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🥶Sunny and extremely cold, with highs in the teens and a low of -1. Sunset is at 4:55 p.m.
Gov. Maura Healey filed a bill yesterday that would ban Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from making arrests in court houses and limit what they can do in churches, schools, daycares, hospitals and health clinics.
Massachusetts officials will “do everything we can to make sure that it’s upheld and that people are protected” if the bill passes, Healey said. The bill would also make it illegal for another state’s National Guard to come into Massachusetts without permission from the governor.
“I’m going to take charge of what I can take charge of and what I have jurisdiction and authority over, but I really, really hope, sincerely, sincerely that the message is heard: This is not working,” Healey said. ”This isn’t working. It’s not making anybody safer, and it needs to stop.” A separate bill from the state’s Black and Latino Legislative Caucus would require people applying to law enforcement jobs in Massachusetts to disclose if they have ever worked for or contracted with ICE or the US Customs and Border Protection. You can read more about the bills here.
Four Things to Know
1. A group of Massachusetts activists is encouraging people to boycott Citizens Bank over its connections to CoreCivic and The GEO Group, two companies that run private detention centers for people whom federal immigration agents detain.
“People are just furious at what’s happening around the country, but especially in Minneapolis,” said Betsy Leondar-Wright, an organizer who formerly taught about social movements at Lasell University in Newton. “The company managers feel the pressure from all sides, and they realize that it’s going to mess up their reputation and potentially going to cost them business.”
2. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told her that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have ended their large-scale operation in the state, though agents will continue detaining people there.
DHS officials said their agents have detained more than 200 people in Maine since last week. In that time Portland Public Schools reported more students missed school than in the weeks before, with absenteeism up by 11%. Our colleagues at Maine Public also reported that local families are feeling the emotional toll, and that some small businesses chose not to open their doors because of the increased presence of ICE agents in their communities.
3. Attorney General Andrea Campbell is suing nine towns in Massachusetts in an effort to bring them into compliance with the MBTA Communities Act, the law Gov. Charlie Baker signed five years ago that allows for more multi-unit housing in places close to MBTA service.
The towns are Dracut, East Bridgewater, Halifax, Holden, Marblehead, Middleton, Tewksbury, Wilmington and Winthrop. Another 165 out of 177 cities and towns near MBTA service already have zoning that complies with the MBTA Communities Act.
4. Massachusetts’ population fell by 33,000 people in 2025 as some residents moved out of state and the rate of immigration slowed, according to new U.S. Census data. Boston University finance Prof. Mark Williams said his research shows that, generally speaking, Massachusetts residents tend to leave for areas with lower costs of living.
“My study demonstrated that when people flee, when they leave Massachusetts, they take with them not only their possessions, but their money, and they go to states that actually have lower costs,” Williams said. He said he was also worried about the decline in immigration: “You could argue strongly that Boston and Massachusetts in general run on immigrant labor. Immigrants represent — that is, first-generation immigrants — represent 20% of the population, 22% of the workforce but 25% of our entrepreneurs that start new businesses and create new jobs.”
Things to do this weekend: A book, a play and an architecture competition
Looking for some culture this weekend? Here are three suggestions from GBH’s executive arts editor and The Culture Show host Jared Bowen.
READ: “Vigil” by George Saunders: This novel from the author of “Lincoln in the Bardo” follows Jill “Doll” Blaine, a woman who returns to earth over and over again after her own death to help guide people into the afterlife. She’s trying to get an oil tycoon to reconcile his life. “It’s the first time in doing what she does that she’s found somebody who doesn’t see her as an ally, as she’s trying to shepherd him through these final stages of life,” Bowen said. “Looking at the liminal world and the afterlife, this is a fantastic extension of ground he covered in ‘Lincoln in the Bardo.’”
THEATER: “JOB” from the SpeakEasy Stage Company at the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion: This thriller from playwright Max Wolf Friedlich is about a woman going into mandated therapy sessions because she’s struggling with her job at a big tech company. “Her job is awful: To look at the worst things on the internet, day after day after day,” Bowen said. “This becomes explosive.”
ARCHITECTURE: Vote for the 2025 Harleston Parker People’s Choice Award: The Boston Society for Architecture is asking you to vote for your favorite building, piece of infrastructure or monument built in the last 10 years. “This is a great exercise to look at what around us defines beauty, what even is beauty, as you look at buildings and parks,” Bowen said. You can choose from four finalists: the Boston Public Library’s Roslindale Branch; the Frances Appleton Pedestrian Bridge, near the Longfellow Bridge in Boston; Land’s Sake Farm in Weston; and the Tozzer Anthropology Building at Harvard.
Want more culture suggestions? Follow GBH’s The Culture Show on Instagram.
More deep dives:
-Not a Fluke: Terri Lyne Carrington on Grammys, Protest & Jazz’s Future
-The Afro‑Venezuelan Story the U.S. Never Talks About
-Should the US require public service? Doris Kearns Goodwin and her veteran son disagree
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