Healey unveils legislation to keep ICE out of schools, churches, and more

Local News

Gov. Maura Healey detailed a number of other actions aimed at reining in ICE, saying that the agency is sowing fear and chaos among residents.

Gov. Maura Healey filed legislation Thursday that would prevent ICE officers from operating in schools, places of worship, and hospitals around the state.

“We’re here today to restore trust in government,” Healey said.

Healey unveiled this legislation, which would take other steps to inhibit the actions of the Trump administration, alongside a large group of lawmakers, law enforcement officials, religious leaders, and others in the State House. 

Healey also signed an executive order prohibiting the state from entering into agreements that allow the federal government to deputize local authorities for the purposes of immigration enforcement. The order bars ICE from making civil arrests in non-public areas of state buildings and prohibits the use of state property for staging immigration enforcement operations.

Healey’s actions are part of a larger wave of moves being made by Democratic governors across the country in the wake of the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota. 

The governor said that federal agents are antagonizing residents and causing violence. Residents are afraid of leaving their homes, she said. 

“Their goal has been to intimidate and instill fear, and that’s what they’ve done,” Healey said. 

Soon after President Donald Trump returned to office about a year ago, his administration ended a “protected areas” policy at the Department of Homeland Security. This policy directed ICE agents to refrain from immigration enforcement in sensitive locations like schools and churches. The federal government replaced it with a directive that gave ICE agents the “unbridled power” to detain immigrants in these places, Healey’s office said. 

The legislation would ban warrantless civil arrests by ICE agents inside of courthouses. ICE has ramped up immigration arrests in courthouses, deterring witnesses and victims from appearing. Therefore, Healey said, people being charged with crimes are not being prosecuted and held accountable for their actions. 

Healey cited declining enrollment data for school districts with large numbers of immigrant families, like Chelsea and Everett. With the White House allowing ICE to target schools, parents and guardians are growing more wary of sending their children to school or having them participate in youth sports, her office said. Elementary, middle and high schools, alongside licensed childcare centers and afterschool programs, would not be able to allow immigration agents to enter their premises without a judicial warrant if this new legislation were to pass. 

The legislation would let parents “pre-arrange guardianship” for their children in the event that they are detained by federal agents. This ensures that children of detained people will still be in the care of those they know and trust, officials said. 

According to state officials, healthcare providers are reporting that more and more immigrants are skipping medical appointments out of fear that they could be exposed to ICE. The bill would prohibit hospitals, community health centers, nursing homes, and substance use disorder programs from opening up nonpublic areas to ICE without a judicial warrant. 

The legislation would “codify a statutory privilege” that prevents the civil arrest of people in a house of worship while they are attending services. 

It also would make it unlawful for the National Guard of another state to be deployed to Massachusetts without the governor’s permission. The Trump administration has used this tactic to send troops from certain states into Chicago and Los Angeles. 

Healey’s executive order takes aim at 287(g) agreements, which let local law enforcement officers enforce certain aspects of immigration law. This is typically only the purview of the federal government. No offices or agencies within the state government’s executive branch will be able to enter into 287(g) agreements under the new legislation, unless the head of the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security certifies that the agreement is based on “a specific, articulable public safety risk or need” and that it does not last more than a year. 

The executive order prevents federal officers from conducting civil arrests in nonpublic areas of state facilities unless they have a judicial warrant or order. 

Finally, the order makes it so that ICE cannot use state facilities as staging areas, processing locations or as bases of operations for immigration enforcement. 

“In Massachusetts and across the country, we continue to see unlawful and unconstitutional actions by ICE that are meant to intimidate and instill fear in our communities, including against United States citizens who are exercising their constitutional rights,” Healey said in a statement. “This puts people at risk and in harm’s way, and I find it necessary in the interest of public safety to take this action today.”