The Arc continues to be concerned about the impact of increased federal immigration enforcement actions across the Commonwealth and the country, particularly for individuals and families with disabilities and the human services workforce. We wanted to share positive developments from the State House about a recent vote on “An Act promoting rule of law, oversight, trust, and equal constitutional treatment” (The PROTECT Act).
On Wednesday, March 25, the Massachusetts House of Representatives voted to pass this bill, which further regulates state and local participation in federal immigration enforcement and adds crucial civil rights protections. The bill contains critical provisions including adding restrictions on law enforcement inquiries into individuals’ immigration status, limiting data sharing with federal immigration authorities, and creating protection against civil immigration arrests in courthouses. We are grateful for these efforts, as we are confident that they will support immigrants and families across the state, including those in our community.
The bill also requires the Governor and Attorney General to publish multilingual guidelines for state agencies and private entities on how to manage interactions with ICE, including:
- Designating a contact person to be notified if ICE is present
- Information on how to verify the identity of an ICE agent and how to verify the validity of a judicial warrant or order
- How to inform people on how to respond to requests from ICE
These guidelines will provide crucial support and best practices to help disability service providers and programs prepare their staff and participants for potential ICE activity.
The Arc stands in strong support of this bill, which ensures that Massachusetts does what it can to protect our immigrant neighbors during this time of heightened enforcement. In the process of this bill being brought to the House floor for a vote, we engaged in conversations with legislators to highlight the unique challenges faced by the human services workforce, IDD and autism providers, and families; and urged the legislature to keep this key workforce in mind.
We will continue to work on this issue as the bill moves to the Senate and with the Governor’s administration. If you have any questions, please reach out to Director of Government Affairs and Strategic Partnerships Nora Bent at nbent@arcmass.org.
