Amid increased reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) activity in Massachusetts towns and cities, the Swampscott Police Department urges the public to not interfere.
“The advice we have for the public is not to interfere, obstruct, hinder, or impede ICE agents conducting their lawful duties,” Police Chief Ruben Quesada said. “The same rules apply to us as municipal law enforcement.”
On June 2, ICE announced that its federal partners have arrested nearly 1,500 “illegal aliens during a month-long enforcement operation focusing on transnational organized crime, gangs and egregious illegal alien offenders.” The operation follows President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan pledged shortly after the presidential inauguration that he will be “bringing hell” to Boston over its sanctuary city policy. Several detentions in Massachusetts in the past three months have drawn attention on social media and in the news, including those of a high school student, a father of a 4-month-old and a Tufts University doctoral student.
Quesada noted that the Swampscott Police Department “will not conduct immigration enforcement.”
“In Massachusetts we strictly adhere to the Lunn decision where the Supreme Judicial Court upheld that ‘holding’ an individual beyond their lawful release time, like one involving a civil ICE detainer, would be considered an unlawful arrest,” Quesada said.
The 2017 Lunn v. Commonwealth decision field that Massachusetts police lack authority to arrest solely on the basis of a federal civil immigration detainer. Individuals also cannot be held past their scheduled release time from state custody.
Gov. Maura Healey said in May that “local police have zero information” about ICE operations in their communities.
“We at the state level have zero information about what’s happening in communities,” Healey said. “And that needs to change. We need to get answers. We need to get clarification from ICE.”
Healey’s comments followed ICE’s arrest of about 40 people on Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.
Those individuals are now among the 1,461 arrested statewide during the recent ICE operation. ICE reported that over half of those arrested “had significant criminal convictions or charges.” The agency said 790 people were charged with or convicted of crimes in the US or internationally.
“The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a safer place today thanks to the hard work and determination of the men and women of ICE and our federal partners,” said Patricia Hyde, the acting field office director of the ICE enforcement and removal operations in Boston. “Make no mistake: Every person that we arrested was breaking our immigration laws, but most of these individuals had significant criminality…All made the mistake of attempting to subvert justice by hiding out in Massachusetts.”
Even still, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “ICE officers never intended to apprehend” a student from Milford High School. Marcelo Gomes da Silva, 18, was arrested while heading to volleyball practice.
“ICE officers engaged in a targeted immigration enforcement operation of a known public safety threat and illegal alien, Joao Paulo Gomes-Pereira. Local authorities notified ICE that this illegal alien has a habit of reckless driving at speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour through residential areas endangering Massachusetts residents,” Homeland Security posted. “While ICE officers never intended to apprehend Gomes da Silva, he was found to be in the United States illegally and subject to removal proceedings, so officers made the arrest.”
The Homeland Security post was in response to Healey, who said she was “disturbed and outraged” by Gomes da Silva’s arrest.
Gomes da Silva is still in ICE custody “pending removal proceedings.” A federal judge reviewing Gomes da Silva’s release request gave the government until June 16 to respond and also ordered he not be removed from Massachuestts without 48 hours’ notice to the court.
In Worcester, ICE allegedly signed a deportation authorization document for Samarone Alves Ferreira-De Souza to be sent to Brazil on May 25, according to his attorney. Ferreira-De Souza was arrested after honking at an undercover car carrying ICE agents, his attorney told MassLive.
Going back to late March, Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish citizen and Tufts University graduate student, was arrested. Video shows masked federal agents apprehending Ozturk outside of her home. She was freed about six weeks later after a federal judge ordered her release.
“ICE’s actions are not about public safety,” Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) said in a statement Monday. “They are about instilling fear into our communities.”
