Massachusetts Lawmakers Weigh Immigrant Legal Defense Fund Amid Surge in ICE Arrests

BY ELLA ADAMS

In less than six weeks this past summer, 34 individuals connected to the immigrant grassroots organization Agencia ALPHA were detained and arrested by federal immigration enforcement on their way to work, Executive Director Patricia Sobalvarro told lawmakers on Tuesday.

Fifteen of them have been deported back to Guatemala or Honduras because they didn’t have access to an immigration attorney, Sobalvarro said. 

“For someone who earns $15 an hour, and to be told that they have to pay $300 for 30 minutes with a private attorney, it’s inconceivable. Now imagine when they are told that to represent them they have to pay 10, 15, 20,000 dollars,” she said. “The reality is that our constituents are left with two choices: to face immigration proceedings without counsel, or to accept their fate of an imminent deportation separated from their families.”

Sobalvarro was one of numerous advocates who pitched the Judiciary Committee on bills (S 1127, H 1954) that would create an Immigrant Legal Defense Fund to provide immigrants facing deportation proceedings, who are not guaranteed an attorney, legal counsel if they’re unable to afford one. The legislation was one of several bills before co-chairs Sen. Lydia Edwards and Rep. Mike Day pertaining to immigration-related issues. 

Advocates have been ringing alarm bells at an uptick in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement action across Massachusetts and the nation, suggesting that immigrants who are both illegally and legally present in the state are missing work, skipping school or staying in their homes due to fears of detention.

ICE announced in October that more than 1,400 people were apprehended during a weeks-long immigration enforcement operation across Massachusetts called “Operation Patriot 2.0.” Also in October, the Department of Homeland Security announced “record-breaking statistics,” that 527,000 illegal immigrants have been removed from the U.S. since President Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem took office. 

“More than 2 million illegal aliens have left the U.S. including 1.6 million who have voluntarily self-deported and over 527,000 deportations,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a release. “This is just the beginning. President Trump and Secretary Noem have jumpstarted an agency that was hamstrung and barred from doing its job for the last four years.”

More than 55% of individuals in Massachusetts immigration court are unrepresented, said Wendy Wayne, an immigration policy consultant with South End Strategies and part of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Immigration. Immigrants represented by a lawyer are five times more likely to be successful in court, she added. 

“Several studies over the last 10 years have shown the economic benefit to providing legal representation to immigrants in deportation proceedings,” Wayne said. “Providing representation costs less than the money lost, the revenue lost when primary wage earners from families are deported because they couldn’t defend themselves.”

Lawmakers included $5 million for the issue in this year’s state budget, but advocates want the fund renewed for long-term, permanent aid. The Sen. Adam Gomez and Reps. Rodgers and Moran bills enable private funding to bolster the fund, and would establish a statewide system for immigrant legal representation.

Lowell Rep. Tara Hong told the committee that legal counsel for immigrants “can be the difference between separation and safety.”

“I have witnessed firsthand how a lack of proper legal counsel can leave individuals and family vulnerable, marginalized and unable to advocate effectively for themselves,” Hong said.

California, Colorado, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon and Washington have put policies akin to a legal defense fund in place, according to advocates.

Executive Director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Coalition Liz Sweet said that MIRA last week signed a contract through the state Office of Refugees and Immigrants to implement the new “Massachusetts Access to Counsel Initiative. In partnership with the Committee for Public Counsel Services among other legal organizations, they’ll be adding 24 new immigration attorneys to accept cases, Sweet said. 

“Our intake line is now working, and we have onboarded our team, as well as working with our partners to ensure that they are staffed, and expect to have full caseloads in the coming weeks. However, we need this to become an ongoing program,” Sweet said. Supporters from Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s office, the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the ACLU and SEIU also testified in support of the policy. 

At a rally Tuesday, Milford High School student Marcelo Gomes-Da Silva expressed his support for lawmakers to help fund counsel for detained immigrants. Gomes was taken out of a car by ICE on his way to volleyball practice in May.

“One thing that is true is that immigrants alone will not be able to fight against the government, especially if they don’t have any help,” he said.  

“A lot of students are so scared and they don’t know what’s going to happen in their family, what can happen in the future,” he said. “I don’t feel like kids our age, or just people in general, should have to be scared every single day about, I don’t know, someday being taken by ICE for no reason at all.” 

A Boston Globe and Suffolk University poll of 500 registered Massachusetts voters released on Tuesday found that 36.2% supported Donald Trump’s push to deport immigrants living in the U.S. without legal status, while 54.6% opposed it. More than half, 54.2%, said they strongly disapproved of how ICE has handled arrests and deportations. The survey found that 26.6% approved or strongly approved of said action. 

Senate President Karen Spilka and House Speaker Ron Mariano have acknowledged the fear of increased immigration enforcement in their districts, but have not endorsed any immigration-related legislation this session despite pressure to do so. When he was asked in September if it was the right time to advance the so-called Safe Communities Act (S 1681, H 2580), Mariano said, “I don’t know if it’s a year for that.”

“The issue of enforcing immigration laws is a purview of the federal government,” Mariano said. “It’s not a purview of the state government. We are here to enforce the state laws, and we do that. And we do it very well. And so I think that there has to be a way for us to coexist without having to get into defining and limiting each other’s specific charges.”

Several bills that would require varying degrees of compliance with federal law enforcement were also before the committee on Tuesday, but received no supportive, in-person testimony. 

Attorney Brian Sullivan, who spoke on behalf of the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, opposed several bills including one that would honor ICE detainments (H 2009) and another that would authorize the transfer of custody under a court officer’s authority to ICE upon written request (H 1805). He said the bills would empower ICE to conduct arrests in and around courthouses.

“When community members believe that they may be seized by masked, unabated federal agents placed into unmarked SUVs that don’t have any law enforcement insignia, and transported out of state for simply entering a courthouse, they lose confidence that the court is a safe and neutral space,” Sullivan said.

“We are already seeing the chilling effect this fear creates. Victims decline to seek protection. Witnesses disappear, or avoid police. Entire communities avoid the courthouse altogether, even when they desperately need its services. When courthouses become a place of fear instead of justice, the harm spreads far beyond immigrant communities. It undermines the integrity and functioning of the entire system,” Sullivan added.