Immigrant groups want Beacon Hill to bolster protections for migrants in Massachusetts

Immigrant rights advocates called on Beacon Hill Democrats Tuesday to pass a trio of policies they argued would bolster protections for migrants who are being targeted for deportation.

The advocates argued the proposals are necessary to better define the relationship between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities as the Trump administration increases immigration enforcement. Supporters said the proposals would help migrants in Massachusetts who are living in fear because of the uptick in enforcement activity.

Laura Rótolo, senior advocacy director for field initiatives at the ACLU of Massachusetts, said the spike in immigration arrests is leading to a “level of destruction in our communities [that] is unprecedented.”

“There is no one thing that one person can do that's going to stop the mass deportation plan, but it must begin here. It must begin in this house. There is much that our state can do,” Rótolo said during a rally inside the State House.

Advocates organized under the “Protecting Massachusetts Communities Campaign” want lawmakers to ban local law enforcement from assisting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in making civil immigration arrests and asking people about their immigration status. (Local law enforcement is already barred from detaining people solely on suspected civil immigration violations under a July 2017 Supreme Judicial Court ruling.)

The group wants legislators to bar police departments and county sheriffs from signing agreements that allow local jails to hold people in custody on behalf of ICE.

They also want to use public and private dollars to provide no-cost legal defense to immigrants who are at risk of deportation, including people already detained by federal authorities.

The push comes as ICE has already stepped up arrests this year. A surge in May netted nearly 1,500 arrests while a campaign in September resulted in more than 1,400 arrests, according to federal officials.

Federal officials said agents targeted “dangerous criminals" who were in the country without proper legal status.

But ICE officials said roughly half of the people detained during the May operation and less than half of those detained in September had been involved in what the agency described as "significant crimes." A WBUR analysis this summer also found that a majority of federal detainees held in a detention center in Plymouth County were classified by ICE as having no threat.

The Trump administration is also suing the city of Boston over its policy of cooperating with immigration enforcement officials only in criminal matters that violate federal law.

City officials have asked a judge to dismiss the suit, arguing the policy is constitutionally protected and makes Boston safer. Attorney General Andrea Campbell, the MIRA Coalition, and the ACLU of Massachusetts filed legal briefs this week in support of the policy.

Some of the proposals the “Protecting Massachusetts Communities Campaign” rallied in support of Tuesday are included in legislation already pending before committees on Beacon Hill. That includes the so-called “Safe Communities Act.”

The bill would limit interactions between local police and federal immigration authorities, including by prohibiting local authorities from initiating communications with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about someone’s pending or imminent release from jail for any reason other than the end of their criminal sentence.

The proposal has found little support among Democratic leadership in the House and Senate.

Asked in September whether the bill would advance because of increased ICE activity under Trump, House Speaker Ron Mariano said he did not know whether it was the “year for that.”

“The issue of enforcing immigration laws is a purview of the federal government. 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,” he said.

Immigrant rights groups did score a win in the fiscal 2026 budget that Gov. Maura Healey signed in July. The spending plan included $5 million to create a program to increase access to legal representation, advice and advocacy for immigrants and refugees.

But the “Protecting Massachusetts Communities Campaign” wants state lawmakers to go further and cement the program.

“Immigrants alone will not be able to fight against the government, especially if they don't have any help. So giving more money to lawyers and helping them out would help immigrants more,” Marcelo Gomes Da Silva, a senior at Milford High School who was arrested this summer by ICE agents looking for his father, said at the State House Tuesday.