QUINCY — More than 100 Tea Party activists rallied Friday night to demand that the state Senate pass an amendment barring illegal immigrants from receiving public benefits, weeks after the measure narrowly failed in the House.
Amid American flags and signs saying ‘‘Tea Partiers for common sense,’’ activists crowded into a modest hall decorated with silk flowers and party lights, and said lawmakers should reflect the voters’ will.
An independent poll this month found that 70 percent of Massachusetts voters — including most Republicans and more than half of the Democrats — support the GOP proposal that failed in the House a few weeks ago. Only 17 percent opposed it, and the rest were unsure, according to the poll by Rasmussen Reports.
‘‘Wake up America. We’re here,’’ state Representative Jeffrey D. Perry, the Sandwich Republican who sponsored the House measure and is now running for Congress, told the standing-room-only crowd at the American Legion Post 95, to applause. ‘‘I really thought that the folks in Washington and Beacon Hill had heard us. ... But they have not heard.’’
The debate over illegal immigration in Massachusetts was reignited after Arizona passed the strictest immigration law in the nation last month. Critics railed against the Arizona measure, including the Boston City Council, which passed a resolution to cut business ties with Arizona.
But the Arizona law also inspired critics of illegal immigration to raise their voices. Though the Rasmussen Reports poll suggested that Massachusetts voters would not favor such an extreme measure, on Friday the crowd applauded the law and said the Bay State should take steps to protect citizens as well...
