As the Trump administration pursues its immigration crackdown, lawmakers in Massachusetts are promoting bills on Beacon Hill focused on immigrant and refugee rights.
Bills geared toward discouraging voluntary collaboration with ICE and ensuring immigrants know their rights when detained were promoted at a legislative briefing Tuesday.
Hosted by Massachusetts State Senator Jo Comerford of the Franklin, Hampshire and Worcester District and Amherst State Representative Mindy Domb, the event featured lawmakers, advocates and attorneys responding to changes being made in Washington.
Dan Berger, an immigration attorney at the firm Green and Spiegel in Northampton, says right now, the only sure thing is uncertainty as the White House threatens to withhold funds for sanctuary cities and organizations relying on federal funding.
“We can basically be almost sure - if we can be sure of anything - that the next four years will be almost continuous uncertainty: not knowing what will come around, not knowing what new executive orders will come out, usually Friday at five, and not knowing how much they're going to be implemented,” he said.
Since its start, the Trump administration has aggressively pushed for more border security while moving to facilitate mass deportations.
Berger points out largescale deportations haven’t happened just yet – logistically speaking, it might be some time before they are even possible. But, ICE and Homeland Security have been active regardless.
One incident in the city of Marlborough was brought up by State Senator Jamie Eldridge of the Middlesex and Worcester district.
The Democrat shared a picture of the Amaral family – which became embroiled in an incident in January when husband and father Lucas Amaral ended up in custody despite having no criminal record.
“… just ten days after Donald Trump was sworn into office, ICE came to Marlborough to look for another immigrant and, as far as we can tell, sat out on a street in the city of Marlborough and racially-profiled Lucas Amaral,” Eldridge said. “… and was pulled over, in my opinion, just because of his complexion, and probably because they thought a significant percentage of the Brazilian community in Marlboro is undocumented.”
The senator is a major proponent of the Safe Communities Act – geared toward limiting the participation of police, court workers and correctional facilities in federal immigration enforcement.
It would also push for law enforcement to emphasize to anyone who happens to be an immigrant and under arrest that they have a right to an attorney.
Eldridge says Amaral did not know he could hire an attorney, and that within days of being pulled over by ICE agents while driving to work, he was transferred to an ICE detention facility in Texas.
According to WBZ Boston, the 29-year-old from Brazil was able to retain a lawyer later. His attorney told the station Amaral’s arrest appeared to stem from him overstaying his visa. He was later reunited with his family.
As for the Safe Communities Act, the bill has much in common with other pieces of legislation discussed Tuesday night, some of which had been filed in previous legislative sessions.
Another bill included the Immigrant Legal Defense Act, which seeks to “improve access to fair and equitable legal representation for low-income, Massachusetts immigrants in deportation proceedings.
Shepherding that bill, in-part, is Springfield Senator Adam Gomez.
“There's going to be individuals that don't have that legal representation [which] can often make all the differences in immigration court,” The Hampden district Democrat said. “Detained immigrants with a lawyer are ten times more likely to win their case than those without legal representation. And still… we’re in Massachusetts, where more than half of the immigrants with pending cases are navigating these proceedings without a lawyer. Imagine that! This [bill] will secure state funding for legal services to represent Massachusetts residents, the people that call Massachusetts home, who are at risk of deportation, despite their dedication and participation in communities that we all are so proud to call home.”
Other pieces of legislation discussed included the “Dignity, Not Deportations Act” (also filed in the senate by Gomez) which would discourage state police, the Department of Corrections and other state entities from entering or re-entering "an immigration collaboration agreement or immigration detention agreement" with entities such as ICE.
It would also discourage departments from donating and volunteering time and resources to ICE via such agreements - often referred to as "287(g)" deals by Gomez. The senator noted the Massachusetts Department of Corrections appears to have such a contact in place.
Also calling for support of the legislation highlighted was Kelly Morgan, an immigration attorney at Central West Justice Center. The center provides free legal services for “low-income and immigrant neighbors in Central and Western MA,” according to its website.
Morgan adds that supporting immigrant-focused and -led organizations is paramount at the moment, especially as some potentially face federal funding being frozen or withdrawn altogether.
All the while, she says, fear and anxiety in immigrant communities continues to grow.
“Everyone's feeling incredibly scared right now. I'm hearing [of] families afraid to send their kids to music class, afraid to go to school, afraid to go to work - restaurants closed because no one shows up on a certain day because of terrible rumors,” she recounted. “Just making sure that people in our communities know that we care and supporting this legislation … would make a huge difference.”
The entire legislative briefing can be found here.
