Massachusetts supporters optimistic in bill that would limit cooperation between local police, federal immigration officials

Chris Lisinski

JAN. 22, 2024…..Hoping to find success seven years into their campaign, supporters of a bill that would limit the cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration officials are turning to recent history as a reason for optimism.

Immigration reform activists and their allies in the Legislature have been pushing unsuccessfully since 2017 for action on what they dubbed the “Safe Communities Act,” along the way securing favorable committee recommendations and endorsements from dozens of lawmakers but not the votes it needed to head to the governor.

Many of the same power players did, however, achieve success in 2022 on a different measure: a law allowing Massachusetts residents without legal immigration status to acquire driver’s licenses, which survived a repeal attempt at the ballot box.

Sen. Jamie Eldridge of Marlborough told his colleagues Monday that the licensing law shows the Safe Communities Act, of which he is a main sponsor, is “ripe to pass this session.”

“Now 55,000 residents have driver’s licenses [and] improved public safety,” Eldridge said, referring to the number of licenses issued in the first six months after the licensing law’s effective date. “It’s an example of the fact that there is an ability for the Legislature to take action on an issue even though, obviously, immigration is a federal matter.”

As legislative leaders craft their agendas for the busier second year of the 2023-2024 term, the latest version of the immigration enforcement reform bill emerged Monday for a hearing before the Public Safety Committee.

Supporters told the Public Safety Committee, which gave predecessor versions of the Safe Communities Act favorable reports in each of the past two sessions, that the legislation has evolved over the years since it was first introduced.

The crux of the bill remains the same: it would ban Massachusetts police and courts from asking about a person’s immigration status, a change that supporters say will empower undocumented immigrants to seek help or participate in the justice system without fear of inadvertently incurring deportation.

Earlier versions called for more of a blanket ban on communication between police and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, or ICE. Rep. Ruth Balser, another chief sponsor, said bill authors incorporated feedback from law enforcement leaders and narrowed that proposed restriction to cover only police proactively reaching out to ICE.

“We can’t pass a law that says you have to lie to someone, especially another law enforcement officer who you collaborate with. So, we changed the bill,” Balser, a Newton Democrat, told the committee. “The bill now says that that communication can’t be initiated, but it doesn’t prohibit the kind of collaboration that law enforcement are used to doing.”

Supporters said Monday that local authorities could, under the bill, still reach out to federal immigration officials to inform them about the end of an individual’s incarceration, but not when someone is released on bail or before a trial while a case is still ongoing.

Wendy Wayne, director of the immigration impact unit at the Committee for Public Counsel Services, told lawmakers that between January 2022 and August 2023, nearly 450 Massachusetts residents with pending criminal cases “were arrested by ICE and taken to Moshannon, Pennsylvania,” where the federal agency operates a processing center.

“Those are likely 450 open cases in an 18-month period that the Massachusetts courts have been unable to resolve,” Wayne said. “These may include people who were innocent, the alleged victims may have shown up and said, ‘I want this case dismissed,’ the victims may have shown up and not been able to get justice in their cases. The court system just leaves these cases open.”

Several top prosecutors, including Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden and Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan, voiced their support for the legislation, saying it would allow their offices and state courts to see cases through to completion before federal immigration issues are addressed.

Ryan recalled one instance in which a defendant facing murder charges was removed by federal immigration authorities during a brief break in the trial. The defendant was “never to be seen again,” she said.

“That family did not get justice. We did not go through the process. The sentence was not pronounced if they had been convicted, and had they been found not guilty, they were not then free to deal with whatever other issues they had going on,” Ryan said. “This [bill] protects every one of us, documented or undocumented. It makes our system better, it builds trust in our community.”

Opponents of the bill argued that it would hamstring police from removing potentially dangerous individuals from the country.

“There probably is some fear on the part of immigrant communities or those where there are noncitizens, but you have to weigh this against the fact that the best service that you could perform for such communities is to remove criminals from their midst,” said John Thompson, co-chair of the Massachusetts Coalition for Immigration Reform. “That would not only protect them but would protect the rest of us.”

The bill would also require individuals in Massachusetts to provide written, informed consent before being interrogated by ICE personnel and prohibit so-called 287(g) cooperation agreements that federal immigration officials reach with local and state law enforcement agencies.

The Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy, or MIRA, Coalition said in a summary of the bill that county sheriffs have all ceased use of 287(g) agreements with ICE, and the state Department of Correction still has one in place. Only Arizona, Florida and Georgia also have 287(g) contracts between their state correction departments and ICE, according to MIRA.

Former House Speaker Robert DeLeo said in 2018, when the Senate narrowly voted to add similar immigration enforcement language to its state budget bill, that he did not see consensus on the issue. But legislative leaders have been relatively tight-lipped about the specific proposal since then.

Top Democrats muscled the licensing reform bill into law last session over former Gov. Charlie Baker’s veto, after which House Speaker Ron Mariano hinted he hoped to “do even more” to make Massachusetts a more welcoming home for immigrants.

Baker, a Republican, had threatened to veto the Safe Communities Act should it reach his desk. Some backers might feel more optimistic about the bill’s chances now that Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat, occupies the corner office, though it’s not clear whether she supports it.