The state Senate last Thursday voted 37-3 to pass its version of the PROTECT Act — a bill aimed at limiting federal immigration agents’ deportation activities in Massachusetts communities.
Titled “an act promoting rule of law, oversight, trust, and equal constitutional treatment,” the legislation was authored by members of the Massachusetts Black and Latino Legislative Caucus. It comes in response to what many see as a pattern of civil rights violations by the federal department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement as the administration of President Donald Trump pursues its goal of deporting as many as 1 million immigrants a year.
The Senate version of the bill will need to be reconciled with an earlier one passed by the House of Representatives through a committee review process that could take months. Under new rules adopted this year, the House and Senate have until the first week of January to pass a compromise bill.
“Massachusetts is stronger because of the immigrants who call our great state home — people who work hard, raise families, and contribute to our communities every single day,” Senate President Karen Spilka told reporters in the Senate reading room after the vote. “People deserve to live with dignity, safety, and peace of mind to do their everyday life. And the Senate will not stand by while attempts are being made to take that away.”
While in past years, federal immigration enforcement has focused on immigrants convicted of crimes, under the Trump administration, green card holders, refugees awaiting the resolution of their cases, and immigrants with student visas have been swept up as ICE agents work to meet deportation quotas.
In Massachusetts, 75 percent of those detained in Massachusetts have had no criminal convictions.
The Senate version would bar state and local law enforcement from enforcing civil immigration laws or asking people about their immigration status, block federal immigration officials from detaining immigrants in court without a judicial warrant, and prevent state agencies from entering into new 287(g) agreements that formalize cooperation with ICE.
It would not end an existing 287(g) agreement the state Department of Corrections (DOC) has to house ICE detainees in Massachusetts.
Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan told The Reporter that maintaining the DOC agreement helps local attorneys and families maintain contact with people who were detained by ICE in Massachusetts. “It’s very difficult to get someone released once they go out of state,” she said.
A recent report from the group Citizens for Juvenile Justice found that multiple police departments in Massachusetts cities and towns currently allow officers to detain people before they’ve been arrested and contact ICE if the officer suspects there’s been an immigration violation. The PROTECT Act would make it illegal for officers to engage in such conduct and bar the use of state or local resources for federal civil immigration enforcement.
But it would not end the information sharing between police officers and federal officials that occurs in fusion centers such as the Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC). Through the BRIC, information on local demonstrations and people added to Boston’s gang database are available to federal law enforcement, including immigration officials.
The PROTECT Act would also prevent jails and prisons from holding immigrants past the time of their scheduled release solely based on a federal immigration detainer.
The legislation is in many ways the culmination of years of advocacy from immigrant rights groups and progressive lawmakers. A prior version of the PROTECT Act — The Safe Communities Act — was filed in 2017 and backed through repeated legislative cycles by members of the Massachusetts Black and Latino Caucus (MBLC).
“Today’s vote sends a powerful message that the state of Massachusetts will not stand by while immigrant communities are targeted and terrorized,” said Maroni Minter, political director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. “This bill says that unlawful, abusive collaboration with ICE will not be tolerated in our state.”
Sen. Liz Miranda, vice chair of the MBLC, began advocating for the Safe Communities Act seven years ago.
“My goal has been to ensure that families aren’t torn apart and that if the federal government says they’re going to arrest violent criminals, that they stick to that instead of arresting the 75 percent of people with no criminal convictions they have arrested in Massachusetts,” Miranda told The Reporter.
In addition to restrictions on police cooperation with ICE, the PROTECT Act would allow people in Massachusetts to pursue legal claims against federal officers for violations of their constitutional rights, restrict federal officers from making arrests for civil immigration violations without a judicial warrant in child care facilities, in public schools, and in state courts and prohibit National Guard troops from other states from deploying in Massachusetts without the permission of the governor.
“This bill is Massachusetts saying, ‘Enough is enough,’ said state Sen. Pavel Payano of Lawrence. “The Protect Act draws a clear line. If a federal law enforcement officer violates your constitutional rights, they will be held accountable.”
