On November 25th, Senator Jamie Eldridge, Senator Liz Miranda, and Representatives Susa and Cruz testified in front of the Joint Committee on Public Safety on behalf of S1681/H2580, otherwise known as the Safe Communities Act.

As a result of President Trump’s Department of Homeland Security’s mass deportation agenda, families who have worked and lived in Massachusetts for decades are experiencing heightened anxiety and increased hesitancy to utilize public resources. The participation of courts and correctional institutions in civil immigration highlights the destruction of trust between residents and law enforcement, where their purpose is to protect public safety.

This legislation limits the voluntary involvement of local law enforcement and federal civil immigration activities, decoupling federal civil immigration enforcement from the necessary functions of state and local law enforcement, as well as delineating the separation of powers between the federal government and our Commonwealth. In this way, the trust and security can be restored in immigrant communities across Massachusetts.

The Safe Communities Act ensures that regardless of their documentation status, members of the immigrant community can feel confident that they can report crimes to state and local law enforcement and to be full participants in local economies. This bill also requires law enforcement agencies to train their officers on the act’s protections, ensuring that they are not just policy statements, but practiced and enforced. Not only does the federal enforcement affect immigrant communities, but it's also something that local police do not want to be involved in.

When people feel safe engaging with public institutions, crime goes down and communities become stronger and safer.

The legislation addresses the following four areas:

• Prohibits the questioning of people on their immigration status.

• Protects access to justice in courts by saying that police, court and correctional facilities cannot inform ICE if someone in their custody is undocumented unless that person has a criminal conviction and is being sentenced.

• Requires that notice be given to an immigrant who happens to be arrested for a criminal offense so that they may hire a lawyer to represent them on the immigration matter.

• Prohibits 287 (g) agreements, ensuring that local police cannot be deputized to act as immigration agents.