Good morning,

Our state rep debate last week is making waves, while one of our state senators seems to be out of step with colleagues on an important housing initiative.

But first, Massachusetts just lost tens of thousands of workers — in one day.

They cared for our families. Now we’re sending them away.

“If one of these days you don’t see me, you’ll know what happened.”

That’s what a worker at a senior living facility recently told her patients, knowing she could soon lose her job due to a federal immigration policy change.

Sure enough, about 350,000 Haitian recipients of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) lost their work permits yesterday.

And, sure enough, the White House tells Fox News it could begin locating and arresting Haitian nationals as soon as this week.

Maura Sullivan, head of the Arc of Massachusetts, told WCVB that Haitian immigrants are a significant part of the workforce caring for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Families will feel the impact immediately, she said.

Our sector does not function without immigrants,” Bill Yelenak, head of the Providers’ Council, which represents 200 human-service agencies in Massachusetts, told the Globe. “These are folks, they passed background checks, they showed up for overnight shifts ... and nothing about their work or effort changed, just their paperwork.”

Massachusetts’ more than 45,000 Haitian TPS holders are also small business owners, technicians, construction workers, hospitality employees and transportation workers.

They own homes, have bank accounts, library cards, gym memberships and cars. They pay taxes, contribute $418 million annually to the greater Boston economy and just want to make their kids’ lives better, like the rest of us.

They’ve been allowed to legally live and work here since Haiti’s catastrophic 2010 earthquake. And now we’re going to round them up and send them back to a country still under the highest-level travel advisory.?

Terrifying. Heartless. Nauseating.

He doesn't want her punished. He wants to know why.

Steven Peljovich, owner of Michael's Deli in Coolidge Corner, doesn't want the 80-year-old woman charged with a felony for defacing his Jewish deli's window with a "Free Palestine" sticker punished.

He just wants to understand why he was targeted.

"How do you think a deli guy in Brookline, Massachusetts, can have any sort of impact on what you believe might be happening on the other side of the world?" he tells Brookline.news.

"I'm just a guy who makes sandwiches."

New state law made this Newton lease easier

With help from a new state law, Walmart has received a zoning variance to open a 20,000 SF fulfillment center in an existing commercial building owned by Capasso Realty at 241-247 Riverview Ave. in Auburndale.

Newton's Zoning Board of Appeals approved the proposal under a new, looser state standard: Instead of having to prove “substantial hardship” in adhering to local zoning laws, petitioners now only have to make the case for a "practical difficulty” when applying for an exception to zoning rules, reports the BBJ’s Emily Scaff.

The stockroom will let gig delivery drivers pick up household goods and deliver them to customers. It's not open to the public.

Senate rejects Rausch effort to weaken housing provision

Last week, the state Senate passed its $575 million economic development bill, including a provision to legalize duplexes statewide.

But before her colleagues approved the measure, Needham Sen. Rebecca Rausch tried, unsuccessfully, to weaken the proposal. Her amendment would have exempted communities already pursuing other housing strategies, including Chapter 40B, from the statewide requirement.

Rausch argued that "each municipality is different and unique" and that communities implementing other housing measures should not necessarily have to allow duplexes by right because "duplexes may not be the right answer for each community."

Her amendment lands days after Rausch released her endorsements on the nine statewide ballot questions. She declined to take a position on the only housing measure, Question 7, the Legalize Starter Homes initiative.

Our chamber endorsed it earlier this year. We hope she and the rest of our delegation join us before November.