Local and State Authorities’ Partnership with ICE Puts Massachusetts Children at Risk
Adults also caught in net
State and local authorities regularly share information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that helps the federal agency target children and adults in Massachusetts, an extensive data review by Citizens for Juvenile Justice (CfJJ) has found.
“At every level, we have found that law enforcement agencies and courts are actually endangering residents by helping ICE target our neighbors,” said CfJJ’s Director of Strategic Initiatives, Joshua Dankoff. “This is not what Massachusetts residents want. They expect these institutions to keep them safe. These practices must stop everywhere in the Commonwealth.”
CfJJ found some in-state collusion with ICE to be procedural. For example, local police routinely upload fingerprints into federal databases that are available to ICE. Some interactions are much more intentional. Most sheriff departments in the state share daily prisoner logs with ICE, including information about when individuals will appear in court and when they will be released on bail.
The advocacy group began investigating this issue after 13-, 15- and 16-year-old children were directly taken from the police station, where they were facing allegations in the juvenile court, and placed in ICE custody. Some of these children were swiftly taken out of state and placed in ICE detention far from their families, who were left wondering about their safety and hampered in their ability to advocate for them.
“We are talking about children – and children presumed to be innocent. These children should have been able to have their day in our juvenile court, with the representation of an attorney, to challenge the allegations against them. Instead, without receiving that due process, Massachusetts officials handed them over to an agency that has become notorious for its brutality and for its disdain for the rule of law,” said CfJJ’s Executive Director, Leon Smith, a long-time juvenile court attorney.
CfJJ submitted more than 60 public records requests to police, sheriffs, and district attorneys to document policies around ICE. The findings reveal frequent sharing of information used to locate children and adults targeted under ICE’s anti-immigrant mission.
Fingerprinting results in automatic data sharing with ICE, though fingerprinting itself is not always required by law. Police are only legally obligated to fingerprint in felony cases, though most departments fingerprint everyone in custody, including those with misdemeanors. Prints are uploaded to a federal database where ICE accesses them. Legislation should be passed to forbid law enforcement from taking fingerprints in non-felony cases, and to prohibit the sharing of any juvenile fingerprints with federal authorities.
Multiple police departments have policies that automatically check the immigration status of anyone in their custody and contact ICE if they suspect a person (child or adult) to be undocumented. People are regularly taken into ICE custody through this process.
Sheriffs share extensive information with ICE about all people in their custody regardless of immigration status, including people being held pre-trial and bearing a presumption of innocence. This collusion with ICE is a choice that locally elected sheriffs are making. The sheriffs should stop, and also the legislature should outlaw this practice, which puts many residents who haven’t had their full access to due process on a path to losing their freedom.
People are regularly detained at courthouses in Massachusetts because the Trial Court’s own rules provide for broad collaboration with ICE. Being detained at the court robs people of the due process they are entitled to here in the Commonwealth and creates a sense of fear in a space that every resident should feel comfortable entering.
Some district attorneys have also stated that ICE’s actions in the state discourage victims from coming to court. This even further erodes public trust in our legal system and its ability to make all residents of the Commonwealth feel safe.
Most of these instances of collusion could be stopped by legislative action and it is notable that both Governor Healey and the legislature’s Black and Latino Legislative Caucus have recently filed bills to address ICE actions in the Commonwealth. These bills represent an opportunity for state legislation to forbid information sharing with the federal government which is not in line with local law enforcement’s mission. Court rules should also be legislatively amended to end this practice, as has been suggested by Governor Healey’s supplemental budget bill.
“CfJJ has many pending records requests out. We fear that what we are seeing here is just the tip of the iceberg. We urge people throughout the state to contact their local authorities and ask what the policy and practice is on turning people and information over to ICE,” Dankoff stated.
“This collusion is shocking in a progressive state and damaging to everyone in our communities regardless of immigration status,” said Frank Devito, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Immigrant Collaborative. “We know that ICE targets people of color without knowing their status. Inviting ICE into our communities makes every school, workplace and place of worship a potential site of violence, and that violence will most often be visited upon black and brown people.”