New from CommonWealth Beacon
GROWTH ON ICE: Massachusetts population growth has slowed to a crawl – a combination of President Trump’s immigration policies and more people leaving the Bay State than coming in. Chris Lisinski reports on the economic implications of the slowdown.
CLIMATE CLASH: The Massachusetts chapter of the Sierra Club is making the unprecedented move of calling on House Speaker Ron Mariano to remove Rep. Mark Cusack as chair of the powerful energy committee, citing his legislative efforts to use Gov. Maura Healey’s energy affordability legislation as a vehicle to pull back on the state’s clean energy targets and energy efficiency program. Jordan Wolman has more.
OPINION: With more federal health care spending coming through discretionary funding, states will get priority based on meeting standards for optimal structuring of their health care delivery system. Massachusetts can improve its competitive position for funding by modernizing licensing rules for physician assistants, says Duncan Daviau, president of the Massachusetts Association of Physician Assistants.
January 28, 2026
By Jennifer Smith
Last year, as the Trump administration ramped up immigration enforcement and deportation efforts across American cities, Massachusetts’s top prosecutor warned that holding federal immigration agents “accountable” for their actions is a difficult task.
“The federal authority and laws that give them such power – they have tremendous power to enforce immigration law – so you almost have to see something so egregious to possibly hold them accountable,” Attorney General Andrea Campbell said on GBH radio.
Massachusetts was grappling at the time with the fallout from a chaotic US Immigration and Customs Enforcement action in Worcester, where local police tried to clear a crowd of people attempting to stop ICE from taking a woman into custody. Months later, communities were on high alert, and the governor was warning that deportation actions rocking Los Angeles and Chicago would come to Boston as a show of “political theater” intended to “intimidate and create fear.”
The country is now fixed on Minnesota, where an operation that has so far involved 3,000 arrests has resulted in the fatal shooting of two US citizens in Minneapolis. These sweeps have drawn sharp rebukes from Massachusetts officials – largely Democrats – calling for deescalation and a rollback of the aggressive immigration efforts.
Even as Gov. Maura Healey took aim at ICE during her State of the Commonwealth speech last week, the bottom line is that Massachusetts officials have more power to deplore federal immigration actions than to stop them.
So what can the Bay State do when immigration enforcement comes knocking? Here’s a primer on where state officials stand and what policies they are and aren’t pushing.
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EVERETT: Everett’s new mayor, who is just settling into office, is now tasked with implementing a flurry of major development deals put into motion as his predecessor was heading out the door. Hallie Claflin has the details.
OPINION: A Massachusetts data privacy bill under consideration in the Legislature would hamstring local businesses by installing undue restrictions on data collection, writes Shaun Spencer, associate dean for academic affairs and a professor of law at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth School of Law.
What We’re Reading
ENERGY: A federal judge is allowing Vineyard Wind to resume construction, the fourth loss in court for the Trump administration’s efforts to halt offshore wind projects. (The New Bedford Light)
HOUSING: A new report marking five years since the MBTA Communities zoning law finds modest improvement to the state’s ongoing housing crisis from nearly 7,000 new homes, mostly in the permitting stage, but it says further reforms are needed to make a dent in the housing crunch. (GBH News)
ENERGY: In response to Gov. Maura Healey’s ask that utilities to temporarily lower gas and electric bills by 10 percent in February and March, the utility companies plan to charge customers interest on those deferred costs. (WCVB)
TAXES: Boston homeowners are stuck in a tax fight between Mayor Michelle Wu and the state Senate, leaving residents facing a 13 percent tax hike this year — about $780 more on the average single-family home. (WBUR)
LAW ENFORCEMENT: Franklin County’s interim sheriff is defending spending civil process fees on office furnishings and parade expenses, as the state Legislature bears down on sheriffs’ office spending. (The Greenfield Recorder)
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