As the Trump Administration attempts to move forward with its plans for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, Plymouth Police Chief Dana Flynn says his department will adhere to state law in deciding when to assist federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. That means it generally won’t cooperate with ICE officials unless there is a court-ordered warrant for a person’s arrest.
Flynn said that over the past few weeks he has been asked what role the Plymouth Police Department plays in helping ICE agents arrest immigrants. State law “prohibits local law enforcement officers from enforcing civil immigration detainers,” he said in a press release.
“In other words,” Flynn continued, “the Plymouth Police will not take people into custody based solely on their immigration status, nor will we hold people in custody or delay the bail process for individuals arrested for an unrelated crime whose immigration status is in question.”
Police will, however, enforce criminal warrants issued by a court against an undocumented immigrant, Fynn noted. Local officers may also help federal agents arrest immigrants when asked to do so and share criminal justice information with federal agencies “to the extent allowed by law.”
It’s unknown how many undocumented immigrants live and work in Plymouth, according to town communications coordinator Casey Kennedy.
“We do not have an exact count of how many undocumented immigrants are currently in Plymouth,” Kennedy said in an email.
Flynn’s comments echo those made repeatedly by Governor Maura Healey.
“Massachusetts law enforcement, state and local, continue to work with federal law enforcement when it comes to the investigation and the prosecution and the apprehension of criminals,” Healey told the New York Times earlier this month.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in 2017 that local law enforcement officials cannot hold a person wanted solely for violation of immigration laws. Under state law, those violations are not considered criminal offenses.
“Law enforcement does not, in Massachusetts, have the statutory authority to hold someone on a civil immigration detainer,” said Amy Grunder, director of state government affairs for the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. “Deportation efforts are civil in nature. It’s not a crime to be in the country without legal authorization.”
Grunder said state and local law enforcement officers also may not detain someone for an immigration violation when they are eligible for bail or to be released on personal recognizance, or when their sentence has ended.
“If they hold someone beyond that time, that, in fact, is a second arrest, and it’s [an] arrest for a civil immigration violation, which they don’t have authority” to do in Massachusetts, Grunder said.
Boston has similarly banned such cooperation with ICE. In 2014, then-Mayor Marty Walsh signed an ordinance prohibiting Boston police officers from asking people about their immigration status, sharing information with ICE, making arrests based solely on ICE administrative warrants, and transferring people to ICE custody.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu last week defended the ordinance during a marathon grilling by Republican members of Congress.
Tom Honan, President Trump’s “border czar,” has threatened to come to Boston and “bring hell” with him.
Grunder said the Trump Administration is trying to leverage local and state law enforcement in making immigration arrests because ICE does not have the personnel to carry out deportations in the numbers promised by President Trump during his campaign and since he took office in January.
Fred Thys can be reached at fred@plymouthindependent.org.