GBH Daily: How local law enforcement talk to ICE

🌧️A few snowflakes, then rain, with highs around 38. Sunset is at 5:22 p.m.

This week, diplomats from the U.S. and Iran have continued negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, and yesterday President Donald Trump said “bad things happen” if the countries can’t reach what he called “a meaningful deal.” Members of Congress from Massachusetts are speaking out against any potential attacks.

“Bombing Iran is not going to do anything to improve the quality of life for the people in Iran, it’s not gonna do anything to provide security for the region — in fact it will be the opposite,” Rep. Jim McGovern of Worcester said.

U.S. Rep. Bill Keating, who represents the Cape and parts of the South Coast, told GBH’s Adam Reilly he’s worried about the long-term effects: “You have to ask if he did something like this, is he clear about the day after? It could result in chaos, it could result in a civil war, it could result in a hardening against the U.S., and it could be the inheritors of power would be the military, particularly the Iran Revolutionary Guard.”

Four Things to Know

1. The person in charge of Gov. Maura Healey’s housing affordability policies, Secretary Ed Augustus, is stepping down from his position as the head of the state’s Housing and Livable Communities office a week from today. He’s been on the job since shortly after Healey created the office in 2023, and is leaving to take a job as CEO of UniBank in the Central Massachusetts community of Whitinsville.

Taking his place is former State Rep. Juana Matias. Matias represented Lawrence in the Massachusetts House from 2017 to 2018, ran for Congress and served as New England regional administrator of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development from 2022 to 2025. “Massachusetts is already seeing more housing development across the state, Matias said. “We must continue increasing production while preserving affordability.”

2. The Boston Fleet’s Megan Keller is coming home with an Olympic gold in women’s hockey, having scored the winning goal in overtime in Team USA’s game against Canada. This is the second gold medal for Keller, captain of Boston’s Professional Women’s Hockey League team. (We have video of her winning goal, which GBH’s Esteban Bustillos described as “one of the nastiest moves you’ll ever see on the ice.”)

“It’s the best team I’ve been a part of,” Keller said after the 2-1 victory. “It’s been an honor to represent this country with the group of girls that we have….Every single player is, to me, top tier, best in the world. And so to get the chance to play with them has been really special. And not only that, I think off of the ice, the bond that we’ve created as a group, we’re really a family and I think that showed tonight.”

3. In the wake of civil rights leader and former presidential candidate Jesse Jackson’s death earlier this week, Bostonians who worked in politics and journalism shared memories from the 1988 presidential campaign, in which Jackson ran against former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis. Dukakis ultimately won the Democratic nomination but lost the general election to then-Vice President George H.W. Bush.

Jackson and Dukakis wanted some of the same things, but had different backgrounds, styles and ways of doing things. “They wanted America to get to the same place,” said Michael Frisby, a reporter who covered the Jackson campaign for the Boston Globe. “Good jobs for working people. Basically for racial harmony. Basically for equity. … They just weren’t able to click.”

4. Since winter isn’t over yet, the Massachusetts Department of Conservation & Recreation and local nonprofits are hosting adaptive cross-country skiing and other outdoor cold-weather activities. They have sit-skis, walkers with skis affixed to the bottom, and other equipment modified so more people can enjoy the activities. Here’s what it looks like on the cross-country skiing track. 

“It’s a very welcoming environment,” said Marcy Marchello, DCR’s universal access program coordinator. “You are accepted. You belong. You are who you are, you come as you are and you’re integrated into a wonderful activity.” DCR and the nonprofit Waypoint Adventure are hosting an adaptive cross-country skiing day at the Leo J. Martin Ski Track in Weston on Wednesday. You can find a full schedule of adaptive winter activities here.

Some local police, sheriff and DA offices are communicating often with ICE, records show

The nonprofit Citizens for Juvenile Justice filed more than 60 public records requests with police departments, sheriff’s offices and district attorneys across Massachusetts to try and answer a question: how does local law enforcement communicate with federal immigration authorities?

They shared their documents with GBH’s Sarah Betancourt, who brings us a few examples. In short: local law enforcement officers in Massachusetts are communicating with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement more than they’ve previously said they are. Most of the communications don’t violate state or local laws, but they can still have ramifications for immigrants, local communities and the justice system.

Suffolk County: Last April Stephen Majeski, an ICE deportation officer, sent the Suffolk County sheriff’s office an email requesting a “list of all sentenced inmates in the facility.” Chief administrative assistant Elizabeth Conley responded with a full list 12 minutes later. A spokesperson for the Suffolk sheriff’s office declined to say if anyone on the list was later taken into federal custody.

“In the service of maintaining professional working relationships as we do with all of our fellow law enforcement agencies, the department attempts to respond to all such requests in a timely fashion,” spokesperson Peter Van Delft said. He added that the sheriff’s office “adheres to federal, state and local law in relation to [2017 legal case] Lunn v Commonwealth, which clearly states that state and local law enforcement agencies are legally prohibited from arresting or detaining people based solely on the existence of an ICE detainer.”

Katy Naples-Mitchell, program director of the Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management at Harvard Kennedy School, who works pro bono representing people at the Suffolk House of Correction, said she recently saw a family who came to the jail to bail out a loved one only to have that person taken by ICE officers after their family paid to release them. “Their loved one never came out. Because instead, ICE had been alerted by the jail that this person was releasable, and so immediately upon the bail having been paid — making the person released from state custody — ICE enacted their federal detainer, and took the person into federal custody,” Naples-Mitchell said. “They were disappeared behind the jail.”

Hampden County: A district attorney in Springfield District Court sent an ICE deportation officer an email in February of 2025. She said she was prosecuting a man accused of soliciting a 15-year-old child for sex and found out the man was not in the U.S. legally.

“I do not know if a detainer has already been lodged. I want to provide the latest information about his new plea hearing date in hopes that ICE can make an arrest,” she wrote.

It’s not clear what happened next. The public records request did not include any responses, and Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Deporting people who are facing criminal charges but have not yet faced trial means victims and survivors don’t get a day in court and violates due process rights, Joshua Dankoff, director of strategic initiatives at Citizens for Juvenile Justice, told Betancourt.

“I don’t think it’s actually probably in the victim’s best interest to have this person just taken away and arrested and deported by ICE,” he said.

While officers did not appear to violate Massachusetts or local laws, the documents show how sanctuary city policies don’t cover every scenario, Dankoff said.

“Are we okay having our local justice agencies being complicit with the federal immigration crackdown?” he said. “It is our own justice system, our own police departments that are making decisions, individual police officers sometimes making decisions that honestly are not for them to make.”

Check out Betancourt’s full story here. 

Dig deeper: 

–Mass. advocates sue ICE over warrantless home entry policy

–Healey seeks to limit courthouse immigration arrests, cooperation with ICE

–Video: How strong is the Massachusetts state government against ICE?