“For the past several weeks, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have been entering some of our communities and arresting residents. ICE has stated that they are prioritizing the removal of people who pose a threat to public safety. However, increasingly, ICE is arresting bystanders with no criminal record and removing so-called ‘collaterals’ without regard to the impact on our communities.” 

  “Immigrant residents who live in our communities are vital members of our Commonwealth who help to create the vibrancy that we celebrate.” 

  “ These are examples of practices that we are seeing reports of in some of our communities:     

• ICE agents have detained residents because they looked like someone who could or “should” be detained. This raises questions of whether ICE is engaging in racial profiling.  

• ICE comes into some of our communities at times without any notice, detains individuals, and then sends them to another jurisdiction without providing any information.  

• ICE agents are breaking into vehicles without a judicial warrant. ” 

 “Our residents are impacted deeply by these actions. Families are frightened to leave their homes to go to school, medical appointments, workplaces, or church. These actions are fomenting distrust between residents and local law enforcement officials, which further erodes public safety and destabilizes our communities. These actions and some accompanying statements conflating all immigrants with violent criminals stigmatize an entire group of people based on ethnicity, race, or origin, putting them and others at increasing risk of harm or possibly the violation of their rights. ”  

 “We believe that these ICE actions are jeopardizing public safety, and we urge the U.S. Attorney’s Office to immediately investigate these practices for constitutional violations and ensure that ICE makes public their policies regarding how individuals are targeted, due process, and use of force.” 

 “We know that these ICE actions are spurring fear and anger, which is increasing the number of demonstrations and protests in our communities. We call on everyone in the Commonwealth to peacefully exercise their freedom of speech and to respect the role of law enforcement in maintaining public order.” 

Mayor Michelle Wu, City of Boston

Chas Carey, Town of Brookline 

Yi-An Huang, City of Cambridge 

Fidel Maltez, City of Chelsea 

Mayor Carlo DeMaria, City of Everett 

Mayor Jared Nicholson, City of Lynn 

Mayor Gary Christenson, City of Malden

Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn, City of Medford 

Mayor Jen Grigoraitis, City of Melrose

Mayor Ruthanne Fuller, City of Newton

Mayor Patrick Keefe, City of Revere 

Mayor Dominick Pangallo, City of Salem 

Mayor Katjana Ballantyne, City of Somerville 

Mayor Joseph Petty, City of Worcester