June is National Immigrant Heritage Month, and Saturday, June 20 is World Refugee Day. As Bearing Witness @ ICE in Burlington holds its 61st consecutive week of standouts, we continue to honor all immigrants who live in Massachusetts and the country at large.
Jeff Thielman, Bearing Witness guest speaker at the standout on Wednesday, June 17, 2026 and an Arlington resident, knows a thing or two about immigrants and the issues they face. Thielman is president and CEO of the International Institute of New England (IINE), and will speak to the resilience of refugees, especially in this political climate, and how much they have helped shape our state and country.
According to the IINE website, Thielman’s organization creates “…opportunities for refugees and immigrants to succeed through resettlement, education, career advancement and pathways to citizenship. Over the past three years, the number of refugees and immigrants that take part in our family reunification, education, skills training, job placement, and legal services programs offered in Boston and Lowell, Massachusetts, and Manchester, New Hampshire has more than doubled.”
National Immigrant Heritage Month was first recognized in June 2014 by the I Stand With Immigrants/I Am An Immigrant campaign funded by the FW.us Education Fund.
World Refugee Day launched in June 2001 as an initiative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (aka the UN Refugee Agency).
The speaking portion of Bearing Witness @ ICE Burlington runs from approximately 11:30 a.m. to noon.
The weekly Bearing Witness @ ICE Burlington standout schedule is as follows (schedules are subject to change without notice):
● The standouts, which include crowds of people of all ages who hold signs in support of immigrants, take place every Wednesday, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the ICE field office at 1000 District Ave. in Burlington, MA.
● The guest speaker(s) portion of the program runs from approximately 11:30 a.m. to noon. ● From noon-12:30 p.m., the loudspeakers are turned toward the ICE building and those gathered are offered a chance to step up to the mic and read amendments to the U.S. Constitution.
PAGE 2 OF 2
● At approximately 12:30 p.m., those gathered hold signs and march along District Avenue to the intersection of Mall Rd., the main thoroughfare leading to nearby Burlington Mall. The large visible procession alerts motorists and other passersby about abuses taking place daily at ICE in Burlington, in an otherwise nondescript building in an office park near shops and restaurants.
Bearing Witness @ ICE Burlington was started by one couple in April 2025 and has grown weekly to a record 930 at a recent standout. Those gathered stand outside the ICE field office, where immigrants have been detained illegally, to express their shame and outrage at egregious, illegal, and cruel ICE behavior. They bear witness to the lack of due process afforded immigrants and the unconstitutional actions of the U.S. government.
Learn more about Bearing Witness @ ICE Burlington and upcoming events at BearingWitnessNE.org.