Healey offers guidance to protect students, patients, worshippers from ICE

Massachusetts is guiding schools and colleges on how to deny federal immigration enforcement access to nonpublic areas, advising healthcare facilities on how protect confidential health information, and working with places of worship on ways to interact with officers, as well as posting guidance on state property “to make really clear that ICE is to stay out,” Gov. Maura Healey said Thursday.

Legislative negotiations on immigrant protection legislation are happening simultaneously, alongside ongoing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement action nationwide and a dispute between Massachusetts and the Department of Justice, which filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the state for its refusal to provide federal agents with confidential license plates.

The guidance stems from an executive order the governor signed in January and “clarifies that administrative warrants issued by ICE or the Department of Homeland Security do not authorize entry into nonpublic spaces,” according to the Healey administration.

The guidance also encourages providers and organizations “to establish clear escalation procedures, identify public and nonpublic areas, protect confidential information and train staff on how to respond appropriately to interactions with federal immigration officers.”

“A lot of our colleagues don’t know what can we do and what can we not do? Until I think this moment, we’ve assumed that if someone shows up, if a law enforcement official shows up, that they know the rules and that we can trust that. What we found is that is just not true,” Rev. Mariama White-Hammond said, surrounded by other faith leaders, Health and Human Services Secretary Kiame Mahaniah, Sen. Cindy Friedman, La Collaborativa President and CEO Gladys Vega, and others.

The guidance recommends houses of worship designate “a primary point of contact” for interactions with federal immigration officials and clearly identify and mark public and nonpublic areas “including posting signage and defining any restrictions on access to buildings, parking areas or events,” the administration said.

“Political division has prohibited comprehensive immigration reform at the national level, while millions of people are impacted by uncertainty, lack of due process and the essentials needed to survive,” Bishop Cristiano Barbosa of the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston said. “As a civil society, we have a responsibility to preserve the dignity of all people, including those who are here out of desperation for their children and families. Whether an immigrant or not, places such as churches, schools, state courts and hospitals are essential to maintaining the common good for all people in a civil society.”

Places of worship are recommended to develop and disseminate written policies among personnel and worshipers, and demand a judicial warrant or court order before enabling federal entry into nonpublic areas. 

“This is real. People are afraid to go to church. People are afraid to worship. We have reports from our healthcare centers that people are afraid to go,” Healey said at a news conference. “They’re afraid to go to court.”

The rollout guides higher education institutions, schools and child care centers to route interactions with federal immigration officers through administrators or trained staff, according to the administration. It also guides them to require legal review of warrants or requests for access before taking action, and decline access to nonpublic areas including classrooms, offices and dorms, unless presented with a judicial warrant or order. 

The guidance also informs hospitals and healthcare centers on how to protect patient health information and suggests they establish “escalation and communication pathways for staff to follow” if federal officers arrive on site, and to document interactions. 

Asked by a reporter how a “clash” between ICE and local law enforcement would play out, Healey said, “I would hope that the federal agents and the federal agency that they work through, and those who run that agency, and those who those agency heads report to, would respect the rule of law here in Massachusetts.”

“Should they not do that, that will be immediately reported to the attorney general’s office and to our office, and appropriate action will be taken,” Healey continued. “But, you know, my message today is I’m trying to be preventative of further harm.”

Her executive order barred federal immigration officers from making civil arrests in nonpublic areas of state facilities “except as authorized by a judicial warrant or judicial order.” It also stated that state facilities can’t be used by federal immigration officers to facilitate civil immigration enforcement efforts. 

Lawmakers are in the midst of negotiating House and Senate versions of the so-called PROTECT Act, an immigrant protection proposal initially drafted by the Black and Latino Legislative Caucus that gained momentum following waves of federal immigration law enforcement activities.

The caucus on May 8 urged “a legally-durable resolution” ahead of the World Cup and other events “that bring global attention to our region.” 

Asked if the World Cup is a factor in announcing the guidelines, Healey said, “I don’t think these things are tied together at all. It just happens to work out that way.” 

She said she’s “glad” the PROTECT Act is “working its way through the Legislature, and I look forward to reviewing that and signing that.” 

“We have been working incredibly hard, a lot of coordination among state and local and federal law enforcement when it comes to the World Cup and ensuring a safe World Cup here in New England,” Healey said. “That’s why these kinds of tactics, they distract from the important work of federal agencies, they distract from and undermine the legitimate and very important work of law enforcement.” 

Healey continued, “There’s no place for ICE at the World Cup, so they shouldn’t even be part of this conversation about the World Cup.”

Healey also commented on the lawsuit filed against Massachusetts — alongside Maine, Washington and Oregon — by the Department of Justice challenging “their unconstitutional policies denying confidential license plates to federal agents.” 

Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate wrote in a May 12 letter to Healey that the RMV “is refusing to issue confidential/undercover registration and license plates to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and are issuing them to Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) only after they certify that the vehicles will only be used in criminal investigations.”

“By contrast, the RMV continues to issue such plates without restrictions to other federal, state, and local agencies. This discriminatory policy is not only deeply dangerous as a matter of public safety but also blatantly unlawful as a matter of constitutional law. It should be immediately withdrawn,” Shumate wrote. “Massachusetts’s RMV policies undermine ongoing investigations and put federal law enforcement officers at risk of harm.” 

Healey’s Chief Legal Counsel Jesse Boodoo wrote a letter to Shumate denying the plates on May 22, calling the RMV’s confidential registration program policy “lawful, proper, and fully within the sovereign power and discretion of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.”

Healey said Thursday that “they want us to give ICE confidential license plates so they can operate in secret in Massachusetts.”

“I have a message for ICE: not in Massachusetts,” Healey continued. “We support law enforcement doing legitimate law enforcement work. That’s not what we’re seeing from ICE, so we’re not going to help them operate in secret, as they take people off our streets without cause.”

Healey also called the potential for the Department of Homeland Security to limit flights into so-called sanctuary cities “dumb.”

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Tuesday on Fox News that his department is “currently drawing up plans” that would restrict international flights into “sanctuary cities, where the local, radical left Democrats aren’t allowing us to do our job and enforce federal laws.” He was commenting on protests that occurred outside of a Newark ICE detention facility on Memorial Day.

“A quarter of the travelers into Logan Airport are foreign,” Healey said. ”This is a major hit to any state’s economy. And Massachusetts is not a sanctuary state. I don’t know how many times I need to say this.”