ICE OUT IN THE COLD
Cops increasingly denying requests to hold illegals
Federal immigration officials have been increasingly blown off by Boston-area authorities when they ask that illegals in police custody be detained for possible deportations, according to new U.S. data.
The pushback from the Hub area bucks a national trend that has seen a sharp drop in the number of detainer requests by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that have been denied by local law enforcement.
The data, obtained from ICE by the Herald, shows the Boston ICE office — which covers all of New England — saw 59 of its requests to hold on to arrested immigrants denied last year. That’s up from 56 in 2015 and just 18 in 2014.
Meanwhile, the denial rate of ICE detainers nationally has plummeted, from 10,701 in 2014 and 8,546 in 2015 to 2,008 last year.
Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies for the conservative Center for Immigration Studies, said Boston’s detainer denial rate is particularly disturbing after ICE decided to expressly focus on immigrants with criminal records.
“They’re really boiling it down to worst of the worst,” Vaughan said, “and if they’re rejecting even those detainers, you have to ask yourself what public safety risk they are creating.”
A Herald special report in September revealed that Massachusetts deported the lowest percentage of illegal aliens of any state in the nation last year — and had the third-highest rate of granting asylum. The state’s immigration court deported just 26.9 percent of illegals who came before it, the lowest average rate in the U.S. — and well below the national average of 46.4 percent.
The increase in Bostonarea ICE denials coincides with the enactment of sanctuary policies in many cities that shield noncriminal immigrants from deportation, as well as state court decisions deeming that suspects cannot be held without bail just because ICE has issued a civil detainer request for them.
Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, who’s proposed using inmates to build a border wall and said his office always complies with ICE detainer requests, said brushing off ICE creates a damaging gulf among law enforcement agencies, local and national.
“It would completely go against the grain of what I believe we ought to be doing ... which is supporting one another with resources, fulfilling the request when another agency identifies that this person is of concern based on what they see,” Hodgson said.
ICE considers a detainer request “denied” whenever immigrants they ask be held are released before agents can pick them up.
Boston Police say their hands are tied, insisting that bail commissioners are the ones who make decisions on whether someone with an ICE detainer is released.
In August, Commissioner William B. Evans re-issued a memo originally sent by his predecessor reminding officers that “all prisoners
who are subject to ICE Detainers must receive equal access to bail commissioners, which includes notifying said prisoner of his or her right to seek bail.”
The memo requires officers to notify bail commissioners of any received ICE detainers upon their arrival at a police station.
“The department is in the process of determining how many ICE detainer requests were received in 2016,” BPD spokesman Michael McCarthy said yesterday.
Recent state court decisions — starting in 2014 and ending in a May ruling by a single Supreme Judicial Court justice — found arrested immigrants who post bail can’t be held simply because they have ICE detainers on them, as they could with an active criminal warrant.
Bail commissioners and magistrates can, however, weigh an ICE detainer in deciding what bail amount to set. Commissioners rely heavily on information provided them by police in setting bail.
ICE sidestepped the question of why Boston’s compliance rate has bucked the trend.
An agency spokesman said in a statement that detainer denials are down nationally because its “Priority Enforcement Program” — which focuses ICE actions on convicted criminals and threats to public safety and national security — has built trust with local authorities.
“With the implementation of the Priority Enforcement Program (PEP) in July 2015, many law enforcement agencies, including some large jurisdictions, are now once again cooperating with ICE,” spokesman Shawn Neudauer said.
Amy Grunder of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition said the Boston-area stance on ICE detainers has built needed trust between local police and immigrant communities.
“I think it indicates good policing, that’s what I think it indicates,” Grunder said. “Because police resources are being used to protect communities, and that’s what the police are for. They’re not for immigration enforcement.”