State Rep. David Linsky was walking into Framingham District Court three weeks ago when, he said, he saw federal immigration agents “dragging” a person out of the courthouse.
The Natick Democrat, who also works as an attorney, said he didn’t know who the person was, but said the agents’ decision to remove the person from a local court means “somebody else didn’t get justice that day.”
“If he was a defendant, some victim didn’t get justice. If he was a victim or a witness, some defendant who might have been guilty went free. If he was a civil litigant, somebody didn’t get paid or somehow see justice in the court system,” Linksy said during a legislative hearing Wednesday at the State House. “That’s wrong.”
Linksy was part of a committee that fielded hours of testimony on legislation crafted by the Black and Latino Legislative Caucus that, among other things, would ban warrantless civil immigration arrests in and around state courthouses in Massachusetts.
The bill is one response from Beacon Hill lawmakers to the Trump administration’s widespread immigration crackdown and federal agents becoming increasingly regular fixtures at local courts.
Rep. Andy Vargas, a Haverhill Democrat and lead sponsor of the bill, said the caucus put together a measure with “reasonably solid legal standing.”
“We were deliberate about staying within the bounds of state authority. We studied what other states did and what has held up in court, and where the legal lines are,” Vargas said. “This bill does not attempt to nullify federal law because obviously, we can’t do that. It draws careful, defensible boundaries around state and local participation in civil immigration enforcement.”
Gov. Maura Healey wants state lawmakers to advance her version of the legislation, which attempts to restrict federal immigration agents’ movements in Massachusetts. Beyond barring agents from courthouses, Healey’s proposal would prohibit them from entering schools, day cares, child care centers, hospitals and health clinics without a judicial warrant.
House Speaker Ron Mariano has not promised to take up the Healey version. But in a statement before Wednesday’s hearing, he said the House will vote this spring on “pragmatic legislative solutions that seek to protect Massachusetts residents from federal immigration agents, within the confines of state law.”
In the caucus’ legislation, the lawmakers wrote that fear of civil immigration enforcement at courthouses “chills reporting of crime and attendance at court proceedings, undermines access to justice, and disrupts the orderly administration of the courts.”
It bars federal agents from making civil immigration arrests while a person is in a courthouse, on courthouse grounds, or in direct travel to or from a courthouse to attend, participate, or observe a proceeding unless there is a judicial warrant or judge-signed court order.
WBUR has previously reported that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are often seen in the hallways at local courthouses, talking with clerks and keeping an eye on hearings for people they’re looking to arrest. Some wait outside in SUVs.
In one case, court staff broke their own rules by assisting ICE in an arrest.
Lawyers who previously spoke to WBUR said federal agents have long taken immigrants into custody at courthouses. But they said the number has increased under the second Trump administration. And fear of ICE can prevent witnesses from showing up to court, as well as defendants in minor legal matters.
Rep. Judith Garcia, a Chelsea Democrat and another lead sponsor of the bill, said her community is facing a challenging time.
Residents in Chelsea, she said, go to the city’s district court to deal with cases that have nothing to do with immigration. They are interacting with the judicial system to handle child custody, divorces or debts, Garcia said.
“They attend these courts, and they are surprised with federal agents arresting them and taking them, and loved ones not being able to reach them, even for weeks,” she said.
The proposed ban on warrantless civil arrests in courthouses drew praise from a top official in Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office.
Abby Taylor, chief deputy attorney general, said civil arrests in state courthouses “chill access to justice,” disrupt judicial operations and stoke fear among immigrant witnesses, victims and defendants.
“In other jurisdictions, we have seen that prohibiting civil arrests in courthouses has made a meaningful difference by curtailing these arrests, preserving the important function of state courthouses and ensuring that the halls of justice are open to all,” Taylor told lawmakers.
For the past six months, 35-year-old Chelsea resident Brenda Romero said she has had to answer questions from her daughters that no mother should have to field — why their father is not at home.
Romero said her husband was taken into custody by federal agents after leaving an immigration hearing in which a judge approved his political asylum case. Immigration hearings are typically held in federal courts.
“He called me crying tears of joy, telling me we could finally live in peace and continue raising our daughters without fear,” Romero said in Spanish at the State House on Wednesday. “But as he walked out of the courthouse, he was detained outside. In a matter of minutes, our happiness turned into trauma, and our lives changed.”
