order that would ban ICE arrests in schools, medical centers, courthouses and childcare facilities except in cases where there is a judicially issued warrant. The order also prohibits said officers from staging on state property and civilly arresting people in non-public parts of state buildings. The order requires approval from the legislature.
State Rep. Josh Tarsky, D-Needham, spoke with attendees during the protest. He said constituents have voiced increased concern regarding ICE. He and about 65 other state lawmakers — including state Sen. Becca Rausch, who also represents Needham — wrote to the federal government petitioning an extension of the Temporary Protected Status for Haitian immigrants.
At this moment, Tarsky said “we need to make sure that we’re doing all we can to have the country that we want.”
“People are worried about a lot of things, from immigration, due process rights, democracy in general,” Tarsky said. “And I think it’s important that we make sure that we’re heard and aren’t [just] bystanders and accepting of a result that we don’t want.”
On Saturday, Joanne Breeling, a longtime Needham resident, urged local legislators to legally refuse to cooperate with ICE.
“I want ICE off the streets and the fascist out of office,” Breeling said at the protest.
Michael Bandes, of Needham, demonstrated with his wife Beth, who have also protested outside an ICE facility in Framingham “almost every week.”
“It’s wrong. It’s anti-democratic,” Michael Bandes said of federal immigration enforcement. “I don’t understand how people can be so blind and cruel.”
Saturday’s protest coincided with the weekly gatherings by Needham Resists along Great Plain Avenue, which are typically less formal and garner a couple dozen people. A “No Kings” rally held in Needham in June brought out an estimated 1,000.
