Elected officials and advocates gathered alongside immigrants on Tuesday to support legislation that would end public institution and police involvement with civil immigration enforcement across Massachusetts.
The Act to Protect the Civil Rights and Safety of all Massachusetts Residents, known colloquially as the Safe Communities Act, was refiled this year. State Sens. Jamie Eldridge and Liz Miranda sponsored the Senate bill; state Reps. Priscila Sousa and Manny Cruz sponsored a similar version in the House.
“We want to do everything we can in Massachusetts to not be aiding and abetting the deportation of undocumented immigrants, the vast majority, upwards of 70% of whom are being detained have no criminal conviction or record,” said Eldridge in a phone interview after his testimony before the Massachusetts Legislature’s Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security.
The legislation would prohibit questioning by police and court officials about immigration status; require police, court and correctional officers to obtain written consent before U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement interviews someone in their custody; and improve due process protections. It would also prohibit agreements that deputize local officials as federal immigration agents at taxpayers’ expense.
The only entity in Massachusetts with that type of agreement, known as a 287(g) contract, is the Department of Correction. Nationally, only five state Departments of Correction have that type of contact. In Massachusetts, Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office also has a different type of contact with the federal government that allows it to detain immigrants at its facility.
“Many are detained despite having legal status, for example, our sister member Rümeysa Öztürk, to three of our own members who were separated from their spouses and children,” said Kevin Brown, Executive Vice President of 32BJ SEIU. The union represents 20,000 janitors, security officers and airport workers in Massachusetts, the majority of whom are immigrants.
“The Safe Communities Act would stop this injustice from involving local law enforcement so the agencies can focus on their job: maintaining public safety,” he said.
California, Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon and Washington state have all enacted laws that bar local law enforcement involvement with civil immigration enforcement. Eldridge said he’s been filing some version of the Safe Communities Act since the Obama administration.
One member of the committee asked whether advocates on the panel were aware of any formal or informal collaboration between local law enforcement and ICE or the Department of Homeland Security.
Elizabeth Sweet, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Coalition, said that’s hard to answer with certainty because there is so much fear and there are so many rumors across communities right now.
“It’s only in taking a step like this of formally banning it, of formally prohibiting it, that we can communicate to all of our communities that this ban exists and that there truly is that firewall between our local police and state police and federal immigration enforcement,” she said.
Eldridge noted that in 2018, during the first Trump administration, a version of the bill passed the Senate but didn’t make it through the budget process.
“Of course that was under Gov. [Charlie] Baker, who I believe probably would have vetoed the bill,” he said. “We’re in a different situation. There are even worse tactics by ICE agents than existed during Trump’s first term. So I do think there’s a lot of momentum.”
André Simões of the Brazilian Worker Center said his organization supports the legislation. Fear of law enforcement is rampant among immigrants, he said, and this bill would temper that.
He gave an example of that fear playing out. “In July, a domestic worker told us her niece had been brutally assaulted by her employer, but was too afraid to report it, and her co-workers were afraid as well,” Simões recounted. “When we asked her to encourage her niece to contact us to support her, she refused. She’s in fear that any report on the assault involving the police would ultimately lead to ICE being involved.”
Local communities like Boston have already taken steps to limit police involvement with ICE. The Boston Trust Act became law in 2014, and limits police involvement with ICE, particularly for civil immigration matters. The Trump administration has sued Boston, challenging the legality of the local ordinance.
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell filed an amicus brief Monday in support of the city of Boston’s motion to dismiss the case. She argued that the Trust Act is consistent with state and federal law and that it advances public safety for all residents.
