Massachusetts Democrats, seeking to combat President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration agenda, scored one win and suffered one loss at the State House Wednesday. A bill to bar prisoners from being sent out of state to provide labor for Trump’s promised Mexican border wall passed the House on a party line vote. However, another measure – to restrict state funds from being used to aid federal immigration enforcement – was withdrawn from consideration before a planned vote.
Both bills were offered by New Bedford Rep. Antonio Cabral. The prisoner labor proposal would prohibit inmates from leaving the state for anything short of a natural disaster or other emergency.
The bill was seen by some as a somewhat rhetorical response to Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson’s somewhat theatrical offer of inmate labor to the Trump administration.
Republican Leader Brad Jones tried to delay the vote, pointing out that historically no prisoners have ever been used for out-of-state labor.
“I understand that there is a desire, a haste to do this. Quite frankly, I’m somewhat stunned that this has become one of the priority bills to do. It’s kind of amazing that with the issues we face as a Commonwealth that we’re responding to, quite frankly, a problem that doesn’t exist,” Jones said.
Republicans fought a losing battle against the majority House Democrats when they tried to have the bill studied for cost savings. GOP attempts to push the bill to a study or back to committee were rebuffed by party-line votes.
The bill is the first piece of legislation supported by a task force House Speaker Robert DeLeo established to respond to Trump’s policies. It is also one of the first non-budgetary bills passed by the House since lawmakers returned to Beacon Hill for the new session in January.
Another bill to prevent local authorities from participating in federal immigration enforcement was pulled before it could go to a vote, a rare occurrence in a chamber than prides itself on consensus and frequently passes controversial legislation with near unanimous support.
Cabral’s enforcement funding bill would bar any state funds from being spent on agreements with federal immigration authorities to train local authorities to enforce federal immigration law.
“These are federal programs. These are federal priorities. We ought not to be spending state dollars to carry out and administer those programs,” Cabral said at a State House hearing on the bill earlier this month.
A spokesman for DeLeo said Wednesday that the bill was delayed to give it more time after concerns were raised by members at a Democratic caucus meeting.
Federal and local officials have been eyeing the standoff between Trump’s Justice Department and so-called “sanctuary cities” that refuse to participate immigration enforcement with federal authorities. After a judge struck down a portion of Trump’s executive order threatening to cut off funds for the activist cities, Attorney General Jeff Sessions narrowed the order Monday.
