Campaign Action

“We applaud Sheriff Buckley for ending this unlawful agreement,” Oren Sellstrom, litigation director of Lawyers for Civil Rights, said in a statement received by Daily Kos. “287(g) agreements have long been maligned, locally and nationally, as a significant source of fear for immigrant communities, and as a drain on state resources.”

Lawyers for Civil Rights and Rights Behind Bars had previously sued over the policy on behalf of taxpayers, asking whether the Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office even had the authority to enter into a 287(g) agreement with ICE in the first place. Lawsuits and public pressure have helped bring an end to the agreements in the region. “As recently as 2021, there were three such agreements, but all have now been terminated as a result of lawsuits by LCR and RBB and related advocacy,” the statement said.

Buckley had unapologetically campaigned on ending this agreement if she won, saying colluding with ICE “is not the role of the Barnstable County sheriff,” and that the agreement “does not make Barnstable County safer.” There’s plenty of evidence that 287(g) agreements have actually only given shitty sheriffs the green light to be even shittier. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a report last year that ICE signed an agreement with a Maryland sheriff who threatened to shoot migrants moving to Frederick County. But it’s immigrants who we’re supposed to fear, right?

“Across the country, 287(g) agreements turn local police and sheriffs into de facto ICE agents,” ACLU of Massachusetts Executive Director Carol Rose told The Herald News. “The result is that even the most minor interactions with local law enforcement can lead to detention, deportation, and family separation.” While the agreements between area sheriff’s offices and ICE are finito, the organizations said that one commonwealth agency, the Massachusetts Department of Correction, still continues to hold a 287(g) contract.

“LCR and RBB call on incoming Governor Maura Healey to follow the lead of Sheriff Buckley and terminate this agreement,” the statement continued. “Having led Massachusetts’ efforts against anti-immigrant policies as attorney general, Governor Healey knows that entangling the state in federal immigration enforcement is divisive, costly, and undermines trust in law enforcement. She should take immediate steps to eliminate 287(g) agreements in Massachusetts entirely.”

Should Maura Healy move ahead with terminating these agreements—and she should—it would be following in the footsteps of the Obama administration, which took decisive action to begin winding down 287(g) agreements. “By the end of the Obama administration, only 34 local agencies remained in the program,” the ACLU said last year. But under the insurrectionist administration, the 287(g) program was “exponentially expanded,” the ACLU continued.

Moving ahead with terminating the agreement would also fall in line with voter sentiment in the commonwealth, where voters defeated both anti-immigrant Republican gubernatorial nominee Geoff Diehl and the GOP-led measure seeking to repeal state law opening driver’s licenses to eligible residents regardless of legal status. Massachusetts is saying that a welcoming commonwealth is the way forward—and it’s a winning strategy, too.

“This is an excellent result for immigrant communities in Massachusetts,” Oren Nimni, litigation director of Rights Behind Bars, said in the statement. “These unlawful agreements have purported to allow local sheriffs to engage in federal civil immigration enforcement activities, including arrest, interrogation, and transportation of immigrants—but sheriffs have no such power under Massachusetts law.”

RELATED STORIES:

‘Get me some of those taco eaters’: This ICE program empowers terrible sheriffs to be even worse

Immigrant communities describe ‘relief’ after Georgia sheriffs terminate ICE agreements

Immigrant families in Massachusetts win again, after GOP effort to repeal driver’s license law fails

Gabe Ortiz

Source link

You May Also Like

The GOP House brought all the chaos they promised in the first two weeks of their shaky majority

On Monday, Republicans passed a new rules package to govern the House for…

ICE immigration arrests and deportations in the U.S. interior increased in fiscal year 2022

Arrests and deportations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) increased in…

A utility giant’s hired gun says the quiet part out loud

Electricians install solar panels on a roof in Goodyear, Ariz.Matt York/AP This…

Nashville school shooting: Tennessee Rep. Burchett calls for release of trans shooter’s manifesto

FIRST ON FOX: Tennessee Republican Rep. Tim Burchett called for the manifesto…