The Boston Globe is highlighting legislation filed by the House and Senate Republican Caucus that would authorize state and municipal law enforcement and court officers to honor federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainer requests.
Reporter Niki Griswold’s article focuses on HD4217, An Act empowering law enforcement to cooperate with the United States to transfer custody of convicted criminals, which was filed by House Minority Leader Bradley H. Jones, Jr. (R-NorthReading), and its companion Senate bill (SD726), which was filed by Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester). The bills allow for the detainment of individuals for possible immigration violations for up to 12 hours upon receipt of a written request and warrant from ICE. This authorization is limited to ICE detainer requests for individuals who pose a threat to public safety for engaging in, or being suspected of engaging in, specific crimes, including terrorism or espionage, criminal street gang activity, sexual abuse or exploitation, human trafficking, unlawful firearm possession, and drug distribution or trafficking.
Also highlighted in the article is related legislation filed by Representatives Michael Soter (R-Bellingham) and Kenneth Sweezey (R-Pembroke) allowing for detainer requests to be honored for up to 36 hours. Each of these bills are a direct response to the 2017 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) ruling in Lunn v.Commonwealth, which determined that current state law does not provide the authority for complying with ICE requests to detain individuals otherwise entitled to release, leaving it up to the Legislature to enact such authority if deemed necessary.
