LEGISLATIVE NEGOTIATORS ON Wednesday unveiled a compromise on the closely watched bill that would broaden protections against federal immigration enforcement, while preserving one key area of cooperation with federal authorities.
The conference committee agreement (H 5620) was filed Wednesday after 4 p.m., and earlier in the day lawmakers described its contents at a State House press conference ahead of expected House and Senate votes later this week.
Conferees said the compromise adopts the Senate’s broader approach to “sensitive locations,” expanding protections against warrantless civil immigration arrests from courthouses to include public schools, child care centers, and health care facilities.
It also codifies the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s 2017 Lunn v. Commonwealth decision; bars new agreements allowing state and local officials to perform certain federal immigration enforcement functions; and preserves the Department of Correction’s existing partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“This bill prioritizes the safety of immigrants and all Massachusetts residents from the weaponization of the federal immigration enforcement by the Trump administration,” Senate conference chair Cindy Friedman said, describing a lengthy list of provisions included in the compromise.
Among them, she said, are new protections at “sensitive community locations,” a prohibition on new 287(g) agreements, restrictions on questioning people about immigration status during routine policing, new civil liability for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, oversight of immigration detention agreements, protections for victims of crime, and expanded safeguards for people held in state custody.
The conference committee was tasked with reconciling differences between bills the House and Senate approved this spring.
One of the most significant centered on where ICE officers could conduct warrantless civil immigration arrests. The House bill protected state courthouses, while the Senate extended those protections to additional settings.
Asked how legislators landed on the broader Senate approach, House conference chair Rep. Dan Cahill joked, “I lost.”
Friedman said evolving reports of immigration enforcement activity drove negotiators to expand the bill.
“The House created a bill that was very, very – it was real solid”, she said. “Once that was passed, though, lots of other information started to come out.”
“We started to see and hear about people going to pick up their kids in school and being taken off the streets, things happening in courthouses where ICE was coming into a courthouse and just picking somebody up while they were in the middle of a trial or there to be a victim,” she continued. “We started to look at how can we ensure protections in all the places that we have some control over.”
Responding to concerns about whether child care or health care providers would realistically be able to enforce those protections, Friedman said the compromise provides additional clarity.
“The concern is, if you’re faced with an ICE agent, you’re a childcare worker, what do you do?” she said. “I think the language has helped to clarify that and detail what happens in those situations.”
Negotiators also settled another divide over 287(g) agreements which authorize state or local law enforcement agencies to perform certain federal immigration enforcement actions.
The House bill would have allowed a limited pathway for new criminal-purpose agreements with state approval. The Senate version prohibited all new, expanded or renewed agreements.
According to the conferees, the compromise adopts the Senate’s approach by prohibiting new agreements while preserving the Department of Correction’s longstanding 287(g) partnership with ICE.
Asked why the existing DOC agreement remains intact, Cahill said lawmakers thought it reduced the likelihood that ICE would conduct enforcement operations in neighborhoods while searching for people already facing deportation after serving felony sentences.
“Those folks, there’s not much protection, if any, under any immigration laws to prevent ICE from deporting them,” Cahill said. Rather than requiring federal agents to locate those individuals after release, he said the existing agreement “allows a safe transfer of folks who are going to be faced with imminent deportation.”
He added that conferees were concerned about the broader enforcement tactics they said they observed.
“We don’t want ICE having to search for these folks in our communities… and we certainly don’t want them using it as an excuse to go and not only seek that individual, but anyone who happens to be around,” Cahill said.
Rep. Andy Vargas said preserving the DOC agreement was consistent with the original proposal developed by the Black and Latino Caucus after hearing concerns from immigrant communities.
“We heard feedback that, hey, they were coming to look for some guy that we knew committed a serious crime, but in looking for him, they picked up all these other people that just happened to be in the vicinity,” Vargas said.
The compromise also writes into statute principles established by the Supreme Judicial Court in Lunn v. Commonwealth, which held that Massachusetts officers lack the authority to detain someone solely based on a federal civil immigration detainer unless state law authorizes it.
Friedman said the bill goes beyond relying on court precedent by placing those limits directly in statute.
“Lunn was a court decision, and it basically clarified that it is not the role of state or local government to engage in immigration enforcement,” she said. “That is a federal responsibility.”
The legislation would also expressly prohibit officers from asking about a person’s immigration or citizenship status during routine traffic stops solely for immigration enforcement purposes.
Asked how that provision would be enforced, Friedman replied simply, “By law.”
The agreement requires formal acceptance by both branches before it can be sent to Gov. Maura Healey, who earlier Wednesday said the measure was “top of mind” and expressed hope it would reach her desk before the Legislature concludes scheduled formal sessions this week.
