Immigration and Customs Enforcement questioned claims by the Boston Police Department that it refused 15 requests to detain people facing deportation last year, and said police actually denied nearly 200 such requests.
The people ICE sought for removal from the country had been arrested on charges including armed robbery, assault to murder and drug trafficking, the federal immigration agency claimed.
Still, Boston police officials said they did not have the authority to continue detaining the suspects for transfer to ICE custody. A 2014 city law, as the municipal council was confirmed last monthprohibited police from enforcing civil immigration laws or asking about a person’s immigration status.
In a letter to the Boston City Clerk filed this week, Police Commissioner Michael Cox said the department received 15 requests for immigration detention from ICE in 2024.
The requests are non-binding notices that ask local law enforcement agencies to alert ICE before releasing a person the agency believes is subject to deportation, or to hold the person for an additional 48 hours, giving federal agents time to take the person into custody.
The requests are not criminal decisions.
The 2014 City Law, known as Trust Actprohibited police from continuing to detain someone solely because of a request from ICE. And police said they lack the authority to detain anyone who has bailed or been transferred to a court’s custody.
The law did not prevent police from cooperating with ICE in criminal investigations of drugs, gangs, smuggling and other matters.
Cox said Boston police refused to act on any of the 15 jail requests it documented.
Proponents of the Trust Act have argued that it makes Boston safer, allowing immigrants to interact with local police and assist investigations without fear of deportation.
“The Boston Police Department remains committed to complying with the Boston Trust Act and to building and strengthening relationships and trust with all of our communities,” Cox wrote to the city clerk. “Boston’s immigrant communities should feel confident in reporting crime and quality of life issues to the Department and proactively engaging with all members of the Boston Police Department.”
Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox (left), Boston Mayor Michelle Wu (center) and Boston Senior Public Safety Advisor Issac Yablo (right) at a press conference on the city’s homicide rate on Dec. 27, 2024. Photo by Irene RotondoIrene Rotondo
On Friday, an ICE spokesman claimed that the number of requests sent to city police in 2024 was in fact far greater than the 15 Cox described.
“After a thorough review,” the agency identified 198 detainer requests submitted to Boston police, ICE spokeswoman Yolanda Choates wrote in an email to MassLive. The police did not comply with any of the requests, she said.
In each case, ICE had probable cause to believe that people arrested in Boston were “removable non-citizens,” Choates wrote.
They had been charged with “serious criminal activity,” she said, “including armed robbery, assault with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery on a police officer, possession of a firearm, possession of a large capacity weapon, assault to murder, distribution of fentanyl, trafficking in heroin, indecent assault and battery on a person 14 years of age or older, possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, possession with intent to distribute cocaine, and smuggle over 200 grams of cocaine.”
“Immigration detention does not constitute an arrest warrant or contain information about criminal behavior,” Mariellen Burns, the Boston Police Department’s director of communications, responded on Friday.
She also acknowledged that the department “may have different information” than federal officials about how many detainer requests ICE sent.
“In January 2023, BPD requested that ICE stop sending detainer requests solely via fax to district stations and also send them to a central email address. To date, ICE has not used the email address,” Burns wrote in an email to MassLive. “BPD will continue to work with local authorities to create a better way of communicating regarding civilian detainer requests to meet annual reporting requirements.”
The 15 requests Boston Police said they received from ICE last year were down from 19 in 2023. But they were still higher than the 12 in 2022 and the two logged in 2021, according to city records. All of last year’s requests came via fax, Cox said.
Neither the police department nor ICE responded to requests to clarify the significant difference in the number of arrest warrants they each said had been issued.
The back-and-forth between local police and federal immigration officials has unfolded just over a week before former President Donald Trump returns to the nation’s highest office, which he recaptured on a platform that included lofty promises of mass deportation of illegal immigrants.
His incoming border czar, Tom Homan, sparred publicly with Boston Mayor Michelle Wu in the weeks following the November election over the city’s limited cooperation with ICE on non-criminal immigration matters.
On Friday, Choates also criticized Boston’s refusal to hold detainees for ICE based solely on detainer requests.
“Laws that force municipal and state employees to ignore ICE requests for assistance do not protect the law-abiding members of society,” Choates wrote. “The decision not to cooperate with ICE endangers public safety and national security by thwarting ICE’s custody in a safe and secure environment.”
Instead, she said, immigration officials were forced to track down the suspects and “attempt a public arrest.”
