LETTER: The Compliance Paradox — Holding Towns Accountable While Defying Washington D.C.

Dear Editor,

The current tug-of-war over public funds highlights a glaring double standard in our leadership. Attorney General Andrea Campbell, with Governor Healey’s backing, has recently sued nine communities—including Tewksbury and Wilmington—for noncompliance with the MBTA Communities Act. Their justification? That state law is “mandatory” and housing grants must be withheld as a penalty for local defiance.

Yet, these same leaders express outrage when the federal government applies that exact logic to them. President Trump has threatened to withhold “significant” federal funding from Massachusetts over its “sanctuary” policies—specifically the state’s refusal to allow State Police to share non-citizen data with ICE during driver’s license applications.

Our state leaders cannot have it both ways. They cannot treat municipal autonomy as a nuisance to be crushed by withholding grants while simultaneously claiming that federal funding for the state should be unconditional despite their own defiance of federal immigration priorities. If the Governor believes “the law is the law” for small towns, she must acknowledge the same pressure from Washington. Consistency, not selective enforcement, is the only way to restore public trust in our governance.

George Ferdinand

Tewksbury