Citizens of the City of Waltham, please sign this petition demanding that, without delay, our City Council and Mayor issue a joint declaration supporting the refugees and immigrants in our community and opposing President Trump’s actions to prevent them from finding safe haven here.

Waltham, Massachusetts, is the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution. For nearly two hundred years, we have opened our doors to refugees and immigrants. Beginning with young Irish women fleeing the Famine and African Americans fleeing slavery in the South, generation after generation of people have found a home, a job, and a life in this city. In turn, Waltham has reaped the rewards.

A bustling, multicultural city, some of the world’s most innovative and successful companies call Waltham home. They employ thousands of workers who come here from across the globe. Numerous foreigners also study at our major universities, Brandeis and Bentley. Many immigrants have opened businesses of their own here. They raise families here.

To this day, they also find safe haven here: from Syrian refugees fleeing the brutal civil war that is destroying their home to Haitians escaping natural disasters. We are all better for it. Armenians, French Canadians, Irish, Italians, Jews, Russians, Latinos, South Asians, Africans -- their history is our history. Their community is our community.

President Donald Trump’s executive order, issued Friday, January 27, is a direct affront to this legacy and to the longstanding values of this community. His order has rightly drawn condemnation and protests from leaders and citizens who hail from across the political spectrum; from Senator Elizabeth Warren to Governor Charlie Baker to former Vice President Dick Cheney.

Along with them, millions of citizens, including many from Waltham, have raised our voices to object to actions that go against our fundamental democratic liberties, enshrined in the Constitution. Mayors and local governments across the country and right here in Massachusetts have taken strong stands against these attacks on our fellow citizens. Our local leaders must join in.