Immigrants and advocates are asking Gov. Maura Healey to intervene in the ongoing immigration-related arrests across Massachusetts.
“Gov. Healey, what would you do if you left your children at school — and you were afraid that when you went to pick them up, you might not be able to see them? This is how we live,” said Marina Maldonado in Spanish. She said she lives in East Boston and is a domestic worker who cleans houses.
Maldonado spoke to a crowd of dozens gathered at the State House Thursday to urge the governor to take action. Maldonado said as the “max authority” in the commonwealth, the governor has power over state and local agencies and whether they cooperate with ICE or not.
There are no firm numbers on how many people have been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Massachusetts since President Donald Trump took office nearly four months ago. But advocates have seen a surge in activity in recent weeks. Immigrants say the flurry of ICE sightings is “paralyzing communities,” and that these are arrests “state-sanctioned violence.”
Those arrests have ranged widely from a car window being broken in in New Bedford, to a very public arrest in Worcester where residents formed a human ring to try to prevent an immigrant woman from being detained.
U.S. Attorney of Massachusetts Leah Foley warned this week against anyone interfering with ICE detentions.
“I will not stand idly by if any public official, public safety officer, organization or private citizen acts in a manner that criminally obstructs or impedes ICE operations,” Foley said on Wednesday. She said the office will investigate “any violations of federal law and pursue charges that are warranted by such activity.”
Healey said she is deeply concerned by the “many actions we are seeing from ICE that increasingly seem to be less about public safety and more about creating fear in our communities,” according to an emailed statement Thursday. “As Governor, I’m going to continue to speak out against those who think due process and the rule of law are things they don’t have to abide by. The Constitution is not a suggestion.”
But Healey also told press earlier in the day that no one “should be interfering” with the work of law enforcement.
In front of the State House, advocates accused the governor of failing to preserve the rights of her residents.
“Gov. Healey, if you allow ICE to detain and deport without due process, you are failing in your duty to protect the rights of all Massachusetts residents,” said Jaya Savita, the director of the Asian Pacific Islanders Civic Action Network.
“We are here today because every person, regardless of where they were born or what papers they carry, has guaranteed basic rights under the U.S. Constitution,” she said.
“It’s not radical. That is the law,” she said to applause, pointing specifically to the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, which protect people from self-incrimination and guarantee due process.
Nannies and domestic workers are taking taxis because they’re afraid to walk in public or go on the bus, Maldonado said. She spoke about ongoing rumors of federal immigration agents looking for nannies in parks, which the ICE’s local field office has denied. Advocates say they are still working to verify the claims but do not believe ICE’s denial.
The LUCE Immigrant Justice Network is running a hotline about suspected immigration enforcement. LUCE organizers told GBH News Thursday they have received over 300 calls about ICE sightings in the past week. In Waltham, at least 40 immigrants have been detained in recent weeks.
“Downtown Waltham is becoming a ghost town. Businesses are suffering. Kids are afraid to go to school. Families are being torn apart,” said Jonathan Paz of Fuerza Waltham, a neighborhood watch group.
He witnessed an ICE detention that left a child behind on a sidewalk.
Arrests have continued across the commonwealth. In New Bedford, two Guatemalan undocumented workers with no known criminal record were apparently detained before their shifts at a local fishery on Monday, as first reported by the New Bedford Light.
”New Bedford stopped being the house of immigrants and started to become the home of ICE,” said Isabel Berny, a volunteer with Mujeres Victoriosas, a community organization in New Bedford. The organization has been out educating immigrants about their rights in ICE interactions. She said the agency is “bringing fear and panic into our immigrant community.”
Robert Goulston contributed to this story.
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