REPORT: BPD DID NOT TRANSFER IMMIGRANTS TO ICE

City police did not detain 15 deportable immigrants the feds asked them to last year, in keeping with the type of “Trust Act” sanctuary policies President Trump has vowed to defund communities over.

In a report submitted to the City Council yesterday, the Boston Police Department said it received 15 civil detainers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2016. Three posted bail and were released from police custody prior to arraignment, and 12 were transported by police to court for arraignment.

“Once a suspect is transferred to Court, the Department no longer has authority to hold them,” reads the report, signed by Commissioner William B. Evans. “The Department did not directly transfer any of the suspects to ICE custody.”

The annual report is required by Boston’s Trust Act, passed by the council in 2014 and reaffirmed by a council vote last June.

In 2015, BPD reported delivering nine immigrants with ICE detainers to court to answer state charges.

Boston’s Trust Act requires Boston police to ignore federal detainers unless ICE has a criminal warrant for an individual, if the individual has ever been convicted of a violent crime, has been convicted of a felony in the past decade, is a registered sex offender, or is on a federal terrorist watchlist.

Police maintain that state bail commissioners and judges — not police — are tasked with deciding whether to detain someone for ICE, by factoring a detainer into deciding what bail to set on a suspect.

But bail commissioners have been hesitant to consider the detainers after a May 2016 ruling by a single justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, which said an ICE detainer alone does not constitute probable cause to hold someone.

“All persons regardless of immigration status are given access to bail,” BPD spokesman Lt. Michael McCarty said in a statement.

“If an arrested person posts bail they are released. Once an arrested person is transported to the Court, they are no longer in Boston Police custody. The BPD does not attend arraignment proceedings.”

An ICE spokesman was not immediately available to comment.

A spokeswoman for the state trial court couldn’t immediately say last night if any of the 15 immigrants were ever transferred to ICE custody.

‘All persons regardless of immigration status are given access to bail.’ — LT. MICHAEL McCARTY, Boston police spokesman