Boston Herald

Healey for Governor team makes controvers­ial hire

- By Matthew Medsger mmedsger@bostonhera­ld.com

Republican gubernator­ial hopeful Geoff Diehl is blasting a new hire by Attorney General Maura Healey’s campaign who identifies himself as an “Undoc DREAMer” on his social media profile, a charge the AG threw back at him as a taking page out of the “Trump playbook.”

“Maura Healey’s selection of a self-confessed undocument­ed immigrant to be her campaign’s deputy political director is unbelievab­le,” Diehl told the Herald.

“Massachuse­tts residents are worried about the Legislatur­e giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants and are looking to elect a governor to stand in the way. All the while, our state’s chief law enforcemen­t official is quite literally hiring an undocument­ed immigrant to help spearhead the ultra-liberal, progressiv­e agenda she intends to bring into the Governor’s Office,” Diehl said.

Italo Fini, the Healey campaign’s new deputy political director, announced he was joining the campaign on Tuesday. According to Fini’s Twitter profile he is an “Undoc DREAMer,” or a person without legal status brought to the U.S. as a child. So-called Dreamers were given temporary legal status in the U.S. under a provision by former President Barack Obama.

“It’s a glaring example of Maura Healey’s politicall­y-biased disrespect for the law and why she is the wrong person to be our state’s next governor,” Diehl said. “It should come as no surprise, given the fact that Maura Healey has a long history of picking and choosing which laws she believes are necessary to enforce.”

Fini was previously the deputy political director of the SEIU Local 509.

“Let’s be clear what this is — Geoff Diehl is executing the Trump playbook of hate and division, and it has no place in Massachuse­tts. Massachuse­tts is a better place because of our diversity, and we are proud to have Dreamers as part of our campaign,” Healey told the Herald.

“Dreamers have a legal right to work here and have done nothing other than come to Massachuse­tts to build a better life,” she said.

 ?? STUART CAHILL / HERALD STAFF ?? DREAM ON: Mass. Attorney General Maura Healey addresses the crowd at an abortion rights protest held on Boston Common on Saturday. Healey’s campaign recently hired a self-described “Undoc DREAMer” as deputy political director.
STUART CAHILL / HERALD STAFF DREAM ON: Mass. Attorney General Maura Healey addresses the crowd at an abortion rights protest held on Boston Common on Saturday. Healey’s campaign recently hired a self-described “Undoc DREAMer” as deputy political director.

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