Legislators for Cambridge and Somerville cheered passage Wednesday of the Protect Act in the House of Representatives. The bill responds to aggressive federal actions couched as border protection with defenses of due process and constitutional rights.
An Act Protecting Access to Justice comes “in response to the ongoing fascist ICE crackdown,” said state representative Mike Connolly on Saturday before heading to a No Kings protest in Boston. All House Democrats “and even a few moderate Republicans” voted in support, he said, and it was “meaningful for us as a commonwealth to move forward with broad consensus.”
The bill (in full, “an act promoting rule of law, oversight, trust, and equal constitutional treatment”) passed 134-21 and goes next to the Senate.
The legislation was praised by immigrant rights and civil rights advocates, but “to be sure, on a few of the provisions, I was pushing for us to go even further,” Connolly said.
In one of the videos she’s made to campaign for the 2nd Middlesex state Senate seat, representative Erika Uyterhoeven visited Somerville District Court to talk about the bill, praising it for doing what some deemed impossible – because the federal government controls immigration policy – while agreeing that “the bill isn’t perfect, but it’s a massive step in the right direction.”
The bill “reflects the needs of the people most impacted by federal immigration enforcement overreach,” state representative Marjorie Decker said on Friday.
When Somerville city councilors endorsed the bill March 12 with a visit from state representative Christine Barber and its author, state senator Lydia Edwards, the focused was on protecting access to Somerville District Court and other legal proceedings. The Protect Act forbids federal seizures of people involved in legal proceedings, responding to as many as 600 arrests last year by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Massachusetts courthouses.
In Connolly’s rundown of the bill’s main provisions, it also:
Bars the use of local resources for civil immigration enforcement.
Prohibits state and local law enforcement from executing, renewing or materially expanding a 287(g) agreement, which allows deputizing of state or local officials as ICE task force agents.
Prohibits law enforcement from asking about immigration status unless the inquiry is directly material to a specific criminal offense.
Prohibits the initiation of contact with ICE, which limits the sharing of nonpublic information and advance release notifications.
Protects immigrant workers by requiring that employers provide written notice to employees within 48 hours of getting a federal immigration inspection notice.
Strengthens protections for people in ICE detention such as by requiring an initial notice of legal rights in a person’s primary language and providing interpretation services for key interactions, guaranteeing confidential attorney-client communication, mandating the timely tracking of custody status and transfers with notice to counsel or designated contacts and ensuring access to court proceedings.
Reforms the certification process for victims of crime and human trafficking to remove roadblocks to securing a certain kind of visa.
Authorizes the governor to restrict civil immigration enforcement in nonpublic areas of state facilities such as schools and hospitals and requires multilingual guidance for agencies, private entities, law enforcement and the public.
Still on the wish list for progressives is ending the state’s 287(g) agreement, which means undocumented immigrants convicted of a felony in Massachusetts may still be turned over to federal agents.
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