29-04-2025
Mass. GOP slams House's rejection of bill that would let cops partner with ICE
Massachusetts Republicans have sharply denounced the majority-Democrat state House after it rejected a series of GOP-authored measures that would have added significant immigration, housing and criminal justice policy changes to the fiscal year 2026 state budget.
Chief among them was language authored by state House Minority Leader Bradley H. Jones Jr., R-20th Middlesex, that would have allowed local cops and courts to cooperate with civil immigration detainer orders issued by federal authorities.
The action came as the lower chamber plowed through hundreds of amendments to its version of the annual state spending blueprint.
'Rather than endorse a commonsense approach to dealing with the spate of violent crimes committed by illegal immigrants harbored in Massachusetts, Democrats would rather bury their heads in the sand about a problem that continues to persist long after the migrant shelter crisis hit its high-water mark,' state Republlican Party Chairperson Amy Carnevale said in a statement.
A 2017 state Supreme Judicial Court ruling known as the 'Lunn Decision' limits how state and local law enforcement assist with federal immigration enforcement, according to the state branch of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Tuesday's House vote marks the second time in about a year that majority House Democrats have turned away Republican efforts to tweak state law.
The language rejected Tuesday would have, if approved, allowed an "employee of the commonwealth who holds police or sheriff powers who has lawful custody of a person to detain the person for up to 12 hours upon receipt of a written detention request from ICE and an administrative warrant for arrest or warrant for removal or deportation.'
In her statement, Carnevale said House Speaker Ronald J. Mariano, D-3rd Norfolk, and his fellow Democrats have a 'habit of adopting GOP proposals for immigration reform only after disastrous consequences and cost overruns.'
The latter is a reference to the House imposing limits on how long people can stay in Massachusetts' emergency shelter system.
'I hope Democratic leadership does not wait for even more violent tragedies to occur in our Commonwealth before they finally wake up to the crisis we're facing,' Carnevale said.
State House News Service reports are included in this story.
This is the word most commonly associated with Trump in his 2nd term
Boston prepares for fight after Trump signs order threatening sanctuary cities
Filing in R.I. case reveals EPA set to cancel nearly 800 environmental justice grants
Mass. schools boss: Immigration chill leading to 'extended absences'
Feds launch racial discrimination investigations targeting Harvard Law Review
Read the original article on MassLive.
