A 24-hour immigration emergency hotline and on-call city liaison is proposed for Cambridge after an after-hours crisis emerged Wednesday involving “escalating interactions with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents,” said mayor E. Denise Simmons in a policy order to be considered Monday.
Simmons was almost a no-show at a Wednesday political forum held by the housing advocacy group A Better Cambridge, appearing only at the end to explain why she’d been missing: “As I was preparing to come over here, I got a call about a situation with one of our families. [It] has been ensnared in a fast-evolving situation with Ice and was placed in contact with my office just recently – this evening, just before the forum started,” Simmons said.
“We’re living in some very dark times right now, and unfortunately, those dark times are getting closer and closer to our front door,” Simmons said, explaining later that she found the parents of a Cambridge Rindge and Latin School student were “wearing Ice-issued ankle monitors, had their visas confiscated and were facing imminent risk of detention and deportation, all without access to clear guidance or rights-based information.”
With other officials told of the problem and De Novo legal services brought in, Simmons said work went into the night to help the family, “working as hard as we can, as fast as we can.”
The incident exposed “serious after-hours operational gaps” in the city’s emergency response infrastructure with regard to immigration enforcement cases, she said, citing the lack of clear protocols for triaging and escalating Ice-related emergencies outside of normal business hours; access to interpreters on evenings or weekends; a centralized directory of legal and community-based organizations with after-hours availability; and “legal guidance for interacting with families under federal surveillance, particularly those who may be facing imminent detention.”
The order asks the city manager to work with her office as well as the Commission on Immigrant Rights & Citizenship, the city solicitor, police and other stakeholders to evaluate and implement recommendations such as the hotline, a liaison to direct aid efforts and a vetted interpreter network.
“As Cambridge always does, we will stand in solidarity,” Simmons said, telling the forum audience, “I am going to ask that you give us space to work with this family. Hold them as tightly as we can.”
More information may be forthcoming from her office, she said.
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Actually, there are organizations available to support such situations. The Boston Immigration Justice and Accompaniment Network (BIJAN: https://www.beyondbondboston.org/getsupport) and the community watch group LUCE (hotline # 617-370-5023) together provide court accompaniment, bond funds, mutual aid, and community education. Both have hotlines, which the city eventually accessed.
The community doesn’t need another police-involved service that provides selective safety. The city just needs to know where to find the community resources that the community has built.
It sounds like no one knew what to do.. So there should be a protocol ready for action.
Below is the proposed policy order, edited to fit. Some of this may overlap with other resources
· Create a Designated 24-Hour Immigration Emergency Hotline for City staff, staffed by trained professionals or contracted experts who can walk City staff through appropriate … protocols;
· Develop a Vetted Interpreter Network, including after-hours and weekend availability…
· Assemble a Centralized Legal and Community Response Directory of immigration attorneys, advocacy groups, and mutual aid prepared to assist in after-hours detention or deportation risk cases;
· Establish Internal Protocols for Handling ICE-Related Incidents, outlining who to notify, how to document interactions, how to communicate with affected families ..
· Designate an On-Call City Liaison to serve as a centralized point of contact and coordination during after-hours emergencies;
It is concerning to me that the mayor’s office does not know that city staff have access to a 24hr phone interpretation system. Or is the request for the general public?