GOV. MAURA HEALEY will sign a new immigrant protection measure into law Wednesday in Chelsea, saying the compromise bill lawmakers sent her last week “provides the strongest protections in the country against abuses by ICE, including keeping them out of courthouses, schools and hospitals.”
Lawmakers attached an emergency preamble to the bill, declaring it “an emergency law, necessary for the immediate preservation of the public safety” and arranging for it to take effect as soon as Healey signs it.
The bill (H 5620) that cleared the House and Senate on split votes last Thursday would expand protections against warrantless civil immigration arrests to courthouses, public schools, child care centers and health care facilities. It bars new agreements allowing state and local officials to perform certain federal immigration enforcement functions, preserves the Department of Correction’s existing partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and codifies the Supreme Judicial Court’s 2017 Lunn v. Commonwealth decision which held that there is “no authority for Massachusetts court officers to arrest and hold an individual solely on the basis of a Federal civil immigration detainer.”
“We started this effort by grounding our work in the belief that all Massachusetts residents deserve equal protection under both the United States constitution and Massachusetts constitution regardless of where they were born or their color, creed, or immigration status,” Sen. Cindy Friedman said Thursday before the Senate adopted the proposal. “And I would add that every single person in this Commonwealth, state, country, world deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Nobody is illegal.”
Friedman said the bill was a response to ICE, an agency that she said “has become violent, frequently disregarding the law, and often seems to revel in sowing fear and division.”
Joining Healey for the 9:45 a.m. signing ceremony at La Colaborativa on 6th Street in Chelsea will be Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, Education Secretary Steven Zrike, Office of Refugees and Immigrants Executive Director Cristina Aguilera-Sandoval, Chelsea City Manager Fidel Maltez, La Colaborativa President & CEO Gladys Vega, public safety officials, advocates and others.
Healey said the bill was “top of mind” for her last week and expressed hope it would reach her desk.
