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State Legislators Must Take Action on Immigration
For eight years, Massachusetts lawmakers have had a chance to pass the Safe Communities Act. Eight years. Since the Trump administration rolled out its first wave of anti-immigrant policies in 2017, this bill has failed to advance, despite securing the public safety committee’s favorable report every session since 2020. Meanwhile, our immigrant families continue to live in fear of local police and court collaboration with ICE.
The problem is urgent. Across Massachusetts, federal immigration enforcement is ramping up. Since January, ICE arrests in our state have surged by 336 percent. And here’s the truth: 78 percent of those arrested in Massachusetts have no criminal record. This isn’t about public safety; it’s about mass deportation.
The federal government has openly set a goal of deporting one million people a year, or 3,000 people a day. The only way they can reach that number is two-fold: by stripping lawfully-present immigrants of protections, and by leveraging state and local resources for immigration enforcement through formal and informal agreements with ICE.
ICE is aggressively securing formal collaboration agreements under a federal program known as 287(g). These agreements confer federal immigration authority to local police and sheriffs, empowering them to make civil immigration arrests and place people in deportation proceedings—at state taxpayers’ considerable expense. Nationally, the number of 287(g) agreements has exploded from 135 in January to 958 today, spanning 40 states—twelve in neighboring New Hampshire, where many Massachusetts immigrants commute to work.
Moreover, ICE is reportedly seeking both formal and informal agreements with police chiefs here in Massachusetts—and there is evidence that at least some MA police chiefs are already informally assisting ICE in civil immigration arrests. We can’t let that happen here.
Here’s where the Safe Communities Act matters.
- Massachusetts can join the growing number of states that protect against federal overreach, ensuring that public safety resources are used for local needs, not for fueling deportations and family separation.
- It would prohibit 287(g) agreements, limit police involvement with ICE, and secure basic due process rights for detained immigrants. California, Connecticut, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon, Washington, and, most recently, Delaware have already stepped up by banning 287(g) agreements.
Limited police resources should be used to protect our communities from crime. Civil immigration enforcement is not our job.
Opponents argue there’s no need to ban 287(g) agreements because no new agreements have been entered into here. (The Massachusetts Department of Corrections has the remaining 287(g) with ICE.) But that’s exactly the point: prevention is far easier than repair. A new contract would cause immediate damage: local police diverted from community safety, taxpayer dollars wasted, and trust with immigrant families broken. Undoing that harm would be far harder and costlier than acting now to prevent it.
State legislators tell us they’re concerned about the corrosive fear that’s taken hold in their immigrant districts. But concern is not enough. Families need action. And a majority of the public agrees. 62 percent of Boston voters view the Boston Trust Act, a local version of the Safe Communities Act, “strongly” favorably. In the very city where ICE has launched its most aggressive operations, the people are ahead of their leaders. It’s time for Beacon Hill to catch up.
Massachusetts has waited long enough. It’s time to pass the Safe Communities Act.
🚨 ACTION: Tell your state legislators where you stand—email them today and urge them to co-sponsor our two priority immigration bills, the Safe Communities Act and the Immigrant Legal Defense Act.