Cambridge and Somerville joined a number of Boston-area cities to restrict Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity on city property, including saying that police could intervene if ICE agents were deemed to use unreasonable force.
Cambridge City Manager Yi-An Huang signed an executive order on Thursday, while Somerville mayor Jake Wilson did so Friday morning. It’s Wilson’s first such order since being inaugurated as mayor last month.
“Where these executive orders are coming from is seeing the excesses and the abuses that are happening in Minneapolis and in Maine,” Huang told Cambridge Day. “There are limited things that we can do as local government, but there are some things that we can control, and it’s important to be standing together and also be really clear with federal agencies that that the way they’re acting is not okay.”
While Cambridge has declared itself a sanctuary city for over 40 years, this is the first time a policy has been passed that specifically barred immigration enforcement from city property. Huang emphasized that in the past Cambridge has been willing to work with federal law enforcement agencies in on criminal cases related to drug, sex, and human trafficking, but that “there is such distrust now” over whether civil immigration enforcement can be done safely.
Wilson said in a statement shared with Cambridge Day that “America’s cities and towns deserve to be safe from the federal overreach, chaos, and cruelty unfolding in Minneapolis, and all of us deserve to have our rights protected and the rule of law upheld. It’s clearly up to Congress, states, and local officials to pursue all lawful means to ensure that Minneapolis does not become a nightmarish harbinger for the nation as a whole.”
City-owned property off-limits
Cambridge and Somerville joined Boston, Chelsea, Lynn and Newton in issuing executive orders restricting ICE activities on city property and establishing safeguards for residents.
Both the Cambridge and Somerville orders state that federal immigration activity may not be conducted on city-owned property, including both buildings and outdoor space.
Should that occur, they also both state that local police will respond to the scene. If local police in either city identify individuals as ICE, they’ll document the activity and work to de-escalate the situation, the orders state.
If ICE is deemed to use unnecessary force, local police will also “intervene to prevent the observed officials’ use of unnecessary or unreasonable force, regardless of the rank of the observed official or the agency for which the official works,” unless doing so would result in harm to the intervening officer or others, both statements read.
In response to a question about whether local police could be authorized to arrest ICE agents, Cambridge spokesperson Jeremy Warnick told Cambridge Day, “If a federal agent were to commit a clear and observable violation of Massachusetts criminal law, and Cambridge Police officers have legal authority and jurisdiction, officers may respond as they would in any other criminal matter.”
Huang said he was confident that Cambridge police are prepared “to find that balance between people’s First Amendment rights, their right to assemble and hold a protest and be heard, and also to uphold the public safety.”
The city of Somerville was unable to share additional comment regarding the city’s planned response to ICE activity, Somerville spokesperson Grace Munns told Cambridge Day Friday. As of the time of publication, Somerville had not clarified whether officers were authorized to arrest federal immigration officers.
Both orders state that all incidents of ICE misconduct will be investigated, including in collaboration with the Massachusetts Attorney General and Middlesex District Attorney.
Questions around the scope of local response capabilities remain. ICE agents have been documented to have conducted arrests while wearing masks, plainclothes, and using unmarked vehicles, including when detaining Somerville resident Rumeysa Ozturk last March. These measures may limit police’s ability to identify ICE agents.
Public spaces, “reasonable limits”
The city plans to use signage to distinguish properties owned by the city where such enforcement is now banned. While many of these spaces are usually open to the general public, the city government is allowed to put reasonable limits on how they are used.
“It’s difficult to restrict pure access if somebody is passing through. But you would not allow, for instance, a private concert to set up for their band in a municipal parking lot. There would have to be some sort of permission given,” said Huang, citing the city’s “regulatory authority.”
Additionally, “Community members who believe they observe ICE activity are encouraged to call 9-1-1 immediately; a prompt local police response is important assess the scene and ensure safety,” reads the executive order.
In the event that there is a surge in ICE within Cambridge, Huang said the city must prepare for every scenario but doesn’t expect ICE and CPD to get in each other’s way.
“I think there is actually a more nuanced encounter that is going to happen than the worst case [scenario where] we have two agents with guns that are disagreeing with each other,” Huang said. “I would expect that federal agents that are encountering local police officers are going to be respectful and are going to explain themselves.”
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They could, but they won’t, because cops and ICE agents are on the same side.
I presume that by these orders it means that the Police WILL intervene if ICE attacks protestors who are clearly on city property (including Parks etc.) physically or with restricted weapons such as tear gas, pepper spray etc. or making arrest of such, as well as preventing ICE from carrying out racial profile arrests or violating state law in regards to smashing into businesses and homes without a Judicial warrant (rather than an administrative warrant as they have done in MN etc.)
If not then we need a lot more clarification as to what the order is in these regards.
As has been said by Resident above, the idea that CPD would act in defense of the community they putatively “serve and protect” is risible. You will find Cambridge cops shooting a young man experiencing a mental health crisis or tear-gassing an entire building to subdue one individual before you will see a single cop acting in defense of the vulnerable.