LAST THREE WEEKS IN REVIEW

Good morning. I’m your Representative in Congress, and I write to keep you informed.

One man fled Uganda as a child after he escaped soldiers who had just murdered his mother & father in front of him. Another man came from Brazil twenty years ago and has been working every day since with no criminal history. Both are in immigration detention; neither should be targets of deportation. Americans want a secure border; legal immigration; and enforcement & deportation that is subject to due process and focuses on individuals who are a threat to public safety.

Americans do not want Trump's cruel & counter-productive deportation machine, which is pursuing dangerous, dragnet operations and denying children counsel at hearings.

On back-to-back days I showed up at two cogs in this machine: a detention facility in Plymouth and the immigration hearing office in Chelmsford. I met with immigrants and watched proceedings. I am resolved to provide my constituents with top-notch immigration casework from my office; to use my voice & vote in Washington to restore & enhance funding for counsel for unrepresented children; and to pass the bipartisan Dignity Act, which streamlines the visa & asylum system and provides a pathway to legal certainty for those without documentation who pay back taxes and are obeying the law.

Preventing ICE <> IRS data-sharing: Last month, I also cosigned an amicus brief led by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus concerning the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) disclosure of taxpayer information to ICE. My colleagues and I urged the court to uphold a preliminary injunction that blocked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE from using taxpayer data already obtained through the IRS-ICE data sharing agreement while the litigation proceeds. 

Congress never authorized tax-data sharing for immigration enforcement. Permitting this would erode longstanding taxpayer confidentiality protections, undermine public trust in the tax system, and discourage tax compliance among immigrant communities. Rather than targeting criminals and prioritizing border security, ICE is harassing American citizens and immigrant communities. That is why I support reforms that would strengthen transparency and refocus enforcement resources on border security and criminal activity.

At a moment of significant stress on education from funding shortfalls, social media & smartphone distractions, and COVID aftershocks, I met with educators to discuss the way forward. First in Fall River with a roundtable of K-12 & trade-school leaders, and then at the Mathematical Association of America's MathFest conference for college instructors, I had wide-ranging conversations about what's working & what's not.

What's working:
 -  getting the phones out of schools. Fall River's Durfee High School principal was particularly compelling in describing how bell-to-bell bans have transformed the learning and social environment
 -  1:1 live-online tutoring for phonics for 1st graders. Massachusetts will be scaling up the pilot.
 -  intentional, principled, and transparently regulated adoption of technology into the learning & research environment. The Leiden Declaration on AI & Mathematics could be a template for other fields & industries.

What's not:
 -  complacency about post-COVID learning loss. The school closures were a catastrophe for students, and the national response has been insufficient. Both socioemotional skills and mathematics & reading proficiency have declined.
 -  trade schools that have become so popular that they are over-subscribed, potentially turning away students who most could thrive in that format.
 -  the Trump administration treating many science & education funding streams as 'blue-state subsidies'

My legislation, the Education not Endless Scrolling Act, would tax the social media corporations' digital ad revenue in order to build trade schools and surge 1:1 tutoring for reading & math across K-12 public education. It's meant to scale up what's working in order to address what's not.

Do you support taxing social media corporations to build more trade schools in the United States?

Another failure of the illegal Iran War: the Mecca Pact brings nuclear-armed Pakistan into mutual defense with Egypt, Turkey & Saudi Arabia: I did three interviews over the past week (on ABC, CNN and Fox News) to make the case to undecided Americans that they should demand their Members of Congress stop this illegal war in Iran.

I even took the opportunity to address the president directly on Fox, since I know he watches The Sunday Briefing: I told him he was the first president to start and lose a war by himself. History will judge him, but Congress should first.

I am doing my utmost to prevent the United States from getting drawn into a third quagmire in the 21st century. Now that nuclear-armed Pakistan has joined a mutual-defense pact with Egypt, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia, the stakes are even higher to permanently stop the escalation ratchet, in which the president ‘vertically’ escalates by bombing Iran, and Iran responds by ‘horizontally’ escalating – pulling in other countries & assets to the fight. Horizontal escalation now risks a regional conflagration with weapons and militaries of mass destructive capability.

Bipartisan bills to support Ukraine: I recently cosponsored two pieces of legislation — the Strategic Unmanned Systems Partnership Act and the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 — that aim to bolster Ukraine’s war efforts against Russia.

The first would strengthen defense cooperation between America and Ukraine. It accelerates the joint development, production, and acquisition of unmanned and counter-drone systems, promotes technology transfer, and incorporates lessons learned from Ukraine’s battlefield experience.

The other bill puts pressure on Russia. This legislation would strengthen U.S. sanctions on major purchasers of Russian oil & natural gas and target Russia's shadow fleet of vessels used to circumvent Western energy restrictions. It also sanctions Chinese individuals and entities that support Russia's defense industrial base or military procurement. By increasing economic pressure on Moscow and disrupting networks that sustain its war effort, the United States can undercut Putin’s war economy.

Over the last three weeks, I have held Q&A sessions in six Temples in order to discuss issues of interest to the Jewish community, including American democracy, antisemitism & anti-Zionism, and the future of the U.S.-Israel relationship. Temples Emanuel & Reyim in Newton; Temple Israel in Boston; Temple Beth Elohim in Wellesley; Temple Beth Shalom in Needham; and Temple Etz Chaim in Franklin each welcomed me for intensive discussions attended by more than 1,500 congregants.

I reinforced my support for Israel as the Jewish homeland, with a responsibility to defend its citizens against terrorism. The United States should continue to help Israel defend itself through the provision of Qualitative Military Edge, which has been U.S. policy since 2008, and by helping it normalize relations with neighbors. I also emphasized that I will not vote for any appropriations or foreign military financing that empowers Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, whose failed policies have turbocharged settler violence in the West Bank, launched a disastrous war against Iran, and undermined the security of both countries.

I also addressed the alarming rise in antisemitism and its intersection with anti-Zionism. While criticism of any government is vital to a free society, the sustained defamation, double standards, and delegitimization directed at Israel points to an ugly scapegoating that I oppose, whether from left or right. American policy-makers must also look upstream from demagogic politics to one of its cultural drivers: social media and the warped sense of society that it promotes. Much of my legislative work is dedicated to imposing liability, duty of care, and transparency onto platforms that host so much hate.

In Newton & Millis: Golda Meir House in Newton and the American Legion Post 208 in Millis each hosted me for Q&A sessions with seniors. One audience had a liberal bent, the other much more conservative, and each was spirited & constructive. Unlike online discourse, which is centrifugal — pulled towards the edges — in-real-life conversation is centripetal: it is drawn towards common ground. Humans evolved to solve problems together in groups where everyone has a first-or-second-degree connection, and that format is the best way (though not the only one) I get my finger on the pulse of the Massachusetts Fourth.

In Norton: The Residence at Great Woods in Norton welcomed me for a Q&A with seniors. Corruption was a core theme: I explained how the president, his family, and his aides have all enriched themselves with schemes & scams ranging from meme coins ($Trump crypto) to pay-for-play (flavored vaping rulings at the FDA). I also made clear that Democrats in Congress need to demonstrate our willingness to clean house on both sides of the aisle, with bans on stock-trading, prediction markets participation, meme coins, and more for all officials.

Hosted by Manet Community Health in Taunton and then by UMass in Boston, I joined two healthcare discussions with a cross-section of clinicians, administrators, life sciences & medical device experts, and patient advocates. With the Bay State's Eds & Meds sector under strain, we discussed how to respond both in Washington & in Massachusetts:

 -  in Washington: protect & expand apolitical funding for community health centers & safety-net hospitals and for R&D at universities & hospitals. Restore the integrity of FDA regulation & modernize clinical trials to compete with China. Protect IP and ensure incentives for discovery & commercialization of new therapies & technology.

 -  in Massachusetts: work between state & federal leaders and public/private actors in healthcare to negotiate a game-changing Medicaid 1115 waiver with this administration next year that frees Massachusetts to lead again in healthcare policy, innovation, and delivery.

With behavioral health leadership in Taunton: Community Counseling of Bristol County provides behavioral health, homelessness, and children's services. I met with leadership in Taunton to discuss funding & programming priorities. I strongly support federal & state initiatives that are proactive, rather than reactive, to addressing chronic homelessness; instead of waiting for those in need to show up at ERs — one of the most expensive & least salutary sites of care for this population — it is more effective to meet them where they're at and offer the shelter & treatment that can stabilize their lives. 

These initiatives require up-front funding and intensive logistics & collaboration, so leadership is critical. Health & Human Services under RFK, Jr. does not offer that leadership, but Massachusetts could. Through Medicaid 1115 negotiations between the state and Washington, which I am engaging on, MassHealth could work with outfits like Community Counseling of Bristol County to take out costs and improve outcomes in healthcare and social assistance.

Better tech for the blind: Leadership for the Bay State Council of the Blind joined me for an in-depth discussion of federal priorities for the blind and those with low vision. Accessible design for software and devices is often not a priority for developers, so it's important for the government to establish and enforce inclusive standards. 

We also discussed the beneficial potential of AI for the blind: autonomous vehicles, AI-enabled glasses, and improved text-to-speech tools all could help blind and low-vision individuals live and work more autonomously.

2 Jerks BBQ & Market in Raynham is founded & run by two brothers — and was named by their mother, who runs the books for them and is now seeking to open their second site, in Taunton. This amusing anecdote & many others featured in my small business day in Greater Taunton. First at a roundtable hosted by the South Eastern Economic Development Corporation, a non-profit that provides financing to small business, and then on a walking tour with the mayor, I met a broad cross-section of Main Street, including:

 -  a restaurant owner retiring after 42 years running his beloved diner, who loves bringing people together IRL in an era of social media
 -  a developer turning a former factory on the Taunton River into a walkable, mixed-use neighborhood, starting with artist housing & galleries
 -  a paint & coatings producer who installed solar panels to reduce her utility bills, but is struggling with red tape
 -  a baker who has dreamed of being a pastry chef since she was 19 years old and finally opened her own baking studio, with a lot of hard work and a little help
 -  a driving range owner whose land has been in the family since the 1600s (purchased from the King of England) and is the latest generation to be creative in how to steward the land

And more. I love these meetings & stories because, in an age of too much cynicism, starting a business is an act of optimism. Government at all levels should make it easier. 

One impactful way to unlock more business success is to lower two of the costs they face: health care premiums and utilities. I spoke with business owners about my work in Congress to take cost out of healthcare through reforms to pharmaceuticals, hospital pricing, and insurance companies. 

Government at both the state and federal level should also explicitly measure & program for entrepreneurship, which the World Bank measures as new business registrations per 1,000 individuals aged 15-64. The USA's data is not recorded or reported any longer, apparently. The numbers should be transparent and American policy-makers should be marking ourselves against high-scoring countries like Estonia & China.

Did you know the largest dollhouse shop in the world is located in Fall River? Last month, I visited Flip This Dollhouse, which has over 5,000 square feet of miniature designs and is run by Nathaniel Ellis. I came to learn about the craftsmanship behind Ellis' dollhouses and interior designs, which have been featured in a Taylor Swift "Era's Tour" backdrop video. 

The visit was covered in the Fall River Herald. You can read an excerpt of the piece below:

“Stepping into Flip This Dollhouse at 657 Quarry St. gives one the impression of looking out over suburbia just after the plane takes off. Upon closer inspection, the fourth wall of these homes are usually non-existent to reveal a doll’s world — porcelain bathtubs large enough to cradle a bar of soap; hand-woven rugs the size of a sheet of paper; full kitchens that could fit in a shoebox. 

A particularly regal Victorian-style dollhouse that Ellis calls ‘the elephant in the room’ gave U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss pause when he passed by it on a July 29 tour of Flip This Dollhouse.

Auchincloss said he’s making a circuit of all 35 Massachusetts cities and towns in his district. ‘Entrepreneurs give me energy,’ he said, citing his advocacy for small businesses in the Commonwealth.

For over an hour, Auchincloss learned from Ellis what exactly goes into making ‘a thriving dollhouse enterprise,’ as he called it, from touring the workshop, speaking with volunteer and vintage dollhouse refurbisher Bob Seguir, and talking about the dollhouse at home that his kids now tinker with.

In Ellis’s words, hobbies like ship- or plane-building and train-collecting are analogous to the dollhouse business, as they charm enthusiasts by toying with normal proportions. The smaller, more detailed, and lifelike something is, the better. But even he is surprised at the growth he’s seen since he picked up his business from southern New Bedford’s Kilburn Mill and moved it to Fall River.

It takes a small village: Miniature has maximum appeal in Fall River…"

Question: How are you responding to changes to Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in the United States?

- Judith from Rehoboth

Answer: For communities like the Haitian diaspora in Massachusetts, the ending of TPS is a critical issue. While Democrats successfully passed a bill to extend TPS for Haitians out of the House in February (it has not yet been considered in the Senate), the reality is that temporary extensions are not a long-term strategy. 

The bipartisan Dignity Act, which I co-lead, is the strategy. The Dignity Act would streamline our broken asylum and visa systems and provide a structured pathway to legal status and certainty for individuals without documentation, provided they pay back taxes and are not a threat to public safety.

Beyond TPS, America should also protect other vulnerable groups. We urgently need to pass the bipartisan Afghan Adjustment Act to support Afghan allies who came to the United States but now face an uncertain future. Our immigration system should represent both our national laws and our national character. We can secure our borders and uphold the rule of law while ensuring due process and treating our immigrant neighbors with dignity and humanity.

You can submit a question for a future newsletter here. Please note that casework inquiries for federal agencies must be submitted to my website here. My casework team will respond to these in a timely manner. 

Onwards,

Jake