Massachusetts lawmakers consider actions to limit ICE

Tim Dunn, Boston Herald on Mar 19, 2026

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BOSTON — House members of the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security will have until Friday afternoon to vote in an internal poll on whether to advance legislation that would ban federal immigration officials from making civil arrests in Massachusetts courthouses, among other measures, with a formal vote expected in the coming weeks.

“Since the beginning of Trump’s second term, there’s been examples of ICE and Border Patrol agents harassing and disappearing people, circumventing due process. And contrary to everything that you hear that comes out of Washington, many of these people did not have a criminal record, which really compounded the problems in treating these people fairly. Because they would manufacture political records and criminal record,” said House Speaker Ron Mariano, a Democrat, before going on to admit that the Legislature is limited in what it can do to top federal immigration enforcement.

“We’re limited in what we can do. We can’t supersede federal laws. We can’t run the immigration program. But we can make sure, and we will make sure that everyone who sets foot in this Commonwealth that doesn’t have a criminal record is treated fairly and treated the same as any other person who was born in the state,” he said.

The Protect Act (H. 5158) would ban Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agents from making civil immigration arrests in Massachusetts courthouses unless supported by a warrant or court order. It would further ban ICE from using “state or local resources for the primary purpose of facilitating a federal civil immigration enforcement action.” The bill would ban the expansion of future 287(g) agreements — which allow for deputization of local authorities for federal immigration enforcement action — with ICE and would also ban Massachusetts police officers from providing information to federal agents on someone’s immigration status or the date they are to be released from custody.

“The public safety is better served and these people are treated more humanely when immigration enforcement can happen in the secure, controlled custodial settings like jails and courthouses, rather than have it happen out in the streets where arrests are far more unpredictable and more public and dramatic like we saw in Minneapolis,” Henry Barbaro, the executive director of the Massachusetts Coalition for Immigration Reform (MCIR), who testified against the legislation at a hearing Wednesday, told The Boston Herald.

“It puts immigration enforcement back out on the streets, which is more dangerous for everyone — the public, ICE officers, and migrants themselves,” he said.

Committee chair and state Rep. Dan Cahill, a Democrat, is backing the legislation, telling the Herald that the state’s ability to enforce the Protect Act becomes problematic outside the confines of the courthouse.

“Inside a courthouse, that’s purely state-run, and we pay for it, it’s our rules, our laws, it’s our building. We feel very comfortable that we could enforce this within the confines of a courthouse,” Cahill said.

“When you get out into the streets and beyond that, enforcement becomes problematic,” Cahill continued. “What we don’t want is for people to have a false sense of security or a false sense of hope. We try to be very practical, some would say brutally honest.”

The Herald also asked Cahill if Massachusetts would prosecute federal immigration agents if they violate the Protect Act.

“We leave that up to the Attorney General’s Office,” Cahill said. “I’m very confident that she’s done the tremendous jobs thus far, trying to protect Massachusetts residents, trying to enforce our laws, and we afford her the ability to continue to do a case-by-case basis, and I would leave that in her very, very capable hands.”

This comes after Gov. Maura Healey implied that she would be open to prosecuting federal agents who violate state law using information gathered by a new online portal she created with AG Andrea Campbell for Massachusetts residents to report “potentially unlawful” activity by agents conducting operations in the state.

“My job is to protect public safety here in Massachusetts and opening that portal is part of it, so that people have a way to communicate what they’re observing and if ICE agents are engaged and things are unlawful, then expect them to be held accountable,” Healey said.

The committee has so far held two public hearings on the legislation, where they heard testimony from immigrant advocacy groups, fellow state lawmakers, the attorney general’s office, and a group of Massachusetts sheriffs in support of the bill.

Cahill indicated that while House committee members participate in polling on the legislation that is due this week, a formal vote on whether to advance it to the Joint Ways and Means Committee should be expected in “the coming weeks.”