The Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security will be deciding Wednesday on the Protect Act, which would ban federal immigration officials from making civil arrests in Massachusetts courthouses, among other measures.
State lawmakers on the committee heard testimony earlier this month from Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s Office, activist groups, a group of Massachusetts sheriffs, and the Black and Latino Legislative Caucus – which filed the legislation, all in support of the bill.
Officially titled An Act promoting rule of law, oversight, trust, and equal constitutional treatment (Protect), the legislation would ban Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from using “state or local resources for the primary purpose of facilitating a federal civil immigration enforcement action.” In addition, it would ban the expansion of future 287(g) agreements with ICE and would also ban Massachusetts police officers from providing information to federal agents on someone’s immigration status or the date they are to be released from custody.
“No person shall be subject to a civil immigration arrest while the person is present in a courthouse, on courthouse grounds or in direct travel to or from a courthouse for the purpose of attending, participating in or observing a court proceeding, unless the arrest is supported by a judicial warrant or judge-signed court order,” the legislation reads, also arguing that fear of federal immigration enforcement has lowered attendance at court proceedings and the number of reported crimes.
“The general court finds that fear of civil immigration enforcement at courthouses chills reporting of crime and attendance at court proceedings, undermines access to justice, and disrupts the orderly administration of the courts. This section is intended to protect courthouse access and court operations while preserving compliance with criminal process and judicial warrants,” it says.
The forum on the legislation came just a week before Gov. Maura Healey and Campbell launched an online portal for residents to report “potentially unlawful” activity by ICE agents conducting operations in Massachusetts. When asked by the Herald Tuesday if she plans to somehow prosecute federal immigration agents with information collected from the portal, the governor implied that she may.
“My job is to protect public safety here in Massachusetts and opening that portal is part of it, so that people have a way to communicate what they’re observing and if ICE agents are engaged and things are unlawful, then expect them to be held accountable,” Healey said.
Some state lawmakers, including state Sen. Liz Miranda (D-2ns Suffolk) said during the March 4 forum that President Trump’s nationwide immigration crackdown is “predicated on actual white supremacy.”
“To anyone who still thinks that this kind of immigration enforcement this federal government is carrying out isn’t predicated on actual white supremacy and politicized fear mongering, you need to wake up,” said Miranda in a tirade against ICE and individual ICE agents. “The secret police, mostly made up of people who couldn’t get a job anywhere else, is running around scooping up pregnant people, high schoolers on their way to volleyball practice.”
Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s Office accused ICE of using racial profiling in identifying who to arrest or detain while delivering testimony before the committee.
“The President told us that ICE would keep people safe by targeting dangerous criminals. But in reality, the opposite has happened. ICE has made our communities less safe due to indiscriminate arrests, racial profiling, detentions of innocent children, and violent and reckless enforcement tactics,” said Deputy Attorney General Abby Taylor. “The vast, vast majority of civil immigration operations that have been seen in the Commonwealth and beyond since the beginning of the Trump administration has not been about violent criminals at all. It has been about people who committed no crimes or committed low-level offenses.”
But ICE says it has taken dangerous and violent illegal immigrants off Massachusetts streets. Earlier this month, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons shared information on some of the 167 illegal immigrants that Boston Police ignored detainer requests for.
Among them, Christhofer Figuereo Cuello, 22, of the Dominican Republic, was arrested for assault and battery after Boston Police arrested him and four others for attacking a 25-year old woman in the middle of Columbia Road in Dorchester back in February. A police report obtained by the Herald shows Cuello and his co-defendants allegedly cut off the victim in their vehicle, causing her to slam on the brakes and tap the back of their car. Cuello and the other suspects then allegedly beat the woman, including “jumping on her” and “hitting her in the face,” according to police.
Earlier this year, Healey signed an executive order prohibiting any new 287(g) agreements in Massachusetts. The executive order also bans federal agents from making civil arrests in non-public parts of state buildings.
The hearing starts at 9:00 a.m. in Hearing Room A-2 and can be livestreamed here.
Original article
Comments