STATE HOUSE – Salvatore DiMasi, a once powerful Massachusetts House speaker who was convicted on federal corruption charges in 2011, returned home to Boston on Tuesday after battling cancer during his time in prison.
An imposing but jovial presence on Beacon Hill during his time in power, DiMasi appeared gaunt and spoke with a weakened voice while seated in a wheelchair. Wearing a gray baseball hat, jeans and navy waffle shirt and black North Face jacket, DiMasi immediately hugged both his stepchildren – Christian and Ashley – who were waiting for him at Logan Airport.
A cardinal feature which has distinguished the American democratic experiment from most other nations in the modern era is that we have, with several major exceptions such as the Civil War, been a society under the rule of law. The best known expression of this principle is that the rule of law means we are "governed by laws, not men." America, together with the relatively small number of other countries that embraced the rule of law in the recent past such as the U. K. and its Commonwealth countries, has been a beacon of light, attracting many from all over the world who seek to come to our land our land, both legally and illegally.
In 1996, the 104th U.S. Congress passed a law known as the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA). IIRIRA requires local governments to cooperate with the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agency. Despite this law enacted by Congress and signed by President Clinton, there are many communities that have ignored the law, refusing to co-operate with Federal agencies in the execution of this law. These communities are colloquially called "sanctuary cities."
