By Adam Swift
The national battle over immigration policies has taken a sizable human toll in Chelsea.
Over the past month, actions by federal immigration officials in the city have made headlines across the state. Three weeks ago, three teens were arrested by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officials outside the Chelsea police department as they were released by police after being detained for allegedly firing pellet guns.
Chelsea City Manager Fidel Maltez and Police Chief Keith Houghton were among those who took part in a community meeting to address federal immigration actions in the city on Monday.
On Mother’s Day, a Chelsea father was arrested by ICE officials after leaving church. Video obtained by Telemundo showed ICE agents forcibly removing the man from his car and wrestling him to the ground while several family members were still in the car.
While those stories and videos made the local newscasts, several city officials stated that many Chelsea residents remain fearful every day about what will happen to them or their family members because of their immigration status.
The actions have also raised questions from residents about the role the police department, state, and local officials play in enforcing immigration policies. As a sanctuary city, Chelsea police do not enforce ICE policies or assist them with arrests, however, they cannot obstruct immigration actions.
Last week, the police department released a statement seeking to clarify its role when federal law enforcement agencies, including ICE, are present at the station while releasing individuals from its custody.
“The Chelsea Police Department does not participate in civil immigration enforcement and does not notify federal agencies of an individual’s release,” the statement read. “All persons taken into custody on criminal charges are, by law, fingerprinted, and those fingerprints are immediately entered into state and federal databases as part of the standard booking process. These databases automatically generate alerts to relevant federal law enforcement agencies if the individual is of interest to them.”
However, the statement continued, when a federal agency is physically present at the time of an individual’s release, the sole role of the Chelsea Police Department is to coordinate a safe and orderly transfer to ensure the safety of all parties involved.
“We also affirm our legal obligations under Massachusetts law,” police stated. “As established in Commonwealth v. Lunn (2017), local law enforcement does not have the authority to detain individuals solely on the basis of federal immigration detainers or non-judicial (civil or administrative) warrants. Once an individual has met the legal conditions for release under state law, they are free to leave immediately from the custody of the Chelsea Police Department.”
The department further stated that it is firmly committed to conducting all operations in a manner that is lawful, professional, and respectful of the rights of every person it serves, regardless of immigration status.
On Monday, police and city officials, including Police Chief Keith Houghton and City Manager Fidel Maltez took part in a community meeting at local social justice nonprofit La Colaborativa to discuss community response to the immigration activity in Chelsea.
In addition to its status as a sanctuary city, Chelsea has also filed a lawsuit, along with Somerville, against the Trump administration over its national immigration policies.
“We know that Chelsea police need to be focused on keeping Chelsea safe, we know that the community needs to trust the police, and we know that when the community doesn’t trust Chelsea police, it makes our community less safe,” said Maltez. “Folks are not going to report cases of domestic violence, residents are not going to seek help when they need help. We have worked really hard at establishing the relationship that we have with the community and Chelsea police; our police officers are from Chelsea, our firefighters are from Chelsea, we know that the way that you do policing is through direct community engagement and building community together.”
With the recent federal immigration actions in the city, Maltez said it can be hard for residents to differentiate the federal officers from local police.
“Folks are afraid, they see a police vehicle – are they going to come for me for my immigration status?” he said.
Maltez pointed to the ICE detainment of the teens outside of the police station several weeks ago as an incident that can erode the trust between police and community.
“Something we shared (at the community meeting Monday) is that unfortunately, there is nothing Chelsea police can do to stop the enforcement of immigration,” said Maltez. “We cannot hinder or stop or divert an operation from ICE. If we were to do that, we would be held criminally responsible for obstructing the investigation, and unfortunately, that is not something that we can afford to do as a city, nor can we afford as a police department.”
Last week, U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Leah Foley released a statement claiming that “interference with ICE operations around Massachusetts has been disturbing, to say the least.”
Foley said any alleged interference poses significant public and officer safety risks.
“It is conduct that should be vilified rather than glorified,” Foley claimed. “I will not stand idly by if any public official, public safety officer, organization or private citizen acts in a manner that criminally obstructs or impedes ICE operations. The United States Attorney’s Office, along with our federal partners, will investigate any violations of federal law and pursue charges that are warranted by such activity.”
Maltez said the city is caught in a hard spot when it comes to ensuring the safety of the community.
“We don’t support these (federal immigration) activities,” Maltez said. “We certainly think that the way that ICE is going about their business is not fair, it is not just. I personally wish there was more that we can do.”
City Councillor-at-Large Roberto Jimenez-Rivera agreed that the city needs to be getting out the word about how the local police department is limited in what it can do in response to ICE activity in Chelsea.
“I think right now, the biggest piece at the local level is that there is a lot of uncertainty for folks and I think we need to find a way for the city’s message to reach more people, so that people can understand the differences between federal agents more broadly, because it is not just immigration at this point, and Chelsea police,” said Jimenez-Rivera.
The councillor said there should be an understanding of what it means when the city and police mean when they state that they do not collaborate with ICE.
“Not collaborating does not mean that there are no interactions,” Jimenez-Rivera said. “I think that is an area where we need to identify how we can better or best communicate that to people so that (they) can be well informed about what all this actually means and how they can avoid putting themselves where they or their families could be at risk.”
Jimenez-Rivera was one of several local elected officials who signed a letter addressed to Governor Maura Healey to advocate for greater action counteracting ICE on the state level. The letter amplifies the demands of LUCE Immigrant Justice Network of Massachusetts, a coalition of immigrant-led, grassroots organizations who have been on the ground supporting the most vulnerable with rapid response to ICE operations throughout the Commonwealth.
Other Chelsea elected officials who signed the letter include councilors Tanairi Garcia and Lisa Santagate and school committee members Sarah Elizabeth Neville, Jonathan Gomez-Pereira, and Kati Cabral, Chelsea School Committee.
“Federal agents have confirmed an organized escalation across the Commonwealth during the month of May, which will result in too many of our neighbors being kidnapped by this rogue agency,” the letter to Healey states. “We need you to commit to your promises and stand by our immigrant communities now to intervene to stop ICE and their systemic abuses of due process and basic human rights in Massachusetts.”
Elected officials from Acton-Boxborough, Waltham, and Worcester also signed the letter.
In a recent interview with Boston25 News, Trump border czar stated that there is “no sensitive location policy anymore. We did away with that. There is no sanctuary for criminal threats or public safety threats or national security threats, no sanctuary.”
While Healey has stated that Massachusetts is not a sanctuary state, in the interview, Homan said he gets reports every week of public safety threats released from counties within that state without notifying ICE, adding that he would return to Massachusetts and ICE would “flood the zone.”
Jimenez-Rivera said the governor and the administration should be doing more to protect the state, and that when they stand by, cities like Chelsea and Worcester take the brunt of the punishment from ICE and other federal agencies.
“I think that the state needs to do better,” said JImenez-Rivera. “Right now, Chelsea is taking it to the face, and we’re bearing the brunt of this, and it is because we have chosen a set of policies that protect our residents in a way that the state has chosen not to. It has been incredibly frustrating to see the administration essentially stay quiet at a time when our community needs to to stand up.
“If we were to pass policy at the state level that mirrored policy we have done at the local level, we would have some of that pressure taken off of us and other communities.”