People summoned to Somerville and Cambridge district courts, and others throughout the state, would be protected from seizure by federal agents under a law being considered on Beacon Hill. Somerville city councilors on Thursday became the first in the state to vote in support.
“I’ve seen ICE posted up in the parking lot of that courthouse many times,” said councilor Jesse Clingan, who catches the train daily near Somerville District Court in Assembly Square. (Medford and Woburn have hosted Cambridge court proceedings since 2008.) Clingan clarified later that detentions by agents that he’s seen at the courthouse took place in years past, before recent news reports.
As many as 600 arrests by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents did take place in Massachusetts courthouses last year, said Christine Barber, state representative for the 34th Middlesex District of Somerville and Medford. She is one of the co-sponsors of An Act Protecting Access to Justice, which would forbid federal seizures of people involved in legal proceedings, and she appeared at the council meeting to speak in support with its author, state senator Lydia Edwards.
“Access to courts is not a privilege. It is the cornerstone of our democracy,” Barber said, describing her visit Wednesday to a domestic violence nonprofit to talk with survivors “who are not seeking protective orders because they are scared to go into court. This is real, and it’s happening in our community. Witnesses are afraid to testify.”
Barber has been supported by the council for her Dignity Not Deportations bill, which stops local and state police from being deputized as ICE agents.
Bill goes further
Edwards’ bill would require a judicial warrant for an arrest on courthouse grounds. It “goes further than any version of the court protections that we have pending right now and also protects people going to court – on their way to court, as well as on their way home from court,” the senator said. Its provisions cover everyone from family members to witnesses and attorneys, enforces proper identification of federal agents and forbids the wearing of masks in the courthouse unless for health reasons.
“It is a horrific time that we’re in,” Edwards said, thanking Somerville for becoming “the first city that would be standing for this particular bill.”
The courthouse bill is expected to get a Judiciary Committee hearing at the end of March or start of April, Edwards said. The governor has a separate executive order requiring judicial warrants for more state properties.
Case affects Cambridge
A Cambridge family was mourning this week in a related case. Emanuel Cleeford Damas, 56, died in federal custody March 2 at a hospital in Scottsdale, Arizona – taken there from an ICE detention facility where he suffered “shortness of breath,” according to a March 6 detainee death notification. Damas, a Haitian, was arrested Sept. 14 on charges of assault and battery. A child of his attends a Cambridge school, Cambridge vice mayor Burhan Azeem said Thursday.
Instead of letting Damas go to court, agents took him from a Boston jail the next day to Arizona. They cited the Laken Riley Act, “which mandates the detention of individuals with pending immigration cases who pose a risk to public safety,” ICE said. Damas, whose charges were related to domestic violence, is at least the seventh prisoner of ICE who has died this year, Phoenix media reported.
Looking for accountability
Somerville councilor Will Mbah wondered whether the Edwards bill would change anything. “I’ve not heard about one ICE agent that has been held accountable for all this stuff that they’ve been doing,” he said to the state legislators.
Edwards said the Massachusetts attorney general would pursue an injunction to enforce the law if it passes. She pointed also to a bill introduced by state senator Will Brownsberger that would let people sue “anybody acting under the color of law” – including ICE agents – and sue them individually for damages. That bill too is headed for the Judiciary Committee, Edwards said.
Brownsberger represents the Suffolk and Middlesex District, which includes the cities of Watertown and Belmont and parts of Cambridge and Boston.