Overall, public schools across Massachusetts — which has become a target of President Trump’s crackdown on immigration — lost over 15,000 students from fall 2024 to fall 2025, according to state data released in January. That brings total enrollment in the state to its lowest level in over three decades.
ICE
Posted inImmigration
It’s anyone’s guess when Beacon Hill will agree on an immigration response
Three weeks after both Gov. Maura Healey and the Black and Latino Legislative Caucus offered separate roadmaps for action, it’s still unclear how or when House and Senate Democrats will proceed amid national pressure to respond to ICE raids.
Posted inOpinion
What ICE is doing is abhorrent. But here’s why canceling the state contract to house its detainees might not be the right thing to do.
As with all policies, it is important not to make decisions from afar. We must listen to people who are actually impacted.
Posted inOpinion
Why are we looking to deport ambition?
These students are tomorrow’s nurses, engineers, teachers, artists, and entrepreneurs. Driving them from classrooms is a moral failure, but also an economic one: It makes the next generation smaller, less educated, and less able to compete in a global economy that depends on talent and drive. We are shooting ourselves in the foot.
Posted inEducation
Mass. faces grim reality of fewer international students
Massachusetts’s schools have recruited higher proportions of international students than colleges and universities almost anywhere else because of a demographic decline and the comparatively high cost of higher education here. But even before the second Trump administration, there were signs the bottom was falling out.
Posted inGovernment
Could the Trump administration’s border policies affect 2026 World Cup tourism in Massachusetts?
The World Cup could bring more than $1 billion in economic activity, and plenty of tourists, to Massachusetts. Here’s what some are worrying about as the soccer games are a year out.
Posted inState House News Service
Feds blame ‘sanctuary policies’ in Milford teenager’s immigration arrest
A Milford High School junior was not the target of a federal immigration enforcement investigation and his arrest was the byproduct of “sanctuary policies,” federal officials said.
Posted inImmigration
As ICE touts island arrests, Healey highlights ‘fear’ and ‘anxiety’
Gov. Maura Healey at an unrelated press conference Wednesday raised questions about due process and a lack of information about those arrested.
Posted inPolitics
‘Are you out of your mind?’: Five moments from Mayor Michelle Wu’s immigration testimony
Mayor Michelle Wu offered a forceful defense of the city’s decade-old Trust Act, a policy that limits Boston police cooperation with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, during a testy House Oversight hearing in Washington, DC, on Wednesday.
Posted inOpinion
We must push back on attack on sanctuary cities
Sanctuary policies do not prevent federal immigration enforcement; they simply keep local law enforcement focused on public safety rather than acting as ICE agents.
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics
Senate committee faults Hodgson for not admitting Chang-Diaz
A SENATE LEGISLATIVE oversight committee says the Bristol County sheriff’s office violated state law and its own policies and procedures when it denied Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz access to an immigration […]
Posted inUncategorized
Healey: Civil rights of ICE detainees violated
ATTORNEY GENERAL Maura Healey issued a report on Tuesday concluding that the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office violated the civil rights of immigrant detainees on May 1 when it engaged in […]
Posted inUncategorized
ICE arrests man in East Boston park
This story has been updated. FOUR AGENTS with Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested a man in an East Boston park on Tuesday morning. A video from a passerby shows ICE agents searching the […]
Posted inUncategorized
ICE questions, then releases, undocumented Lynn resident
AN UNDOCUMENTED Lynn resident reported voluntarily to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials on Friday and, to the surprise of his attorney, was allowed to leave. “I am so pleased. I’m […]
Posted inUncategorized
Groups seek to add immigrant driver’s license authorization to police bill
AS THE HOUSE GATHERS testimony on a policing reform bill passed earlier this week by the Senate, S.2820, some immigrant and worker groups are calling for the legislation to add language to […]
Posted inThe Download
Groups seek to add immigrant driver’s license authorization to police bill
As the House gathers testimony on a policing reform bill passed earlier this week by the Senate, S.2820, some immigrant and worker groups are calling for the legislation to add language […]
Posted inEconomy
In hard-hit Chelsea, COVID-19 fight a collaborative effort
Fourth in a series on municipal leaders across Massachusetts and how they’re contending with the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are previous stories on Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse, Pittsfield Mayor Linda Tyer, […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Immigrant detainees on hunger strike in RI
OVER 60 IMMIGRANT detainees at a federal detention center in Rhode Island are on their fourth day of a hunger strike, demanding to be released due to concerns over the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Health Care
Judge starts releasing ICE detainees during coronavirus spread concerns
A FEDERAL JUDGE on Friday ordered the release of three immigrant detainees being held by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Bristol County House of Correction to reduce the potential for the spread […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Judge asks for list of ICE detainees for potential release
A FEDERAL JUDGE stopped short of ordering the release of federal immigration detainees being held in the Bristol County House of Correction, but he urged officials not to send new […]